Two Cool Things

Two quick notes before you get the second installation of the “7 Dumb Things.”

The Age of Conversation is Here!

The Age of Conversation is an insane project managed by Drew McLellan and Gavin Heaton, in which 237 cats bloggers and marketing pros from 16 countries were herded brought together on a collaborative project about this new social media conversation thing we’re all part of.

The first Age of Conversation book was a compilation from 100 authors. It was published last year, and raised nearly $15,000 for Variety, the international children’s charity. This year’s successor, creatively named Age of Conversation 2, goes on sale today. All proceeds (less printing and shipping) will again go to Variety, the children’s charity.

Here’s a little snippet from my chapter. I’m going to pick up a couple of copies, they’ll make great pass-arounds for some colleagues who need a rapid-fire introduction to the new world of content marketing and social media conversation.

The new corporate message doesn’t flow smoothly from PR agency to journalist to media consumer, or from advertiser to the compliant masses. The new message gets passed around by amateurs. It has to be tougher, smarter, more resilient.

Here’s a test for you: If you get into a cab anywhere in the world and tell your organization’s message to the cab driver, will he get it? Would he repeat it?

(Note, I don’t get any royalties or anything from this one. We’re making sure as much revenue as possible gets to Variety.)

Click here to order Age of Conversation 2

Great Blogs, No Readers

Chuck Westbrook has a great project going to get more exposure for blogs that have terrific content but no readers. This one is dear to my heart, as I know exactly what it’s like to work hard on content and then have eight people actually reading it.

Chuck’s gathering a group of bloggers to add a new blog to their reader every two weeks. No commitment to link, comment, promote, or anything else unless you feel moved to do so. We’re just checking in on a promising new blog and seeing what they have to say. Two weeks down the line, we move on to another blog.

If this sounds like a cool idea to you, check out Chuck’s post for more details. (And spread the word!)

(P.S. If your own blog needs a little boost, this is a terrific way to lend a hand to a fellow blogger and expand your own network.)