Take A Peck

Brian Clark over at Copyblogger recently wrote a post titled, “What’s a blog?” He says there are many “experts” who have blogging rules such as “blog posts should never be over 350 words,” and other rules that really don’t make any sense. His take on post length is that it depends– it depends on who the audience is, why you’re writing, what you want to accomplish, etc. He sums it up by saying, “You’re either writing something compelling that resonates with readers, or you’re not.”

What are my thoughts about “what is a blog?” I consider them testing-grounds for new ideas, so they can be spontaneous and unfinished at times. I think blogs don’t necessarily have to be formal or well-thought out. Mainly I think blogs are thought-outlets which should promote conversation and interest among your readers.

This holds true whether you’re blogging about sports, real estate or money. If your blog isn’t interesting, it’s not going to attract readers, and without readers, there can be no conversation. I’ll be the first to confess that I don’t always have the most thought-provoking posts that promote conversation, but I think that should be the goal.

Ultimately, blogs should be authentic. This means being open and honest and transparent about the purpose of the blog. A company shouldn’t pay someone to pretend to be a brand advocate and blog about it, and try to play it off as an authentic blog. A CEO should not have an intern write a blog for him and pretend that it’s his.

So those are my rambling thoughts right now about “What is a blog?” What do you think?

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For some reason I tend to try to read many books at the same time, instead of reading one all the way through before moving on to a new book. So, instead of doing a full-blown recap for each of the books I’m reading, here’s a few thoughts about each book I’m currently reading.

Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In

Great book so far. It discusses a lot about the merits of negotiating based on principles, not positions. If I had to summarize the best part:

4 points of principled negotiation:

• People - Separate people from the problem
• Interests - Focus on interests, not positions
• Options - Generate a variety of possibilities before deciding what to do
• Criteria - Insist that things be based on some objective standard

Join the Conversation

Joseph Jaffe, president/founder of Crayon and blogger at Jaffe Juice sent me (and other bloggers) a copy of his new book to review as part of his “Use New Marketing to Prove New Marketing” initiative. Here are a couple thoughts/things I’ve learned so far:

• Word of Mouth is people telling their friends about products, services, etc.
• Conversation is about bigger things - laughter, life, love, frustration, etc.
• In the world of social media, everyone is a critic. Deal with it.
• Microsoft is on board. It’s shifting its marketing strategy from informing/persuading/reminding to demonstrating/involving/empowering consumers.

The Story of My Life

I know this isn’t a sports business or marketing book, but Casanova’s autobiography includes some great stories, insights, and thoughts on life. If you ever forget that most guys’ lives revolve around girls (this was true in the 1700s and is still true today), read this book. Guys aren’t paying attention to your marketing efforts because they have more important things to worry about.

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I’ve been wrapping up some things from this past year and will likely take a break from blogging between now and 2008. Most of this time will be spent with friends and family but I’ll also be catching up on some reading. My plan is to finish Fun Is Good by Mike Vanderbeek tonight (only have a few pages left) and then start reading 2 more books:

Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In

Because being a good negotiator is a valuable skill, especially in the sports business world.

The Art of Woo

Because it’s important to be able to persuade people that your ideas are good, whether they’re your boss, a client or someone else you work with.

Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! See you in 2008.

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According to the Mitchell Report, which you can download here, 70+ current MLB players were juicing, and probably many others. While we all knew this day was coming (and it’s a sad day), I stumbled upon something else that’s related and very surprising: There are illegal steroids and stimulants in the “legal” supplements that professional and amateur athletes commonly take.

According to a study overseen by non-profit coalition Informed-Choice, and conducted by HFL, one quarter of dietary supplements purchased in a recent sampling contained traces of steroids and 11.5 percent had banned stimulants.

This comes five years after five years after an International Olympic Committee study that sampled 240 supplements purchased in America and found 18.8 percent of them contained steroids. The full article from the Denver Post is here.

This is pretty shocking, and I’m kind of surprised I never heard anything about this earlier. While I doubt most people who test positive for steroids do so because of accidental tests from supplement contamination, there’s got to have been cases of this. One that immediately comes to mind could be the UFC’s Sean Sherk, who by most accounts is a great person and has steadfastly denied taking anything illegal, even though he tested positive. But I guess you never know…

Hopefully professional sports will be able to get past steroids and move on. I personally think it’s much more important to focus on the future than the past, and that we’ll never really know the full story. There will always be cheaters and people who try to get around the law and take the easy way out; that’s just reality, and this transcends sports. Not that this makes it OK.

What is everyone’s take on all of this?

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Hope everyone had a great weekend. As a follow up to my post Friday about going to watch Appalachian State play football, here’s what happened: The Mountaineers scored 79 points. This is not a typo. 79 points! Between that offensive explosion and the pre-game tailgating, it was definitely a nice Saturday to be watching football.

Also, I want to remind everyone that the next Sports Business Carnival will be hosted by Sports Agent Blog. You’ve still got a week to submit articles before the carnival is published on November 19th, so submit to Darren Heitner directly–heitner(at)gmail.com or through the blog carnival main page.

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Apparently, I’m a Media Snacker. I got tagged by Ben over at Blogging Experiment in the latest meme (a sort of online chain letter where someone tags 5 people and each of them tag 5 people, etc), which discusses Media Snackers–what they are and if you respect them or not. What is a Media Snacker, you say? The short version is that they are people who keep up with the latest trends and consume and media, news and entertainment when they want, how they want, where they want, and how often they want–which is basically all the time. Check out the video to see more about what a Media Snacker is (I’m not a video expert and I can’t get this thing to embed properly)

So, yeah I’m a Media Snacker. Online, I consume enough media to feed a small country, and I always have about 10 tabs open at once because I’m a super multi-tasker/have a super-short attention span. I keep up with all the sports marketing/business blogs I know of as well as a bunch of advertising and social networking blogs. But I actually am not as media savvy when it comes to cell phones. I don’t use my phone for blogging or video or music, though I do use it for pictures sometimes. If I lived in a big city, this would be different, as I’d probably be taking the train to work and have lots of time to kill. But as it is now, I drive everywhere so that doesn’t leave much time for sitting around and doing things with the phone.

On to the main question–Do you respect Media Snackers? I’d have to say yes, because I think we have an insatiable thirst for knowledge and always want to do more in less time. You’ve got to admire people who are curious and always creating and consuming and not just sitting around and doing nothing.

But being a Media Snacker is often tough. Most of my friends don’t see the point of reading 50 blogs a day or keeping up with every piece of news I find interesting. And to some extent, they have a point. I’ve actually tried to cut down on my snacking, so I actually can focus on getting things done, instead of just consuming new information. Sometimes you have to limit the amount of information you take in, since more information does not always lead to better work and better decisions. You have to focus your snacking, so you’re getting the right stuff and not a bunch of junk.

Now I have to tag 5 people to keep the meme going (not like it depends on just me though) I’ll go with:

• Pat Coyle
• Darren Heitner
• David Armano
• Darren Herman
• Leland Maschmeyer

Don’t forget that the 4th edition of the Sports Business Carnival will be up here on Monday. You can submit an article here. Come back and check it out! (more…)

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