Taped Eyeglasses and Business Blogging

So, Journals Product Manager Stephanie is up at the BlogHer Business conference (which is targeted to women bloggers, though open to all); she'll be on tomorrow's keynote panel about why businesses should blog.

I was looking through the speaker bios, when I saw Stephanie's bio (about five down) and started laughing.

The reason? I took the photo that's in her bio -- it was at an AIM Pages launch party last year:

Not to say that it's a bad photo -- it's very dynamic, and the AIM Pages logo is prominent, but note the tape across the bridge of her glasses -- this was her gag gift from the team. (Shawn, who'd pulled more than a few all-nighters, got a toiletry kit, pillow and blanket. Stuff like that.)

And it's the pic they're using in her bio. Stephanie says she'd sent a couple of photos, and that's the one they chose.

(That's also the photo note I mentioned from my last entry.)

Of course, the BlogHer organizers are blogging the event, if you want to follow along.

While I'm on the subject of business blogging -- Hugh MacLeod (that guy who draws cartoons on the backs of business cards -- he's also a Web 2.0/social media marketing guy) gave a talk to public relations company Edelman -- he blogged a cartoon and his speaking notes:

"Tired of being a lowly-paid hack for a large media company, Eric quit his job and became a BLOGGING CONSULTANT! 'Trackbacks are good. That'll be $3,000'"

He talks about why companies should want to fully embrace the power of the Internet, or blogs, or social media, or social conversations, or whatever you want to call it, because it helps humanify (not humanize) them. By having "smarter conversations" with their customers, companies can be, act and grow smarter.

He also references the Cluetrain Manifesto, which gives you insights on what companies are being influenced by.

(I've been involved in a few discussions recently about Cluetrain -- I generally feel that it's a bit too breathless and hasn't aged very well [it's about 8 years old now], but I agree with its general sentiment, and it's at the core of a lot of the current thinking -- that by flattening hierarchies and letting people talk to each other (employees to each other, customers to employees, customers to customers), the Internet has fundamentally changed the way business gets done. The whole book is available online for free -- check it out.)

Now, I think MacLeod's airline thesis is a bit silly in its oversimiplification, but the rest of looks like a good talk. (Link via Susan Mernit.)

It's kind of funny that he has to give this talk to Edelman; another famous, A-List PR blogger-type is Steve Rubel, who also works for Edelman. Which made it even more surprising that Edelman was involved with a dustup around a "Working Families for Wal-Mart" fake blog last fall.

Anyway, if you're not interested in any of this, it don't make you a bad person (though it may make you a bad businessperson).

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: socialmedia, corporate blogging, web 2.0, hugh macleod, edelman, cluetrain