Naked Conversations

In “Naked Conversations: How blogs are changing the way businesses are talking with customers, Robert Scoble and Shel Israel share case after case to illustrate the power of the blog phenomenon. I’ve been reading and hearing about blogs for a while now, and I even tried my hand at blogging a few months back, but I never got into it. This book convinced me to start this blog and challenged me to attempt to leverage blogs to grow my brand. If Scoble’s right, and it looks like he is, you’d be wise to start blogging too!

A few big ideas I’ll be working on:

• Spreadmycolts – The case studies in Scoble’s book (Firefox in particular) gave me some great ideas. Firefox reached 25 million downloads in 99 days, and did another 25 million over the next 45 days, all from viral marketing. We are in the process of redesigning our Website (www.colts.com). In the process we plan to add a major social media / user generated content component. We will attempt to copy Firefox!
• I choose Indy – Indianapolis is always looking to attract and retain more creative people. I think the the citizens of Indy could use blogs to accomplish what Microsoft has done – shift public perception – and position itself vis a vis the competition. I am already working on a new blog site and plan to invite my fellow Indy creatives to submit their testimonials. There’s more to this story. Write me to find out, or comment on my blog entry from June 29 “I choose Indy”.
• Blogs at events - We have always planned to invite fans to blog on our site, but when I envisioned how that would work, I saw people blogging at home during non-game hours. But why couldn’t people blog during the game? In fact, people at the game, inside the stadium, or from the tailgate log, can blog in real time before, during and after the game – just like any newsworth event – and provide unique perspectives. How cool is that?

I liked this book so much that I bought 12 copies and sent them to the smartest people I know. I invited them to come discuss the book with me one month from now. I also invited them to “pay it forward,” to buy additional copies of the book and gift them to their friends – and invite them to our discussion. We’ll be meeting in late July or early August in Indianapolis. Write me if you want to join us.