English is not my first language. In fact, it is only the third language I speak. I make mistakes when I write. I remember my troubles when I was seeking for a proofreader. Many thanks go to my assistant Sigita, who now keeps all my proofreading work at this blog. (You are welcome to write comments about our English to info [at] positioningstrategy.com. Thank you!)

Many of my clients are not from English speaking countries too. To maintain high standarts of a business blog they need a proofreader. To be more comfortable with writing they also need a blog coach.

Proofreaders and blog coaches are needed!

So, I need resources for my existing and future clients from where they can choose a blog coach or a proofreader.

Following the ethics of commenting in blogs, advertising of your business is prohibited. Such comments are considered as spam. But in this case proofreaders and blog coaches are welcome to leave their contact information in the comment section of this post.

When my clients will need a blog coach or a proofreader I want to be able simply to direct to this post and say ”look at the comment section and choose one from the list”. As simply as that. I don’t want any commission or any fee for your being on this list. Sure, I will be thankful if you in your blog or website will place a link to my post about blog coaches. Also you are welcome to leave comments about blog coaches and proofreaders in my post about blog coaching.

In business blogging the primary language is English. But we need proofreaders in other languages too. I worked with clients who write to German speaking audience, also to French, Italian, Spanish, British, Scandinavian readers and it is possible that in future blog coaches and proofreaders will be needed in every other language. So, if your first language is not English, then please leave information about your proofreading or blog coaching business too.

Leave information about your proofreading or blog coaching service in the comment section

For faster and better finding, please leave messages about yourself and your business in the comment section according to some rules. Please keep with the following order in writing about your services:

Word ”Proofreader” or ”Blog coach” (according your service). What is a blog coach you can find in my post about blog coaches.

Language or languages in which you can provide services. If you are a proofreader, I encourage you to write what is your first language.

Your name, your blog or website.

Contact info – e-mail address and (or) phone. Also you can add Skype name or other appropriate ways to contact you, but please do not abuse adding three or more phones or e-mails. One or two of each please.

Area, where you are especially experienced (for example, cooking, sportswear, banking or laser technology), where you can from a few words understand about client’s topic, where you know specific business’s words (slang). Shortly – area, which you are familiar with, or even an insider.

Short description about your difference and specialization. Please, especially turn attention to your uniqueness. We all believe that you are providing only quality services, but what are other real differences? Please, help the potential clients to choose you and after choosing to stay exceptionally happy for their choice.

That’s all. Fees, other business and legal issues are the issues of agreement between you and your client.

I do not guarantee leads from this post, but I hope this list will be useful not only to my clients but to other CEOs and all other persons who want to establish a business blog too. Please feel free to use it!
Thank you for cooperation!

P.S. I keep the right for myself to delete entries with incorrect data, if my clients or readers report very poor service, unreachability by provided addresses or phone, in other cases when it misleads my clients or other readers of this blog.

Tags: business blog, proofreading, writing, resources, proofreaders, blog coaches, blog coach, proofreader, language, The New Rules of Business Blogs, not first language

More, I am sure that for a number of companies blogging will be mandatory for a daily job of a CEO or a General Manager.

To run a business blog – it will be a standard requirement in hiring a CEO.

Yes, today standard requirement for a CEO is the capability to understand financial schemes, ability to satisfy the Wall Street.

But it is a wrong emphasis searching for a perfect CEO.

For most companies the crucial point is to build a powerful brand. A company that focuses on brand building always wins compared with the company that focuses on quarter-to-quarter financial management.

Is financial management necessary for a company?

Sure it is.

But while financial management is necessary, building strong brand is crucial for a long-term success.
In web 2.0 era a business blog from a CEO is the first place where brand building begins. Because the authority of a CEO, customers, press, partners will consider all news from business blog as reliable. It will replace mandatory announcements for stockholders, Wall Street, maybe it will replace some press releases as well.

In web 2.0 age brand building happens not with advertising, but with conversation. The easiest and most effective place for conversation – the web. Brands will be launched in the web, news about brands will flow in the web, disasters will start and end in the web. The web will become the most important place for starting a brand building process.

The web will become the most important place for brand building and maintaining. Can a CEO ignore that? Can a CEO ignore the conversation with buyers through his business blog in the coming web 2.0 age?

It’s unlikely.

A CEO from a successful company in the future will have a business blog. And the future is approaching rapidly. It is better to jump to that wagon and start a business blog sooner than later, because the first mover has enormous advantage.

In the near future maintaining a business blog will be a standard requirement for every CEO of successful company. As simple as that. So, you must start learning business blogging rules right now.

If you are a CEO, you must start a business blog right now. Start it by downloading my free e-book ”The New Rules of Business Blogs” and go ahead by creating your own business blog.

Let’s go!

Tags: business blog, requirement for a CEO, perfect CEO, web 2.0, brand building, Linas Simonis, The New Rules of Business Blogs

Recently David Meerman Scott ignited a great discussion when he wrote the post ”Does Harvard Business School know what a blog is?” about a hot topic in business blogging land.

It’s a very interesting discussion going on there, please check not only the post, but the comments too.

For those who are interested in business blogging, there are some guidelines on the same topic.

Yes, you can have a blog editor in your business blog

I fully agree on David’s remark that ”fixing “errors” quickly evolves into control in my experience.” But this is true only in corporate blog (or, in this case, may be true in Harvard Business School Publishing blog).

What differentiates corporate blog from business blog is that in business blog, the blogger is also the business owner, the CEO, the General Manager or other high – ranking authority when in the corporate blog there are some second – ranking guys who are writing it. (More about these differences can be found in my free e-book ”The New Rules of Business Blogs”)

When you are a CEO, nobody can control your writing. Nobody except the board or shareholders.

If the shareholders do not like what the CEO is writing in the business blog, the solution is not to control the CEO’s writing but to change the CEO.

A CEO in his business blog must clearly express his company’s uniqueness and be passionate about it. He must be the best spokesperson of the company. The best spokesperson who talks to clients not only through old media, old school PR departments but is able to talk to clients directly through his business blog.

In business blogging the editor has no chance to control the content of the blog. He simple doesn’t have an authority to do that.

Most CEOs are poor writers

Yes, it’s true. Most CEOs are comfortable in ”corpspeak” and are not able to speak in buyers language.

That’s why a blog editor may be useful. He can force the CEO to come down from the Ivory Tower and start to talk with the customers directly using customer’s language.

Nothing is worse than the CEO who lost touch with his customers. The company with such a CEO is in trouble. Think about Rick Wagoner, the CEO of General Motors. What topic Rick speaks comfortably about? About unions, healthcare benefits, ”unfair competition” from Japan manufacturers. Can he talk without pompastics with the ordinary customer? I can’t imagine that.

This gap between the CEO and a customer is the most dangerous in the corporate world. Business blogging can help the CEOs to narrow this gap. And all ways to achieve this are good. Even the having of a blog editor.

OK, let’s call this person not a blog editor, but the blogging coach. Maybe these words will sound to you more appropriate.

Can the blog editor be from the PR department?

Hell, no!

David Meerman Scott is absolutely right there. Most PR people have no idea about the blogosphere’s culture.

Think of the Wall-Mart and Edelman scandal. For your attention: Steve Rubel, SVP of Edelman has a popular blog but this does not rescue Edelman from bad practice in blogosphere.

A blog editor must be a good writer and a great teacher. He must help the CEO to talk with customers through his business blog . He must help the CEO to go from corptalk to simple human talk. He must help the CEO to curb his ego and fears. He must encourage the CEO to be open and honest.

BL Ochman recently wrote an article ”Should Every Company Blog? Hell No!”. Please, read her post. She raised good points there except post frequency.

Why do I disagree about post frequency?

The answer is in my e-book ”The New Rules of Business Blogs”. Please download it and if you are not a CEO, please feel free to send the link of this e-book or print it and pass to your companys CEO.

Disclosure: I am mentioned in recent David’s book ”The New Rules of Marketing and PR” in the chapter about blogging outside North America.

Tags: David Meerman Scott, business blog, corporate blog, post frequency, blog editor, blogging coach, spokesperson, corpspeak, Rick Wagoner, the new rules of business blogs

But do we always recognize these changes?

For example blogs diverged in few categories – usual blogs, problogs, celebrity blogs, corporate blogs, business blogs.

But we still apply the same rules to all of them.

What a mistake!

Take for example, business blogs.

All consultants are still recommending a CEO to post frequently.

What a mistake!

CEOs are in high time-pressure work, and insisting on posting frequently will keep them out of blogosphere.

How to act in this new web2.0 environment?

What new rules apply to business blogs that are different from teenager blogs?

What dangerous rules that are right for teenager blog must be rid off in a business blog?

To answer all these questions my new e-book ”The New Rules of Business Blogs” is now released. You can download the free e-book by clicking on the link above. You are welcome to post comments about the e-book there or on your blog, or email the link to whomever you believe would benefit from reading it.

Thus, press on the link The New Rules of Business Blogs, download and read it. Thank you!

Tags: web2.0, business blog, e-book, The New Rules of Business blogs

There are two reasons that made the CEO blogging mandatory from the marketing point of view.

First, a CEO is the best spokesperson of every company

OK, the founder is the best spokesperson of every company, but if the one is not with the company anymore, the CEO is the best spokesperson of the company then.

The exceptions are rare. Michael Jordan is the best spokesperson of Nike, not Phil Knight, but this is another story.

Customers tend to listen, when the General Manager of a company speaks. If the CEO earns good reputation, the entire company wins. If the CEO earns good reputation, the company earns part of its reputation too.

Second, it helps the CEO think about marketing strategy

What if the CEO can’t write?

You can’t write, if you don’t know what to write about.

But if you have a good positioning idea, if you have your brands’ difference and a reason to buy is expressed in good positioning idea, then it is much easier to write.

For example, what Rick Wagoner, the CEO of General Motors must write about? About changes of health care benefits for retirees, closing plants, or reducing engineering costs, because all our vehicles are the same?

But wait. Is this a reason to buy Chevrolet? Or Buick?

And one more issue becomes clearer:

Because Rick Wagoner manages by numbers, he can write only about numbers, not about the reason to buy his product. OK, he can mumble something about the “value for money”, discount initiatives, or any another loser’s stuff, but not about really good reason to buy.

His passion is numbers, not marketing and strategy. Obviously he can’t be a good CEO, because…

Because he can’t write a blog focusing on the real reasons why one should buy a car from General Motors. A reason to buy one or another brand is the core of marketing strategy. Did General Motors have a good marketing strategy? In one word, no.

If General Motors had good marketing strategy it would have been easy for the CEO Rick Wagoner to write blog posts about the reasons to buy one or another brand. Not about sales initiatives and promotions, but about the brands’ difference from Toyota or other competitors, about why this difference is right for you, about the companys’ belief and passion in maintaining this difference.

It is sad, but this can’t happen. Rick Wagoner can’t blog, because he doesn’t have good marketing strategy.

If he wants to start his personal business blog, he must think about Marketing Strategy of General Motors.

And he must start his personal business blog about GM. Because this will force him to think about the Marketing Strategy of General Motors.

So, why a CEO must blog?

Because blogging helps him to think about the marketing strategy and because blogging helps the company to sell more and to earn more. And this is the goal of every CEO.

Tags: CEO blogging, best spokesperson, marketing strategy, Rick Wagoner, General Motors, business blog

For only this one quote David Packard must receive the Nobel Prize in Economics, or, at least, forever must be in Management Hall of Fame. Forever. Period.

Too often General Managers are too busy with shareholders, unions, various meetings, production issues. Too little time General Managers are spending with marketing. Too much time for production problems, too little time for marketing opportunities.

I am always telling that General Manager has only two responsibilities: Marketing and to hire appropriate people for all other tasks.

Just two. Not any more.

You can’t delegate strategy

General Manager must be the head of marketing strategy, responsible of conducting all marketing tactics into one direction. It’s like the conductor of symphonic orchestra. He doesn’t care of every player or every instrument. He cares of sound of the entire orchestra.

This is exactly what a good strategist – and General Manager must be a good strategist – must do.

All issues are a lot easer, if you have a good strategy.

And strategy is too important to be left to marketing people.

You can’t delegate marketing research

If you are too busy with meetings, unions, production, you are lacking time to go out to the battlefield and to see the situation yourself.

Do you remember Sam Walton, the founder of Wall-Mart, who always counted on his own impressions directly from his stores? He routinely travelled to every store, speaking with all his employees. But not because he loved to speak. No. He loved to have direct, uncensored information about what is happening in his stores.

A good strategist never loses touch from the front lines – from places, where his products are selling. From the front lines, where battle with competition are taking place. From the front lines, where money are flowing.

Marketing research is too important to be left to marketing people. Marketing research is too important to be left to marketing research company.

Because good marketing is based on good marketing research.

You can’t delegate marketing

Today’s market battle is not the battle of products. It’s not the battle of unionisation or other union issues. It’s not the battle of committee meetings.

Today’s market battle is the battle of marketing, the battle of marketing strategies.

In todays business environment the winner is not the better product, not the better committee, not the better union, not the better meetings capabilities.

In today’s business environment the winner is the better perception of a product – the consequence of a better marketing strategy and the execution of this strategy.

If you are a General of an army, do you take care of transport, food, leaving planning and executing of the battle for your lieutenants?

So, why so often in businesses we see General Managers, CEOs delegating marketing function to lieutenants in marketing department?

Marketing is too important to be left to marketing people

After all, this is the quote, every General Manager must hang on a wall over his desk.

It is so true and so important, that for only this one quote David Packard must receive the Nobel Prize in Economics and forever must be in the Management Hall of Fame.

And every General Manager must act according to this rule. Or his company will be in trouble sooner or later.

Tags: David Packard, Nobel Prize, Economics, Management Hall of Fame, Marketing, General Manager, marketing strategy, Marketing research

The main point of his article is that customers are buying complex LG or Samsung refrigerators or washing machines instead of the simpler GE, Braun or Philips because they love features.

Asked ”Why”, Koreans answered ”Because Koreans like things to look complex”. Don Norman takes it without any questioning.

What mistake!

How do we make decisions

An average buyer for an average product (refrigerator and washing machine fall into this category) buys what he perceives ”best” for him.

Main word here is ”perceived”.

Because there is no reality, there is only perception of reality.

In many cases to find ”the best” is hopeless. Because we have only one life.

Mr. Don Norman, please follow your idea and choose a washing machine based on the features list. Please, write the amount of time you spent on this purchase.

I can bet, that when you bought your washing machine, you chose the first acceptable.

From which brand did you start checking for these investigations?

It’s your preferred brand. Period.

Why customers want more features

So, why customers say that they prefer more features?

Every customer must make a decision. When company’s name means nothing in washing machines business, like LG, Samsung, GE, Braun or Philips, they are seeking other criteria. In many cases price comes as the second criteria – that’s why if your brand stands for nothing, it’s always good to have low price.

When the choice is ”cheap”, people seek for excuses (especially for themselves), why they buy this. And number of features is the easiest exuse.

In his article Norman wrote:

”Marketing experts know that purchase decisions are influenced by feature lists, even if the buyers realize they will probably never use most of the features. Even if the features confuse more than they help.”

I want to see the feature list of Harley-Davidson. And I want to see how Harley-Davidson’s owner compares Harley’s vs Kawasaki’s ”feature list”.

And I want to see Mac user, who compares Mac feature list with PC feature list.

And Rolex feature list, compared with cheap no-name eletronic watch from China feature list.

Armani suit feature list…

Porsche feature list…

Montblanc fountain pen feature list…

Can you remember when was the last time you compared features? I bet, it happened only if you had no preffered brand for this category.

Brand, not feature list is the main reason to buy.

Brand, which stands for something in prospect’s mind.

Not LG, Samsung or Siemens. Minority compares Maytag vs Samsung features. Because Maytag has ”realibility” position in the customers mind. And Samsung… Well, I don’t know, what exactly Samsung is. Lots of cheap copycat’s from Korea. So, if I want something cheap from Korea, I will compare Samsung’s feature list with LG feature list.

But if I want realibility, I will compare one Maytag model feature list with another Maytag model feature list.

That’s the power of brand. Feature list comes only after brand.

Tags: Don Norman, buying, brand, feature list, Linas Simonis, simplicity, complexity, marketing, selling

Why every General Manager should read this one?

Simple answer: to understand what is happening in PR field in this web 2.0 age. To understand what to demand from PR agency or PR staff. How to use smart PR techniques in case you are the only employee of your firm.

Today if ‘direct marketing’ didn’t have another meaning, the book could easily have been named the first book about direct marketing. But not about selling direct to consumers, but delivering your message direct to consumers. This revolutionary new idea is the core theme of the book.

If you will decide not to read this book, it is worth to follow how David uses his own rules in promotion of his book.

How to use blogosphere, how to encourage bloggers write about his book, how to promote book sales – you can learn a lot just by tracking David’s action. Unlike many consultants, David acts according to the rules about which he writes in his book.

Even the Thank You Note he did in a very web 2.0 way: he included names not only in Acknowledgments section of the book, but also posted on his blog a post with all names and links.

I am sure, that after a while such action will become a standart in publishing industry. So, look at David’s web 2.0 acknowledgments:

So, in no particular order, a big thank you to:

Robert Scoble Scobleizer
Adele Revella Buyer Persona Blog
Joe Wikert Publishing 2020 blog
Steve Johnson
David McInnis
Mark Levy
David Hamm
Mike Levin
Colin Delaney epolitics
Steve Goldstein Alacrablog
Todd Van Hoosear
George L Smyth Eclectic Mix
Mark Effinger
Michelle Manafy EContent magazine
Kevin Rose Diggnation
Grub Street Writers
Dave Armon
Britton Manasco
Jordan Behan
Nettie Hartsock
John Havens
John Blossom ContentBlogger
Larry Schwartz Newstex
Steve Smith
Melanie Surplice
Nate Wilcox
Ian Wilker
Cody Baker
Dianna Huff
Brian Carroll
Ken Doctor
Jonathan Kranz
Barry Graubart
Steve O’Keefe
Ted Demopoulos
Debbie Weil
Paul Gillin
Matt Lohman
Seth Godin
Rob O’ Regan
Steve Rubel Micro Persuasion
Paul Gillin
Joan Stewart The Publicity Hound
Dave Schmidt Word Currency
Glenn Nicholas Small Business Inspiration
Mac McIntosh B2B Sales Lead Expert
Jill Konrath Selling to Big Companies
Guy Kawasaki How to Change the World
Court Bovée and John Thill Business Communication Headline News
Grant D. Griffiths Kansas Family Law Blog
Robin Crumby The Melcrum Blog
Jim Peake My Success Gateway
Eli Singer Refreshing the Daily Grind
Duane Brown Imagination+Innovation
Scott Monty The Social Media Marketing Blog
Ian Lamont
Blog Campaigning
Rich at Copywrite Ink
John Lustina SEO Speedwagon
Adam Tinworth OneMan+HisBlog
Scott Clark Finding the Sweet Spot
Amanda Chapel Strumpette
Jennifer Veitenheimer reinventjen
Morty Schiller Wordrider
Matthias Hoffmann the power of news
Erin Caldwell’s PRblog
Ferrell Kramer Talking Communications
Anita Campbell Selling to Small Businesses
Rugjeff
Karl Ribas’ Search Engine Marketing Blog
Tony D. Baker Advanced Marketing Techniques
Tom Pick The WebMarketCentral Blog
Tina Lang-Stuart
Bryan Eisenberg Jeffrey Eisenberg Robert Gorell and the rest of the team at Grok Dot Com
Michele Miller WonderBranding
Publicity Ship Blog
The Media Slut
Brad Shorr Word Sell
Sasha Where Business Meets the Web
Ellee Seymour ProActivePR
Chris Kenton The Marketers’ Consortium
Paul Young Product Beautiful
By Ron Miller
Michael Morton
James D. Brausch
Janet Meiners Newspapergrl
Andrew B. Smith The New View From Object Towers
Cristian Mezei SeoPedia
Jim Nail Cymfony’s influence 2.0
Denise Wakeman and Patsi Krakoff The Blog Squad
Forward Blog
Ben Argov
Zane Safrit Duct Tape Marketing—Business Life
Will McInnes Online Marketing Guide
Robbin Steif LunaMetrics
Mike Boss
Marc Gunn Music Promo Blog
Nancy E. Schwartz Getting Attention
Kami Watson Huyse Communications Overtones
Todd Defren PR Squared
Michael Stelzner Writing White Papers
Dee Rambeau Adventures in Business Communications
Glenn Fannick Read Between the Mines
Owen Lystrup Into PR
Morgan McLintic
Mark Batterson Evotional
Jay Coffelt
John Richardson
Robin Good MasterNewMedia
Shel Israel Naked Conversations
Robert J. Ricci Son-of-a-Pitch
Mike Sigers Simplenomics
Dan Greenfield Bernaisesource
Brian Clark copyblogger
Lee Odden TopRank Online Marketing Blog
David Weinberger
Carson McComas
The FutureLab blog
John Bradley Jackson Be First Best or Different
Wired PR Works by Barbara Rozgonyi
Mark Goren Transmission
John Wall Ronin Marketer
MarketingProfs Daily Fix Blog
John Koetsier bizhack
Steve Kayser Squareballs Entertainment
James Robertson’s Smalltalk Blog
Linas Simonis
Dale Wolf The Perfect Customer Experience
Eric Mattson Marketing Monger
Scott Sehlhorst Tyner Blain
Seeds of Growth blog
Hugo E. Martin
David Phillips leverwealth
Terry Affiliate Marketing Blog
Gavin Heaton Servant of Chaos
Mark White Better Business Blogging
Eric Eggertson Common Sense PR
Michelle Golden Golden Practices
Liz Strauss
Tony Valle Small Business Radio
Chris Heuer’s Idea Engine
David Evans The Progress Bar
Todd Andrlik The Power to Connect
The New PR Wiki
NewPR
Pelle Braendgaard Stake Ventures
Lisa Banks Search Engine Optimization Eblog
Chris Brown Branding & Marketing
Graeme Thickins Tech-Surf-Blog
Ardath Albee Marketing Interactions
Lauren Vargas Communicators Anonymous
Lori Smart Lemming
Dane Morgan
Jason Leister Computer Super Guy
Bill Trippe
Jason Eiseman Jason the Content Librarian
Reuben Steiger Millions of Us
Taran Rampersad Know Prose
John Richardson Success Begins Today
Valentin Pertsiya Brand Aid
Bill Belew Rising Sun of Nihon
Joe Beaulaurier An Ongoing Press Release
David Koopmans Business of Marketing and Branding
Chris Anderson The Long Tail
Roger C. Parker Design to Sell

Tom Peters once wrote: ‘If I read a book that cost me $20 and I get one good idea, I have gotten one of the greatest bargains of all time’. I am sure, that in The New Rules of Marketing and PR you will find more than one good idea. Thank you, David!

Full disclosure. I am mentioned in David’s book in a chapter about blogging outside North America. In what context? Well, you can always check it out after reading all book. It’s (reading book) worth it.

Tags: The New Rules of Marketing and PR, The new rules of PR, PR, web 2.0, Thank You Note, Linas Simonis, David Meerman Scott, public relations, marketing

Never before there were so many possibilities to reach a buyer.

Never before around the same buyer there were so tough competition and so big marketing noise.

Tomorrow there will be greater noise and greater competition. And more demanding buyer with less available time for choice making.

In this situation there is only one way to influence buyer – “burn” our brand’s difference in his mind.

Is it possible in today’s overloaded society?

Yes, if you understand how mind works.

This “burning” of your brand difference in customer’s mind is called Positioning (Thank you, Al Ries and Jack Trout).

Successful companies build entire strategy around one simple positioning idea.

What about you?

If you use positioning strategy even in this web 2.0 noise, you will achieve fantastic results.

Just read and participate in this web 2.0 project. All this page is built in order to help you succeed in today’s 2.0 age.

Tags: marketing, Positioning, Al Ries, Jack Trout, positioning strategy, web 2.0, manifesto