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About the Authors:

Robert Scoble helps run Microsoft's Channel 9 Web site. He began his blog in 2000 and now has more than 3.5 million readers every year. Scoble's blog has earned acclaim in Fortune magazine, Fast Company, and The Economist.

Shel Israel played a key strategic role in introducing some of technology's most successful products, including PowerPoint, FileMaker, and Sun Microsystems workstations.He's been an expert on innovation for more than twenty years.

An Excerpt from Naked Conversations:

Bloggings's Six Pillars: There are six key differences between blogging and any other communications channel. You can find any of them elsewhere. These are the Six Pillars of Blogging:

1. Publishable.Anyone can publish a blog.You can do it cheaply and post often. Each posting is instantly available worldwide.

2. Findable. Through search engines, people will find blogs by subject, by author, or both. The more you post, the more findable you become.

3. Social. The blogosphere is one big conversation. Interesting topical conversations move from site to site, linking to each other. Through blogs, people with shared interests build relationships unrestricted by geographic borders.

4. Viral. Information often spreads faster through blogs than via a newsservice. No form of viral marketing matches the speed and efficiency of a blog.

5. Syndicatable. By clicking on an icon, you can get free "home delivery" of RSS- enabled blogs into your e-mail software. RSS lets you know when a blog you subscribe to is updated, saving you search time. This process is considerably more efficient than the last- generation method of visiting one page of one web site at a time looking for changes.

6. Linkable. Because each blog can link to all others, every blogger has access to the tens of millions of people who visit the blogosphere every day.

You can find each of these elements elsewhere. None is, in itself, all that remarkable. But in final assembly, they are the benefits of the most powerful two-way Internet communications tool so far developed.

Other Blogging Books

Blogging For Dummies

Buzz Marketing with Blogs For Dummies

Publishing a Blog with Blogger

Book Description

From the creator of the number one business blog comes a powerful exploration of how, and why, businesses had better be blogging: Naked Conversations.

According to experts Robert Scoble and Shel Israel, blogs offer businesses something that has long been lacking in their communication with customers -- meaningful dialogue. Devoid of corporate-speak and empty promises, business blogs can humanize communication, bringing companies and their constituencies together in a way that improves both image and bottom line.

The authors use more than 50 case histories to explain why blogging is an efficient and credible method of business communication. You'll find yourself excited about the possibilities blogs present after reading just a few pages. Discover how:

Prominent business leaders, including Mark Cuban of the Dallas Mavericks, Bob Lutz from General Motors, and Jonathan Schwartz of Sun Microsystems, are beginning to use blogs to connect with their customers in new ways.
Blogging has changed the rules of communication and competition.
You can launch an effective blogging strategy and the reasons why you should.

Featuring a foreword by Tom Peters, this is a resource you and your business can't do without.

Download Description

From the creator of the number one business blog comes a powerful exploration of how, and why, businesses had better be blogging According to these experts, blogs offer businesses something that has long been lacking in their communication with customers-meaningful dialogue. Devoid of corporate-speak and empty promises, business blogs can humanize communication, bringing companies and their constituencies together in a way that improves both image and bottom line. With a Foreword by Tom Peters, author of such business bibles as In Search of Excellence, this book uses more than 50 case histories to explain why blogging is an efficient and infinitely more credible method of business communication. Blogs are easily linked, allowing information to spread rapidly, and blog readers are active, not passive, participants in the communication. Business and marketing decision-makers will find themselves excited about the possibilities after just a few pages. Interviews with Mark Cuban of the Dallas Mavericks, Bob Lutz from General Motors, Jonathan Schwartz of Sun Microsystems, and other prominent business leaders showcase how businesses are beginning to use blogs to connect with customers in new ways Explores how blogging has changed the rules of communication and competition Gives business owners the tools to launch an effective blogging strategy and the reasons why they should Robert Scoble (Redmond, WA) is a technical evangelist who helps run Microsoft's Channel 9 Web site. He is also the company's best-known blogger, whose blog is read by more than 3.5 million people annually and is the top-ranking business blog among Technorati's Top 100. Shel Israel (San Carlos, CA) has been a consultant for more than 20 years and played a key strategic role in introducing some of technology's most successful products, including PowerPoint, FileMaker, and Sun Microsystems' workstations.

Customer Reviews:

Very Helpful.......2007-08-09

As a novice blogger and blog reader, I found this book to be a very helpful initiation into the culture of blogging. While the authors can be a bit "preachy" at times, they do get their message across and I find that their views on what blogging is all about ring true.

If you are already out there in the blogosphere, you will probably not find anything new here. However, if you are just getting your start, and especially if your business is just getting its start in blogging, this is an important book to read.

Great book!.......2007-07-23

I'm really enjoying the book. I'm blogging for my company, and was very interested in the insights of these men. They offer far more than just blogging guidelines - they offer a window into how our communication styles have developed in the digital age, and how to serve our employers with our communications.

Great book - I'm recommending to friends.

Received quickly & in great condition.

Every Marketing person should read this book.......2007-06-01

Blogs are another way of marketing a company's products and services and drawing folks into the raison d'etre for the company doing certain things, or going in a certain direction. Websites offer information, but no dialog.
My take on this book is that .. this is a must read for every Marketing person. Blogs have a huge potential for making companies look human and help sell products.
The book is very 'straight from the heart'. You can see that all over the place :). These guys are really into blogging and passionately so.
The industry examples are very good. Google and Apple not encouraging blogging was a big surprise.

A Practical Guide to Corporate Blogging.......2007-04-07

Naked Conversations is an insightful guide to the phenomenon of corporate blogging. Robert Scoble and Shel Israel have taken the fundamental message of The Cluetrain Manifesto--the claim that `markets are conversations'--and explored its business implications. Less visionary than The Cluetrain Manifesto, Naked Conversations is far more practical and instructive. It's the kind of book that you could recommend to your boss if he wanted to know why he should encourage his employees to blog about work.

The authors put forward a convincing case that businesses large and small need to take blogging seriously. On the one hand, corporate blogging can provide excellent return on investment, particularly in terms of search engine rankings but also, less quantifiably, in shared community perceptions. On the other hand, ignoring the blogosphere or entering it without taking account of its culture risks injuring a company's credibility. A key point is that blogging, unlike traditional public relations, is as much or more about listening as it is about speaking.

The authors divide the book into three sections. The first provides a series of case studies exploring different aspects of corporate blogging. Scoble and Israel point to corporate (and national) culture as the major differentiator between companies which encourage blogging and those which do not. Some companies like Google and Apple have turned corporate secrecy into a competitive strategy. Others simply let the big boss blog, preferring not to allow the minions to express themselves in their own voices. Microsoft and Sun are among the forward-thinking corporations which recognize the public relations value of encouraging their employees to talk online about the products and ideas they care about. The second section gives very practical tips about how and how not to blog about business. The third section, which is the shortest, provides a broader perspective on the place of blogging among other emerging technologies and trends.

Robert Scoble did a tremendous job with Channel 9 while he was at Microsoft. His video interviews introduced me to the people building the technologies I use everyday. I now feel a kind of personal connection to Microsoft and its employees. This would never have happened through advertising and traditional public relations. It came as a result of letting employees speak publicly about what they are working on. Rather than thinking about the company as a `Borg,' I regard Microsoft as a collection of extremely interesting and creative individuals who also listen and respond to what others have to say about their products.

Naked Conversations is not a technical book about how to set up a blog. Rather, it's an introduction to the culture of blogging and how it contributes to business today. Clearly, anyone considering blogging about business will want to read this book first--not just to avoid getting `dooced'--but to gain the right perspective on the risks and returns of talking and listening to customers online.

Good ONE.......2007-03-28

I think the book is really good if you don't have read any book about blogs.
Just in this case, buy it.
Otherwise, just read blogs, do not need any book.
At least this is what I think.

Best Regards,

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