Wow! Dozens of business articles were submitted for the Sugartone Sweet Business Blogging contest and there were literally hundreds of votes and comments.

And here are the winners… (more…)

(more…)

For the last few months, Bloggertone has been a labour of love and indeed a steep learning curve for me and the guys at Channelship. For those of you that don’t know (the new official explanation), Bloggertone is a business blogging community, a place where business professionals can stand out. You can read the specialists; share opinions and sign up to blog about business!

The site went live on the 23^rd of October 2009 and as it now goes through its first redesign, it feels like a good time to look back and access what I have learned in between.

Identity takes time

I had an idea in my head of what Bloggertone would be before the project got off the ground. In some respects, it now resembles those initial thoughts and in other ways it is completely different. “What Bloggertone is” has changed and is changing. I now realise that this is one definition online community, it is an entity that grows and changes and you as the parent need to support rather than resist. I now realise that it may be some time before Bloggertone acquires it’s grown up persona.

Community means you setting the example

I think most Bloggertoners (what they now like to be called) would agree that the single biggest success of the project so far is the community. It was probably 6-7 wks after the launch that this realisation fully dawned on me. Its easy to talk up community, but to really support a growing community like Bloggertone, you must be prepared to put some work in. You yourself need to become the example of the community member that you are trying to create.

It takes all types

The strengths and levels of involvement differ from member to member. Some people are great bloggers and produce excellent content. Others are wonderful networkers who promote, support and interact effectively - while some members come purely for the advice. The point is that people interact in the way that best suits them, while you might like everyone to do everything; this is not a realistic expectation. A better way is to accept this and find ways to make it easier for members to continue their level of involvement.

Summary:

The strength of any community is down to the people, we are very lucky in that we have great people who have invested themselves in the success of the project. This is really what has set the tone for Bloggertone.

As you can probably tell, I have struggled to find the time to blog on here recently. My intention is to get back to it in the New Year but in the meantime, here are some updates on what’s been happening.

Sales Leadership Ireland: Zero to Here

Our Third SLI event was help last night in the Hampton, again the conversation was excellent led by two wonderful speakers in Vincent Reynolds and Sean Weafer.

Vincent kicked off with a truly insightful presentation - as he took us on a journey into the minds of senior managers. I have undertaken research before meeting with CEOs or CFOs before - but never with the type of perspective that Vincent talked about last night. He recommended that you effectively step inside the world of the senior manager, and that you adjust your thinking and selling - so as to be aware of the opportunities or indeed threats that exist from their points of view. I am not doing his presentation proper justice here, but let’s just say there was a huge amount of learning to be had for those that attended.

Next up was the fantastic Sean Weafer. Sean talked about why people really buy? -they buy feelings. Why USPs are no longer relevant. He demonstrated why proper and expert questioning technique is the most effective way to create points of compelling relevance and how to create win-win situations between buyer and seller. Sean is a wonderful motivator and a fantastic teacher of the craft of selling - but he is also a passionate defender of professional selling and salespeople. He is a true Irish sales leader and we were thrilled to have him.

Bloggertone

Bloggertone continues to go from strength to strength on the back of the wonderful contributions from the bloggers.

A few recent mentions include:

http://www.iia.ie/news/item/1395/bloggertone-brings-together-the-collective-voice-of-business-blogging/

http://www.dubchamber.ie/mn_pressrelease.asp?page=members_news&article=1188

http://www.dceb.ie/news/bloggertone-brings-together-the-collective-voice-of-business-blogging

http://www.dceb.ie/news/50-ways-to-get-more-from-linkedin

http://www.simplyzesty.com/uncategorized/bloggertone-launches/

http://www.connector.ie/2009/11/2009-awards-christmas-connector/

http://blog.iia.ie/2009/get-the-facts-fast/

http://www.scip.org/NewsRoom/PRDetail.cfm?ItemNumber=9007

http://sortmybooks.ie/wordpress/2009/11/19/bloggertone/

http://www.cvsandinterviews.ie/job-hunting-two-great-articles/170/

http://www.codegaconsulting.com/blog/82-bloggertone-launches.html

http://www.cubeonlinemarketing.ie/why-you-should-use-blog-networks/

http://wwwcareerscoacheu.blog.com/2009/10/25/a-new-site-for-irish-businesses-launched/

Here is a link to my articles

It’s been a while since I blogged on here, because for the last while I have devoted nearly all my energies into Bloggertone. It’s been a learning curve for me but one that I have enjoyed and so far so good.

Before I report on the progress made, let me again thank Fred and Facundo from Channelship. The guys are simply awesome professionals and are an absolute pleasure to work with. They come with my highest recommendation.

Bloggertone went live on Friday the 23^rd of October, The countdown to the site launch was held on Twitter with the site going live @ 2pm GMT.

A Right Old #Twineup!

With spirits already high with the success of the launch two inspired ladies @miriamahern and @whatswhat_sian came up with an entirely novel way to celebrate that evening.

Miriam’s explanation:

“It’s just like that - a spontaneous party -don’t need to go anywhere. From the comfort of where-ever you are simply grab your favourite beverage, sit in front of your favourite Twitter client (mine is TweetDeck) and run a search for “#twineup” . Everyone from everywhere is welcome. Join in the conversation and meet some great people”

Congrats and thanks to Miriam & Sian, because it was an absolutely roaring success with #twineup taking over (modestly) part of the Irish twittersphere on Friday night - mentions on radio stations ( think it was 98 FM, but let’s leave stations in plural anyway) soon ensued with many people describing it as the best fun they had on Twitter - well EVER!

So Far So Good

According to Alexa, Bloggertone’s traffic rank for the first 7 days was 154528. In many respects, what was even nicer to see was that people were spending on average over 8 mins on the site visiting over 7 pages. The Social Media buzz was also working with Linkedin, Twitter & Facebook sending lots of visitors.

Many Quality Posts

The quality of the posts has been excellent so far, a few of my personal favourites include:

“Rural Business, The Good, The Bad and The Ugly” by Elaine Rogers

“LinkedIn for Jobseekers, Do you Dance” by Paul Mullan

“Competitive intelligence gathering for international markets” by Una Coleman

What’s Up Next?

The PR for the site is just about the start, we wanted to wait until we had something to show people.  An international blogging and social media expert has just joined the Bloggertone gang. Details to follow but I have little doubt that this person will help immensely to make the site a valuable and popular business resource. If you are interested in contributing to Bloggertone and becoming one of our featured bloggers, please apply here.

So all in all a pretty good start then, lots more to do and I may need to get back to the day job soon

People have requested that I give them a quick peek at the new www.bloggertone.com website - the site will be launching very soon!

Bloggertone is a new space that allows people in business to access and share useful business information and opinions, constantly updated by the collaborative effort of selected business bloggers………. Here is a screenshot of the new platform.

Bloggertone has 10 sections that a blogger can post under, they are:

1. Talking Leadership
2. Transforming Your Business
3. Managing Money
4. People Matters
5. Technology & Web 2.0
6. Marketing Ideas
7. Growing Sales
8. Going International
9. Work/Life Balance
10. What’s Happening?

Functionalities will include author pages for the bloggers, voting, post ratings, and the usual social media sharing widgets (share this, tweet this, facebook connect, etc). Ultimately, the site encourages a conversation, so readers are encouraged to comment and most commented posts will make it to the homepage too.

The site is currently still been developed by my parthners in crime on this project - Fred and Facundo of Dublin web agency, Channelship. If you fancy becoming a featured blogger and contributing content to this unique new online space - why not contect with us on LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter.