Nettie Hartsock

The POP! List Is Announced!

Sam Horn, creative woman extraordinaire and author of "POP!Stand Out In Any Crowd" has released her annual The 2006 POP! Hall of Fame is up on her blog . I would encourage you to take a peek at this list and see what marketing and branding ideas you can learn from folks who are consistently reinventing the "branding" wheel!

Will the Real Flog please stand up?

MediaPost just ran an excellent story on Sony being outed by bloggers for its part in the creation of yet another flog. Flogs are phony blogs created by phony bloggers (usually marketing ne're do wells) who think the rest of the blog world is so stupid and that blog readers are so dense that they won't realize it's a fake blog!

If I've said it once in all these darn blogs I'm juggling, I've said it a million times! Don't FLOG! Don't create some slick blog like - www.alliwantforxmasisapsp.com (the aforementioned Sony flog) and think that bloggers aren't going to find you out. We bloggers are a fearless group, and most certainly we are an intelligent, dedicated, devoted group and don't flog on our blogging turf!

And forthwith - here are the Top Five Hints you might be dealing with a flog for all you dedicated blog readers out there. I'm providing these in an effort to empower us all to become an en masse group of "flogging spotters" similar to a bird watching club but we're watching for flogs!

Top Five Hints You Might Be Reading A Flog:

1. Every post ends with..."and that's why we're hip and you're not unless you buy this product." (Ok, it won't be that blatant, but read between the "flog lines" of several points and you'll see the underlying "buy this product" message.)

2. The blog is openly registered with a viral marketing viral firm. (Hint: Dear would-be floggers don't register the blog under you're own viral marketing firm's name that can be easily traced to the source.)

3. The blog suspiciously has only one author, whom you've never heard of but sounds like a person you would never want to hang out with or in the case of Sony's flog - "Rap with."

4. The blog suddenly "shutters its comments" ...meaning no one can comment on the fact that the blog is actually a FLOG!

5. The blog is forced to post declarations notifying its readers that the authors are indeed paid-floggers trying to sound hip instead of true bloggers trying to sound "flip."

By the way, I'm launching my own phony blog which will be called thisisafakeblogbutreaditandseeforyourself.com . Heck, maybe I'll even see if Sony will buy some ad space on it. And Wal-Mart too since its flog has been outed as well.

Now go and be real a real blogger, or don't do it at all!

I Call Bullshit

Where I live, in the Texas Hill Country, we're often tired, hot, bedraggled and trying to make certain our prickly pear wine doesn't turn into vinegar, all the while avoiding any angry rattlesnakes on our front porch.

And one thing we absolutely hate is jargon. Ok, some folks out here like jargon, but they're usually the folks too afraid to sip prickly pear wine so can you really trust em?

So today I'm calling bullshit on jargon. Let's just use good ol' plain English. Not rap, not slang, not witticisms and for gosh sakes not "we're the leaders" or "what we bring to the table" or "think outside the box."

Let's say what we do and do what we say. And to take it a step further, let's generate content that engages readers easily and puts them at ease in the full knowledge that we won't be preaching to them or making everything so god-awful technical that they don't understand one word we've written in a seven page white paper.

And since I've called bullshit on tech jargon, I also urge all of you to check out this site - www.buzzwhack.com which boasts The Buzzword Compliant Dictionary and make certain you're not filling your newsletter, case studies, white papers, sales brochures or anything else with jargon and meaningless buzzwords.

And while you're at it - the dictionary might make the perfect gift for all those non-sipping, tech-laden, prickly pear wine haters!

The Backseat Writer Opines

There are so many blogs out there but I was becoming a little like one of the cobbler's children (sans the shoes part) that I did not have my own on my Web site!

I write two blogs for allbusiness.com - one on Professional PR and the other is the Must Read Business Books blog.

I also write a blog for smallbusinessgurus.com - www.advanceyourmessage.com . So why in the heck would I want to pen another blog?

First, because blogs are an amazing way to personalize your work and your mission. Second, because I've got the blogging bug and the only way to cure it is to write!

This blog will feature writing tips, storytelling tips, reviews of books, interviews, treatises on business, copywriting, success and balance. Plus insights into PR and Blogs.

And I'll cover quite a bit on the topic of case studies as well as those are one of my favorite things!

Right now let me say the best book I've read on getting your pitch and branding pitch perfect this year is by Sam Horn and is titled, POP: Stand Out In Any Crowd. You know it has to be good if it's got a front cover blurb by Seth Godin.

Sam is also the author of TONGUE FU and I will be featuring excerpts on this blog from an interview I did with her for the Must Read Business Books blog.

So come back again and visit often! And in trying to get more visual on my blog and keep it personal, I'm putting in a beloved picture of myself, my sisters and a friend posing with my grandfather who is one of my heroes.