A free, 20 page PDF essay posted at Change This that I think indirectly makes a case to SMB’s (small and medium-sized business) for a weblog: One-Minute Site

THEY�VE RIPPED YOU OFF! The Web service providers have palmed you off with a Website model that will set to zero your chances of getting new clients through the Web. No one has ever had the courage to say that this model is at loggerheads with the SMBs’ potential new clients’ way of using the Web. The One-Minute Site Manifesto tells you how to get rid of this model that doesn’t work and prevents you from getting what you were promised from the Web.

A free, 13 page PDF essay posted at Change This titled The Corporate Weblog Manifesto. Much of the author’s message is applicable to small businesses, too.

Before you post to the company blog again, read this manifesto. To blog guru Robert Scoble, business bloggers should have a few things in common. Among them, they should steer clear of PR-cleansed jargon, they should have a thick skin, and they should avoid writing during times of emotional turmoil. Scoble, a Microsoft strategist, knows his stuff–he’s one of the best-known blogging personalities on the Web. By Robert Scoble

I was interviewed this week by a reporter from Fortune Small Business magazine about small business weblogs. I expect he’ll be contacting several of my small business blogging clients over the next week or so.

And I was also interviewed by a reporter from State News, the monthly publication from the Council of State Governments about blogging at the state government level. Earlier this week he interviewed MN State Representative Ray Cox. Cox, a client, narrowly won re-election to the Minnesota House of Representatives over another client, David Bly.

Mark Tapscott (director of the Center for Media and Public Policy at the Heritage Foundation): Can the Blogosphere do for government what it has done for the MSM? [mainstream media] A Heritage colleague, Andrew Grossman, replies. Both make VERY good points. I’m wondering whether the systemic forces that Grossman mentions are significantly different at the state/local government level than the federal level. Maybe we’ll have a chance to explore this with the Northfield.org’s civic blogosphere project and the UK Civic Leadership Blogging project, ReadMyDay.

IMHO, the most important characteristic to bring to a weblog is a voice of authenticity. Having a weblog encourages it but it’s not a given. And in this age of PR-speak and spin, authenticity in politics is almost newsworthy. In the Nov. 15, 2004 issue of Time Magazine: Obama’s Ascent

How do you leap from neighborhood activist to U.S. Senator to perhaps higher office? Even for Barack Obama, it’s more complicated than it looks … one of Obama’s gifts is that he is meticulously self-aware, and he knows that the frenzy that surrounds him doesn’t entirely make sense… What’s going on? I’m not entirely sure,” he said, looking tired but steady. “I think what people are most hungry for in politics right now is authenticity.”

Unfortunately, he doesn’t appear to bring this voice of authenticity to his weblog, Obamablog.

Longtime client Leif Knecht of Knecht’s Nurseries & Landscaping is interviewed by host Jon Gordon on today’s Future Tense radio show (MPR/American Public Media).

The entire 5 minute show, More businesses consider blogging, is available on the show’s web site (listen using Real Audio) but here’s a snip:

Recent entries on the photo-rich blog of Knecht’s Nurseries & Landscaping of Northfield, Minnesota concern preparing plants for winter, creating plant-filled windows boxes, and a new landscape employee. Owner Leif Knecht says the blog is a good way to reach out.

“We try to, as much as we can, have a conversational tone, sort of down-to-earth, this-is-us, we’re kind of a mom-and-pop business. It’s a way of people getting to know us a little bit in a personal way.”

This weblog coach knows, however, that the best blogger (and photographer) in the family is Deb Knecht!

A tip of the blog hat to MPR’s Future Tense reporter Jon Gordon on the release of this Forrester Research report last week.

I’m guessing that their report focuses on PR-type blogs and maybe to some extent on product manager/mid-level manager blogs. I’ll try to find out if they have much to say about top leadership/CEO blogging.

Blogging: Bubble Or Big Deal?
When And How Businesses Should Use Blogs
by Charlene Li, with Josh Bernoff, Tenley McHarg
November 5, 2004
Price: US$349.00
Length: 18 page(s)

Although Weblogs (blogs) are currently used by only a small number of online consumers, they’ve garnered a great deal of corporate attention because their readers and writers are highly influential. Forrester believes that blogging will grow in importance, and at a minimum, companies should monitor blogs to learn what is being said about their products and services. Companies that plan to create their own public blogs should already feel comfortable having a close, two-way relationship with users. In this document we recommend best practices, including a blogging code of ethics, and metrics that will show the impact of blogs on business goals.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Introduction To Weblogs
- Corporate Use Of Blogs Should Vary Based On Business Goals
- Best Practices For Creating Public Blogs

RECOMMENDATIONS
- Start Slow But Start Now With Blogs

WHAT IT MEANS
- Blogs Will Evolve Just As Web Sites Have
- Supplemental Material

Other business blog reports/ebooks/whitepapers:

What Could Your Company Do With A Blog? How Smart Companies Use Blogs for Marketing and PR Success and How You Can Too, by B.L. Ochman.
(Oct. 2004; self-published PDF; 105 pages – $97)

Business Blogging Starter Kit: Learn the what, why and how of blogging as a business tool, by Debbie Weil
(July, 2004; WordBiz report PDF; 127 pages; $97)

Business Blogs: How Successful Companies Get Real Results With Weblogs, by Kate Kaye & Rick Bruner
(November, 2003; MarketingWonk report PDF; 103 pages; $99)

I’m part of a team of people who will be working with a group of bloggers (primarily city council members and city managers) in the UK over the next several months. My role will primarily be “blogging coach. The primary web site for the project: Read My Day.

I’m using the phrase “civic leadership blogging” to describe the project and I expect it to have a significant influence on my book, Leadership Blogging. Because the project is already in high gear, I’ll have to put the Small Business Blogging book on the back burner for now.

I’ll be working with Steve Clift, Publicus.net in Mpls. on this project. In the UK, my teammates thus far are Fraser Henderson, Isobel Harding, and Joe Archer from NorthLincsNet; and Milica Howell from the Hansard Society.

I’ll be visiting the UK in early February, 2005 and expect to be bringing a couple of Minnesotan “civic leadership bloggers” with me.

My involvement with this began back in July when a team of visitors from the U.K. visited with Northfield and Eden Prairie officials at the Contented Cow to discuss e-democracy projects in the two cities.

(L to R) Eden Prairie City Manager Scott Neal, Isobel Harding from the North Lincolnshire Council and the Local e-Democracy National Project, Northfield citizen blogger Alex Beeby, NCO chair Bruce Morlan, Northfield Police Chief Gary Smith, Eden Praire Police Chief Dan Carlson, and Julian Bowrey, Office of the U.K. Deputy Prime Minister. Not pictured: Dylan Jeffrey, also from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister.

(L to R) (yours truly), Isobel Harding, and Steve Clift, Publicus.net in Mpls. (See high-res versions of these photos and others in the Northfield.org U.K. visit photo album.)

Water Filters R Us is a new web site/weblog client. Watch for blog posts from Steve Betheil soon. And a tip of the blog hat to BL Ochman for the referral.

Lockwood’s Opera House, a retail/residential condominium project in downtown Northfield, is a new client. Watch for blog posts from Kate Kuyper soon.