Podcasting & blogging for marketers

I attended an excellent program earlier this evening that was hosted by the Central Virginia Chapter of the American Marketing Association. The program consisted of a couple of local experts on blogging and podcasting, Waldo Jaquith and Sean Tubbs, respectively. These gentlemen addressed a group of roughly 50 marketers and small business managers about the best ways to integrate blogs and podcasts into their marketing strategies.

As an obvious blogger myself and also as one who markets my own expertise through this blog and via video & audio podcasts, I found the program very insightful.

There were gems in there for marketers who have an interest in using blogs to promote their businesses and I'd like to pass some along. Some of the gems were:

1) Monitor any and all blogs and blog comments that are related to your own brand names and/or area of expertise and be willing to participate in others' related blogs by posting comments.

2) Be willing to take action when negative publicity about your brand arises due to others' blog entries and use such instances as opportunities to improve your business.

3) It is very difficult for marketers to use blogs effectively--precisely because they are marketers and naturally tend to self-promote rather than inform which makes for uninteresting reading.

4) It is very important for marketers to create blog brands that don't suck and it is an art to be able to write a blog that others want to read.

5) Full disclosure is in order when attempting to walk the line between business and personal blogs. If it's personal, tell people. If it is business, don't shamelessly promote the business. Better yet, have a "disinterested" third party write your blog for you to keep some separation and objectivity. Have them write about the industry or the area of expertise--not promote the business in any way other than possibly placing obvious advertisements on the blog or podcast. Keep the promotion out of the content.

I also learned that the trends for podcasting are enticing with the demand for "Personal On Demand" audio and video content on the rise and the outlook strong.

In the interest of full disclosure, I am the current President of the local AMA chapter and I also use this blog to inform people about marketing best practices and current events in marketing and branding with the goal of educating people about marketing so marketers get better at what they do and so consumers demand more from marketers.

Now it is your turn. I'd greatly appreciate knowing what you think of this blog and my previous audio and video podcasts (all found below). Are these tools helpful to you? Am I missing the mark? Am I one of those marketers who has created a blog that sucks? Please comment.