Blog consulting–free!

I spoke with a group of automotive marking folks today and did free one-on-one consultations about how they should manage the blogosphere. It was great.

• We talked about if they should pay for these Intelliseek/Technorati blog monitoring software offerings ($100k for wha-wha-what!?!?!?!?!?!).
• We talked about how they could credible insert themselves into the conversations about the blogosphere.
• We talked about what blogs they should create.
• We talked about who in their organizations should blog.
• We talked about the best examples of company blogs.
• We talked about the best examples of advertising on blogs.
• We talked about the biggest PR disasters in blog history (kryptonite…hello?!?!?!).
• We talked about selling blog internally. You know, to the PR department, the CEO, and to the product managers.
• We talked about the impact of podcasting and vlogs.
• We talked about how to manage trolls, playa haters, and irate customers.
• We taked about how to turn fans of your company/product into superfans.
  
• We talked about how to track your company in the blogosphere (for free).
  

It was a lot of fun and it felt great to just get out there and help folks solve their problems.

I’ve started to put these questions and answers into a PowerPoint with tons of links, examples, and best practices. It’s becoming an amazing document. I’m thinking about maybe making it a Wiki.

So, here is my offer to any advertising agency, public relations or marketing firm, or company: I’ll come speak at your company for free and tell you everything I know about blogging and how to make it work–for free. You provide the space, diet coke, and projector and I’m there. No sales pitch from us, our advertising revenue is doing just fine and we’re sold out on many of our blogs at this point. I’d just like to get out there and learn, discuss, and debate these issues with folks.

Plus, I’m looking for something to keep me busy now that half my job responsibilities are being handled by the fine folks in Dulles.