There are various posts on the value of the first Australian Blogging Conference. The conversational style of broad topic areas, bounded and nutured by a chair works well.

Kudos to Peter Black for being persistent and organising this event.

Des Walsh and Joanne Jacobs are respected in this relatively new industry. I discovered heaps, and have put some of their ideas into action.

Partly sponsored by Microsoft (specifically the corporate and business blogging session, or in other words: we paid for lunch) — I missed the political blogging sessions.

Apart from the opening, where Duncan Riley lit a blow torch/flame underneath the Australian bloggers: to connect up. Obviously, coming from Australia yet having an international audience I grok where he is at. Thinking on this…

Michael Rees adds to my notes, especially on the Podcasting/Vidcasting side. Video content, if it is the next-big-thing is an artform that is rarely taught in schools. Not just the technical feeds/bits side — also the composition, interviewing, making a story.

The legal session demonstrated that there are minds thinking about the impact of this online world on a slow-to-adapt legal system. Also joining the conversation were the Australian Law Reform Commission. Privacy, defamation, bush lawyering. The thinking that people/companies “go after” those with the cash is scary. Online, a few simple words can easily destroy the intangible asset of goodwill.

A theme that I don’t think I answered fully, and certainly with too-little thought was the “personal + corporate” blogging mix. Bronwen reminds me brilliantly of on her blog; and it’s something that’s worthy of thought.

And don’t forget: the best Unconferences are followed by Barconferences.

So, my random thoughts from random notes and reading:

• Australian organisations should be online, in a read/write sense (blog, wiki, whatever) to hear from their customers. Markets are conversations.
• Content is king. Are you adding to the world?
• A blog without comments is merely a website.
• Australian organisations should remember being english speaking, relatively stable economically; that the world is flat — and customers are not restricted to the mainland and Tasmania. The world is your market, converse with it.
• Branding: what is your brand? Is it you personally?

(these are my rough notes from the discussion)

- Chair: Des Walsh (DW)
- with Joanne Jacobs (JJ)
- and Nick Hodge (NH)

- intro and slides
- Signs Never Sleep example

- Q: CEO to blog, if they are taking it seriously?
- then who should write it?
- recc: marketing + pr: no, slow and lack of immediacy
- doesn’t engage with comments
- blog without a comments is just a web site

- Blog plus Newsletter to industry people; to build brand credibility
- newsletter is formally generated, blog to incite comments
- 2–3 articles a week
- ROI: competitive advantage, first-mover. position on authority
- complex on blog, expertise in field with advanced customers
- 10 comments per article; comments get responded to with free flowing discussion

- security: blog spam, password security: need a person watching
- cf: wikipedia
- wordpress/ akismet
- large organisation: employ someone to be the blog post

- Is a blog personal or corporate
- self-censorship / internal censorship

- Hierarchy vs. Organic
- blogging policy
- policy and corporate effect
- the new pr: blogging policy wiki

- who should blog, in terms of companies
- PR; professional service firms accountants lawyers
- taxgirl: making accountancy interesting

- promoting a competitive product: delete or not delete
- comments policy
- comment deletion: good advice, send email when it deleted

- blogging a great tool to raise a profile
- blogging as tacit knowledge management
- posts to yourself; outside in the world

- RSS feeds much more effective
- Feedburner; out to the world; using the Feedburner RSS to email

- blog reconstruction when people can no longer edit

- blog as knowledge management: pitched to corporates, who does it work?
- JJ: blog, as engagement with the community; external facing
- IP held in a particular
- value addition: “inform the public”, ongoing archive of information. difficult to measure first up

- “what are we going to write about today?” : business, giving away information. How to you ensure freshness
- creative writing, writing professionals: teaching bloggers to be creative
- writing as a skill
- finding your own voice, projecting the voice, developing voice
- writing in a creative fashion:
- 5 bloggers, <50 word posts. learning how to write, success stories
- SEO/ text creative writing
- titles are absolutely important
- writing/editing for SEO; subediting

- podcasts: 10 minutes, http://lipsync.com/ . US$5/m for hosting
- (cc) music license to middle http://freeplaymusic.com
- vodcasts, podcasts
- humor: know your audience (NH)

- know your audience: watch your traffic.

- video vs. text: text 10,000   vs. video 50,000 unique views

- ROI: tail-end of a marketing strategy
- blog to drive, sales, marketing
- driving profile
- measuring on Return on Blog
- JJ: measuring for NPV, expressing the ROI on a particular, based on tangible outcomes. Feedback, genuine market research with the consumer base and change
CGC media monitoring (huge growth area, as existing companies are doing to well enough)

- risk management: ensuring intangibles. Business Continuity planning (crisis management).
- risk is greater when doing nothing

- offsite blog, corporate reputation management — good in a risk situation

- example: blogging as a mechanism of a complex discussions: industry changing

- hired gun: good or not good? (NH says good because he is a hired gun™ )

- Windows LiveWriter is good (thanks, DW!)

Slides: Business and Corporate Blogging.ppt