Fryer's Blog in the Mountains

Bloglines RSS replacement: Google Reader, NetNewsWire and Feeddler

I have been using Bloglines for years.   Since it is browser based, I could access all my RSS feeds no matter where I was.   Yesterday there was a notice that Bloglines was being discontinued by the end of the month.

So I scrambled to find a combination that worked for me.  Here's what I did.  First off, I exported all my feeds from Bloglines (just 1 click).  Then I activated Google Reader.  Couldn't figure out how to import my subscriptions and wasn't crazy about the user interface.  So I installed NetNewsWire on my Mac.  And synched it to Google Reader. 

Then I imported my subscriptions to NetNewsWire.  Very nice.   Next up, getting something on the iPad.   NetNewsWire wanted $10.   I don't use it that often.  So instead I got the Feeddler reader for the iPad.  ($0)  It automatically syncs to Google Reader.

Viola!   Now I have two great readers on the machines I use most and Google Reader when I'm on yet another machine.

Journalism is More than Twittering in Your Underwear

 I pulled that quote from Joshua's commencement speech at CUNY.  While twittering can be great for first hand impressions of an event, or even a real time light weight discussion, for the most part it strikes me as lots of people doing their own Truman Show (be your own Jim Carrey). 

Bill Moyers talked about the other end of the spectrum, the investigative piece, where search for the facts of the matter are king.  And discovering and telling the story.

And the pendulum swings.   I follow many RSS feeds for blogs and news, but at the same time I subscribe to Time magazine.   Which tends to do more in depth reporting on a subject.  (Unfortunately lately the magazine begins to look like a weekly pamphlet.)  

A good journalist exudes credibility and authority.  Because they capture the essence of the story and back it up by facts.   We in marketing can learn a lot from this discipline.  

Although we are engaging in conversations, do you stand out?  And are you telling a story which is of interest to your customers?   Something to think about for the new year.

Friends don't let CEOs blog

Ragan.com posted "Why your CEO’s blog is fading into oblivion".   They talk about a a Forrester Research project "How To Derive Value From B2B Blogging" which said:

Blogs read like tired, warmed-over press releases

Go read it.  But here's the part that had me in stitches.  One of the experts quoted by Ragan was John Dragoon, chief marketing officer at Novell.   They had a link to his official company blog where the last post was May 21st.   Ummmm, maybe he needs to read the Forrester report or give the author Laura Ramos a call.

Blogging Basics

Today sat on a panel with Phil and Charley talking about blogging.   There were about 100 people from two organizations (with lots of letters).  Basically there were two groups; pr people  and marketing people.  Of them about 10 were blogging, about 12 wanted to start a corporate blog and another 12 a personal blog.   A good start.    Phil has a great page talking about this.

The key message was being honest and speaking with a human voice.   There was some confusion about knowing if it was correct to start a corporate blog.  My point being if your company was interested in packaging and promoting a product and selling it to consumers, you shouldn't blog.  If you were interested in establishing a relationship with your customers and building loyalty between you and them, then yes, start a blog.  It's a great tool.

Another question about taking *so* much time blogging when you have other things to do.  Turns out this individual spends 1 1/2 hours doing email every day.  And some of it is informational in content.  That time could be spent blogging with greater leverage.

And finally Phil right away set up some tags for the group. 

The way I view it, blogging is a never ending cocktail party on the Internet with the most interesting people you will ever meet.