Honesty time: We’ve had the misfortune of reading some pretty boring business blogs as of late. The crusty content, yawn-inducing narrative, misdirected topics and lack of bells and whistles in these blogs is only good for serving as a reminder of what not to do. In fact, we were so inspired by the uninspired content that we came up with a list of 5 ways to avoid business blog hell.

1. Don’t Be Afraid to Sparkle: I don’t care if your business blog is about pinto beans or human resources; there’s gotta be some personality, some reason to read it. The blog should be filled with a narrative that not only coveys your company’s mission statement but speaks in a way that is readable and entertaining. There is no rule saying that you can’t inform while being yourself. Note: For caveats, see #2…

2. Stay Out of Controversy: Your business blog is not the place to vent about religion, politics, Jersey Shore catfight winners or other heavy issues. The content should be like a first date. Not bombastic but thought-provoking enough to entice them to want to see you again.

3. Open Up the Keyword Buffet: You’ve taken time to map out your keywords, so you might as well place them all over your blog. Stick them in the title or in the body of the blog or both. Keywords help your blog get found, so don’t be shy with them.

4. Add Lots of Cool Stuff: Product demonstrations, how-to videos, links to similar blogs and music playlists are all good add-ons to your blog because they can freshen up content and tones that might otherwise teeter on being redundant.

5. Update All the Time: A friend in the real estate biz was telling us how many of her colleagues have blogs for which they forked over big design bucks, only never to be updated. What a waste. To keep readers, you have to deliver fresh content regularly. Before starting your blog, honestly ask yourself if you have the energy to update and market your blog regularly. If so, buckle up for a fun and challenging ride. If not, consider hiring a content agency to help you out.

6. (Don’t Say We Never Give You Anything!) Take Some Risks: Want to fill you blog with interviews? Think some customer polls would be fun? Have comic strip you’d like to share? Do it! All of it. Blogs have no rules so as long as your crazy content ideas fit with your branding, go for it. Often in blogs, it’s the wacky content that people respond to and your gives you a springboard for inspired content.

Not all of our marketing ideas can be good ones. In fact, sometimes we encounter outright failures and bellflops. I stumbled upon a couple that truly missed the mark and figured I’d share them with you in the spirit of education. Think of more…

Happy Earth Day! There has been many a blog this week discussing all things green and going paperless and whatnot. Blogging itself, after all, is a pretty green concept when you think about it. There’s no paper involved or cars used to distribute the darn thing or child laborers forced to write about Kate Gosselin for more…

I think it’s time for a bloggervention. Your company’s blog gets zero hits, illicits little response and seems to collect dust as it sits there online just waiting for readers to show up. The countless articles that say youngsters don’t blog anymore don’t exactly more…

Always on the hunt for inspiration and ideas, I am constantly searching for and reading lists. Whether it is the ten best this or worst 50 of that- I am list obsessed. I blame my childhood ritual of listening to Rick Dees and the Weekly Top Forty for this obsession.  Anyway, I stumbled upon a provocatively and somewhat hilariously titled list called The 100 Must Read Blogs… by Women! posted last year on Blogtreprenuer. As I perused their choices (Ann Coulter and Michelle Maklin?!?) I noticed what all of these blogs should have in common besides the whole being created by women thing is that they should all contain that kind of more…

OMG! Is blogging DOA? Last week the Pew Research Center released a report that found blogging has slipped in popularity with teens and young adults. The 28% percent of teen Internet users that said they blogged in 2006 has now slipped to 14%. The study cites social networking and micro-blogging as the cause for the drop in popularity. Basically, kids these days can’t be bothered with long blogs about how their best friend stole their lip gloss when they can just post a quick status update on their Facebook that efficiently describes all of their drama in just a few words.

The study goes on to note that the majority of bloggers are ancient types (over 30 to be exact) who also read other blogs. It’s suggested that the over 30 set has the time and attention span to devote to reading and creating blogs. With specialized and professional blogs seemingly on the rise, it is hard to dispute the reports findings. This being said, let’s not shove blogging in the more…

This is the first in a  special series of  Thursday blogs that aims to give familiar but dated brands a digital face-lift by using social media, original videos, article marketing, mobile marketing and blogging.

The Patient: Hostess Snack Cakes purveyors of Twinkies, Cupcakes, and Ho Hos.

The Ailment: Hostess suffers from a chronically lame website, a lack of identity, a dwindling presence online, and a sagging social media strategy.

Prognosis: Grim. If the snack food brand refuses to step into 2010, Twinkies could be a thing of the past.

Recommended Treatment: When the going gets tough, the tough reach out for something fun. Sure, Twinkies are the exact thing films like Food Inc. are warning people against. Yet Hostess Snack Cakes like cheesy action films or reality TV serve their purpose: in moderation they provide a little fun and a little escape. So there’s no reason the classic junk food can’t get an update and survive well into the next decade.

First off, Hostess needs to lighten the heck up. Jeeze. It’s Ding Dongs, not prunes for crying out loud. Their website is a flat, bland affair with little reason to ever return other than the promise of coupons upon signing more…

I came across this really cool advertising stunt by Coca-Cola. The marketing geniuses responsible for the event rigged a Coca-cola vending machine to gave out extra goodies to college students who put their hard earned college coinage into the machine.  Students who visited the machine got a bevy of freebees designed to make people smile: free bottles of Coke, a pizza, a bouquet of sunflowers, even a very large sub. Imagine if your blog, website or social media campaign followed this same format. Instead of just regurgitating the same stuff over and over, what if a blog or a website or a social media campaign gave you doses of happiness. Okay, you don’t have to spread happiness, but you should strive to make people feel something. Whether you make them laugh, cry or get angry, you are doing what the Coke Machine is doing. You are getting people to engage with your brand. When people come to your site, blog or Facebook page expecting the same-old stuff and you give them a dose of something more…. bonus! And what do you get in return? You get loyalty, readership, engagement and possibly one more person out there who likes you. It’s a simple yet powerful lesson, one that i will aspire to practice as a marketer. So what have you done to spread the good stuff around?

Do you ever wonder how many hours a day the average person spends tweeting? Blogging?Commenting on videos shown on YouTube? Do ever wonder if this has a positive or negative effect. Does it effect your productivity? Does it turn you into a social outcast? How do your tweeting habits compare to the guy in the next cubicle? Well, now you can get all the pros and cons on this subject via a website that focuses in on the issues to create thought, critical thinking and discussion on the subject. ProCon.org created the new website www.socialnetworking.procon.org to explore the core question “Are social networking sites good for our society?” On the site you can read a detailed overview of the issue, over 20 pro and con arguments, fun facts in the “Did You Know?” section, an image and video gallery, a reader survey, and a listing of all sources used. Oh yeah, and if you were wondering, you can also find factoids there like this nifty tid-bit:

“Russians spend more time on social networking sites than people in any other country, an average of 6.6 hours per month compared to the worldwide average of 3.7 hours per month.”

It doesn’t make you feel so bad now, does it?

According to the 2009 State of the First Amendment Survey, most Americans prefer getting their news from traditional media.   In a recent press release, Gene Policinski, vice president and executive director of the First Amendment Center said,

“…while new forms of obtaining information, including Twitter and social media are much discussed and growing in use, most Americans continue to rely on the same news organizations — including the news reports picked up by online news providers — on which they have relied for decades.”

This is not surprising since the majority of overall advertising budgets are still spent on traditional media, and only a fraction goes to new media. Wherever the most eyeballs go, so goes the budgets. But that small fraction continues to expand and will continue to grow as more people turn to the Internet for their information and entertainment needs. Some traditional media outlets have radically changed their models and have incorporated digital strategies like social media and blogging as part of their news network and are working with bloggers and tweeters to better take advantage of the digital frontier. However, some media sources, like AP News, are trying to regulate their content by putting forth strict guidelines designed to control how their stories are spread across the Internet. Last year, popular site TechCrunch announced it would ban articles and information coming from AP news in response to actions taken by AP News against a popular news aggregate which used their content without permission. More recently, TechCrunch wrote an interesting article titled,  “Behind The A.P.’s Plan To Become The Web’s News Cop”.  Also, in a recent ibrandcasting post, I wrote about popular bloggers in Germany who released a manifesto that appears to directly challenge traditional news outlets like AP News and promotes the free flow of information. The role of traditional media in the digital landscape is still a bit blurry. Whether traditional media embraces new technology or tries to mold it as they see fit, one thing is for sure; in the card game of news, traditional media still holds a pretty decent hand.