We’ve cranknd our company’s organic growth, on and offline (www.bingbongtables.com) and created a market from a drinking game. We were on the cover of BOTH the NYTimes and WallStJournal (Aug 2007)…and still we just have been getting blown away on the search rankings by knock-offs…I mean , there was NO MARKET, so we do still dominate in beer pong industry and have been able to stop people like budweiser from screwing up our plans…but we have been offline with our market landgrab strategy…using retailers like Spencer Gifts and Beer Distributors…but we need help and just like our law roles/responsibilities, we’ll figgur it out

I am not sure RSS is the way to measure influence, blogs tend to have many more visitors than they do RSS subscribers so measuring RSS subscibrers is only measuring a small segment of the entire audience.

1. It Isn’t a Blog Without RSS. – It can be a blog w/o RSS, just not as effective. I mean, who would publish a blog w/o an RSS feed associated with it?

2. It Isn’t a Blog Without Comments. – AMEN! No way can a blog own the title sans comments. Sorry, but that rule is golden.

3. The Press Release is Dead. – Suits me. I hate writing them.

4. The Social Media Release is King. – Yea. Give me a good blog post any day.

5. It’s All About Conversation Not Messages. – “Markets are conversations” (that’s what the good book says…the Cluetrain that is) and “participation is marketing.”

6. The Customer Controls the Relationship. – No one controls the relationship.

7. Authenticity and Transparency are Immutable Truths. – I’ll second that motion. The twin pillars of blogging have been, are now, and always will be (should be anyway) authenticity and transparency.

8. Audience is a Word of the Past. – I’ll buy that.

9. Lack of Comments Means Lack of Influence. – Comments are a measure of influence. Scoble could say “spit” on his blog and people would comment. Same with, uh, Marketing Pilgrim. Mainly, I’d say the number of RSS feed subscribers is the greatest measure of influence though.

Matt

And the end result may be detrimental to your web marketing goals, social site or otherwise. Banner-blindness, for example, is a negative marketee behavior based on conformity. OTOH, link baiting works because the headline or topic breaks the norm. The trick is finding the edge, the place where you have to sacrifice a few puppies & kittens but don’t alienate everyone.

Chip suggests there is nothing wrong in using a ghostwriter. It’s OK to think that way, if you’re truly comfortable that one day everyone will find out – because they inevitably will.