Blogs aren’t quite as hot as they used to be — let’s face it, they no longer have the “everyone’s doing it” feel of Facebook or the snappy lingo of tweeting. Blogging is starting to feel like something old people do. The funny thing is, when done correctly, the old corporate blog is still one of the best and most consistent ways to connect with the people who care about your company and products. The challenge is to make sure you’re doing it right.

This article in Smashing Magazine outlines some of the more common flaws with many of today’s corporate blogging efforts, and reinforces many of the concepts we stress to our clients when they ask us if they should be blogging, namely:

• Your blog isn’t a one way channel, it’s intent should be to initiate a dialog
• It takes time for a blog to generate readership and activity so you have to remain committed
• Get more than one person at your company engaged with your blog
• Allow comments and expect some criticism – be prepared for it!

Successful blogs, in fact, successful social media efforts in general, are all about engaging people with your business.  Don’t fall into the trap of using your social media tools as just more arrows in your traditional Marketing quiver, it’s a recipe for failure.

We came across an interesting and brief article which may help businesses decide if social media is worth their time and effort.  Most importantly, the article touches upon some of the points we consistently bring up when discussing social media efforts with out clients:

• How do I measure success?
• Which social media tools should I use?
• How much time and effort will this take?

Let’s face it, social media is an emerging force, and one which is constantly changing.  It can be difficult for companies to justify dedicating resources towards social media, especially when success is not clearly defined.  The use of social media can be a fundamental shift in corporate policy towards marketing, customer services and other areas, or it can be just another “checkbox” which gets token effort and returns token rewards.

Ask yourself some of the questions contained in the article, do the research they outline, and soon enough you’ll have clear vision of whether social media can add a quantifiable benefit to your business.

The answer is — nobody really knows.

Not a big surprise, the Email Standards Project gave Outlook 2007 a “poor” rating when it comes to email standards support –  I guess “piss poor” wasn’t an option.   Not only does 07 limit what we as designers can do from a creative standpoint but it creates a lot of angst with our clients who don’t want to pay for the additional time required to properly test and troubleshoot.

To try and (let’s say) “gently pursued” Microsoft to pay a little attention to the glaring frustration, Fix Outlook (http://www.fixoutlook.org), a Twitter mashup campaigning site, has been created with the goal of getting MS to finally hear the screams from voth the world’s designers and client marketing bugdets.  After 20,000 signatures responded to the campaign, Microsoft released a statement that they are going to stay the course.

So, just when you think we might have rounded the corner to safely wave bye-bye to Outlook 2007 in the rear view mirrors velcroed to our monitors (yeah, we have those), Microsoft has decided to stand with their belief that “Word is the best email authoring experience around” — so looks like MS Word will once again be used for rendering emails in Outlook 2010.

According to the Email Standards Project, “For the next five years your email designs will need tables for layout, have no support for CSS like float and position, no background images and lots more.”

Good times.

Many of our valued Monkee-Boy clients are in the business of selling their businesses.  They go into business with a  clear path to increase the value of their company, sell it, and buy one of those really nice houses on the lake.  At Monkee-Boy, we often think of retiring 40 or 50 years from now — having too much fun right now to even consider it (but make me an offer I can’t refuse).

If you are considering selling your business it’s useful to look at your company from a buyer’s perspective. Improving your performance in five specific areas critical to a buyer increases the value of your company, leading to a greater selling price for your business. According to the Austin Dale Group, here are the first five “strategic value drivers” that can raise the value of your business. In our next electronic newsletter we will share five more factors to consider.

1. Customer Diversity: If too much business is concentrated in too few of your customers, the value of your business is reduced. If you have this problem (more than 10% of revenues with individual customers), start focusing on a program to diversify.

2. Management Depth: A buyer will look at the quality of the management staff and employees as a major factor in arriving at an acquisition price. Ideally you should assign your successor a year in advance of your scheduled departure date. If you have a strong management team in place, you should try to implement employment contracts, non-compete agreements, and some type of equity participation to keep these stars involved through the transition.

3. Contractually Recurring Revenue: All revenue dollars are not created equal. Revenue dollars from annual maintenance contracts, annual licensing fees, recurring retainer fees, and technology licenses are more powerful value drivers than projected sales revenue, time and materials revenue, or other non-recurring revenue streams.

4. Proprietary Products and Technology: This is an area where the valuation rules do not always apply. If strategic buyers believe that a new technology can be acquired and integrated with their superior distribution channel, they may value your company based on its projected performance after an acquisition. The marketplace rewards effective innovation over commodity-type products and services. Continue to look for ways to innovate in all facets of your business.

5. Penetration of Barriers to Entry: Owning hard-to-get permits, zoning, licenses, or regulatory approvals can be worth a lot to the right buyer. These may include liquor licenses, government contracts, municipal zoning permits, etc.

Source:  Austin Dale Group