Labor Day Thoughts: Blogging is a Labor Of Love

By the time many of you will probably read this, Labor Day weekend will be over and the trek back home from the long three-day weekend will be complete along with what unofficially will be remembered as the Summer of '07. I chose to go the leisure route this past weekend and tried to stayed away from the computer up until now which I can tell from lack of email's that the majority of us did the same.

In honor of Labor Day I want to celebrate the fact that as of September 1st this blog, Donna's Promo Talk, is now a whole six months old. I wasn't sure exactly what I was getting into earlier this year when I decided to join the social media network and became a blogger. My background is as a promotional marketer so I decided that this blog would be targeted to marketing professionals, but also of interest to those wanting to know what's happening in today's promotional marketplace. I first did what the experts recommended which was to browse, read and comment on other people’s blogs before starting my own. This helped me to find my “voice” as well to create relationships with other bloggers in my field.

What I didn't realize when I started this is that by blogging I would meet so many other people that I have started to build relationships with. Some I have gotten the opportunity to meet in person by attending some conferences, specifically BlogHer07 held in Chicago this past July which was totally amazing. Also, the Interactive Promotions Summit that I was invited to attend in Las Vegas by ePrize. This one was specific to the interactive promotions industry and the other to blogging, my new second love. Other relationships I have started have been totally online and many of these will probably always be just virtual.

I have learned that social media really is the new form of networking and I have been encouraging everyone to visit some blogs, read them, leave comments and perhaps even start their own. A blogger may choose to focus on their business, spend the time releasing their personal passion or perhaps get a chance to enjoy a little of both. Either way, everyone needs to become familiar with what social media is all about and if you're reading this blog you're well on your way.

Blogs are becoming the voice of the customer and all businesses need to start paying attention to them. All companies can obtain great feedback from some things that people write in their blogs as well as just in the comments section. Traditional market research is changing. Businesses today need research based on consumer behaviors that are gathered and reported quickly and social networks are quickly becoming the best source for this.

So, I'm making a commitment to continue my new labor of love and I'm looking forward to Donna's Promo Talk celebrating it's first year anniversary in 2008. I have been practicing the virtue of patience which has always been one of my greatest weaknesses. I wondered when I first started this blog if anyone really was reading it. It reminded me of that thought provoking question... when a tree falls in the middle of the forest and if no one is there to hear it, did it make any noise?  Well I'm finally starting to see a steady increase in my subscribers and readership. I would now like to see more comments and encourage you all to add to the conversation and write about what you like, don't like, agree with, disagree with or whatever.

It is an exciting time for promotional marketing and I'm very glad to be part of this industry. The Internet has really opened up a whole new media for promotional marketing and it's just going to continue to grow and become more and more important in the marketing mix for everyone, whether a large or a small business. I promise to continue to provide my readers with updates on what's current and hot in interactive promotions that are relevant to the time. This blog is becoming what will be a great time capsule for us to look back on to remember the year. So, please feel free to contribute and thank you very much for the opportunity to share my thoughts with you. 

Comments

[Greg]

Congratulations, Donna! I'm really impressed with what you're doing with Promo Talk. Your experience with it is truly a great example of how to use a blog to show your expertise to the world, network (and have a bit of fun, too). Keep up the great work!

[Donna DeClemente]

Thanks Greg for your encouraging comments. I owe a great amount of my success so far with this blog to you and the team at WME Blogs. I never could have done it without your help. Here's to both of our continued success as bloggers. BTW, for those who love jazz check out Greg's blog at www.jazzrochester.com.