My Log....

When I was little, I loved to create. I even displaced my socks and
underwear to keep a dresser drawer full of original cartoons, stories,
8mm films, comedy tapes, and personal journals.

Imagine me coming home from Jr. High one day to find my mother
sitting on my bed reading my most private, innermost thoughts in
my journal!

"My Log!" I said. "You're reading my personal log? Have you no respect
for my privacy?"

Can you imagine my mix of anger and chagrin?

Actually, all you can do is imagine. That never really happened. But if
it did, I'm sure I'd be floored.

Times have changed. Today, parents can read their kids personal logs
online-- along with the rest of the world -- with no sense of intrusion.
They're called blogs. A blog, short for "web log", is a web-based
journal. It ranges from a youth recounting his crush on the clerk at
Walgreen's to a group of pharmacists publishing a corporate dialog on
geriatric medicine.

The later is more of interest to me from a marketing point of view.
(Although I'm sure the crush makes more interesting reading.)

Blogging allows a marketer to put a personal face on a marketing
message. As an alternative media outlet, blogs allow you to
circumvent editorial control of PR at a lower cost than advertising.
But without some level of promotion, no one will know about your
blog. So, you'll need a news release or adto announce it.

If you're interested in seeing if blogging is right for your business,
test it. I hear good things about Google's free blogware service:
blogger.com. Let me know how you like it.

I haven't seen any studies on the marketing impact of blogging, yet.
But I sense it has value. In fact, I'm so convinced, I've started my own
blog (http://philsasso.blogspot.com). Basically it's a web-based
version of my marketing emails. Online, you'll find a free 6-month
archive of my tips. Feel free to share it with friends and associates.
The more hits my blog gets, the more likely I will be to keep it going.

I'll let you know how my experiment turns out -- here or in my blog.

- Phil Sasso