Extremely doutbful I’ll be signing up fo this seminar here in Seattle next Friday, Dec 17, 2004 on blogging and marketing. Robert Scoble is one of several speakers and is letting folks know via his blog that seats are still available. This doesn’t surprise me because I checked out this event, looked at the schedule including who was speaking, what they were speaking about and what I felt would really be learned beyond the typical seminar spin.

There are still seats available at next Friday’s American Marketing Association’s hot topic series on blogging and marketing (I’m speaking).

At $645/$695 a pop? Sorry, seems a bit pricey. Besides, our business budget for 2004 for this kind of thing is pretty much gone. What small business owner’s budget isn’t pretty much tapped at this point in the year? Also, we’ve got a drain coming up for the two conventions we’re already hitting next month in Vegas in January 2005 (new tax year, though). What I’m saying here is that I’d happily find/expense/drop $645/$695 if I thought I’d get the value back out of this event for either of our two businesses. The problem here is I just don’t see it. Here’s where and why specifically I don’t see this event being worth it and please anybody who can counterpoint me on this, use the comments section and do so.

The overview for this event: “Internet surfers, advertisers, journalists and even politicians do it. But are blogs a credible marketing strategy for your brand or company? Experienced bloggers answer your questions and show how to incorporate the newest internet-based strategy into your organization�s marketing plan. Leave this marketing blog workshop with innovative ideas and specific techniques to apply directly to your own marketing strategy.”

The overview doesn’t seem to know/hold the answer to the bolded question (I bolded that, BTW). And who do they have that’s speaking to answer this question? The full schedule:

Toby Bloomberg, President Bloomberg Marketing. Let’s look at Toby’s blog. Where is Toby making money from this blog? I don’t see Google ads, I don’t see any ads. It’s just a blog about marketing and though it is well written and interesting, there’s no proof of concept here. They say: “Come away with a high-level understanding of the who-what-where-why of marketing blogs and how they can complement your company’s existing customer communication strategies.” I say: It’s a chance for Bloomberg to pitch it’s own customer communication strategy to seminar attendeees seven hundred bucks lighter on the bottom line.

Next on the agenda is Robert Scoble. I like reading Scoble’s blog, it’s one of my favorite reads in fact, and he seems like a really down to earth guy and I would enjoy hearing his speech. However, besides being an excellent example of the type of person every business would/should want blogging for them, I don’t see Scoble doing much, if any, marketing inside his blog (am I missing some place that he is making money with his blog? No ads, no paid spots, etc, and he’s gone out of the way several times to point out that he does this outside his job at Microsoft). So please tell me where there’s proof of concept marketing advice using blogging here? I see where Scoble can discuss business networking, you bet, but I don’t see where there’s marketing specifically using his blog as an example. I do realize from the subject that he is talking about, however, that he is very skilled and knowledgeable. I’m sure it will be a wonderful speech. They say: “You�ll walk away from this session with techniques you can use to increase your blog�s visibility, as well as, strategies on how to handle media crises.” I say: Walk away knowing that Robert Scoble is the type of blogger you’d like to have representing and evangelizing your company. Next.

Bill Flitter, Chief Marketing Officer, Pheedo, Inc. Let’s examine Pheedo Blog (note that the link on the seminar website is broken pointing to his blog; it’s missing one of the “w” in the “www”). The Pheedo blog is used to pitch the Pheedo’s range of services which offers ad feed management, ad traffic exchange and an ad network, which they use the word “simple” for all these features. This blog was started in February 2004, according to the archives. This is a really good example, actually, of how a company uses a blog to market its own services. They say: “Walk away with a clear understanding of how to incorporate these new tools into your marketing plan, where to best spend your budget, where we are and where it�s all going.” I say: This could be a worthwhile session if only to learn about Pheedo’s products and services, however I bet one could do so much more affordably by “simply” visiting pheedo.com. No offense, Mr. Flitter, but this smells like a speakertorial.

Have to mix in at least one author or two into every conference and Ben McConnell will be there to fill this diet. He represents Church of the Customer. I’ve followed this blog with interest, especially their info on the whole TiVo and Kryptonite lock issues (though originally I saw at Engadget like most other bloggers). Like the first speaker, though, Ben is speaking it seems to promote his own services (speaking being the first one on the list, just look at their website navbar for the prominence). So his marketing strategy to share is how to write a blog to get keynote speaking gigs and promote his own book? That will help a lot of businesses get into blogging, I’m sure. They say: “Learn the fundamentals to launching a blog that supports your marketing goals, tool terminology, key players, strategic uses and the unwritten rules of the blogosphere.” I say: Here’s a better idea for business owners in the Seattle area, just meet Bill for dinner (dutch treat, much cheaper) in Seattle’s Weslake Center food court on the third floor. There’s even a cell number contact to RSVP.

The other two speakers: Dana VanDen Heuvel, the managing directory from BlogSavant [Dana’s blog]. They say: “How smart marketers are using weblogs” I say: How one marketer is using his blog to increase his future speaking engagements and give his opinion on who the smart marketers are out there. Though I’m not willing to pay to see/hear him, I subscribed to Dana’s blog.

Finally, Dave Williams Chief Strategist and Co-Founder, 360i with search engine scoop. They say: “In this session, learn how to develop a blog search optimization strategy for Google, MSN, Yahoo, AOL, as well as other search engines.” I say: Check out Dave’s blog, it’s very poorly optimized for all the major engines. It doesn’t even have titles for the blog entries, just dates. No links to anybody else in the sidebar except for Blogger. Not even any meta tags to describe the pages. This thing looks like it was thrown up in 10 minutes, but he’s been blogging since February 2004. Yowsa! 

This event just seems like another turkey conference dressed up to suck money from  small business (or large business) owner’s bottom line, not add to it. These are all nice people, I’m sure and probably good at what they do (Scoble is the only one I know for a fact is good at what he does), but IMO they are there to pitch their own products, services (consulting, future other speaking engagements, etc), and of course their own blogs (which some of them aren’t good case studies). The old adage practice what you preach applies here. All of this adds up to the certainity that the people running the event will be making money and the people attending will pick up a few ideas. Almost $700 worth of ideas? You decide. I did and the figures didn’t compute.

I’d like to ask Scoble this serious question: how is a business owner who is already blogging supposed to budget for a Tablet PC if they use their business budget to attend events like this? Sure, if it’s some big business with money to throw away that has zero presence in the blogosphere then there could be some value to be gained here. From my detailed consideration, it just seems to me that this event isn’t designed for small business owners who have budgets, nor those who already have blogs (so why promote it on a blog to other bloggers?). This would be good for an end of the year tax writeoff, but to pay to be pitched to by mostly professional speakers? Thanks, but no thanks.

Did this post make you go hmm?

Maybe Related Posts (plugin generated)

• Ringing ears over the AMA Hot Topics blog event today
• Will second batch of blogging books be better than first?
• Business blogging not for every business
• Your blog is your digital doorway, be welcoming
• Seattle Blog Business Summit special blogger deal
• More internal bloggers != more business