1. Birthday Wishes to Ann

Pic Source: David Armano

Before I start off this week, “Belated Birthday Wishes” to my good friend and fellow blogger Ann, who runs the coolest band of marketing maniacs over at the Daily Fix. Ann has done a terrific job of running a great marketing website by facilitating great marketing conversations. Keep up the great work, Ann!

More greetings from the marketing community here & here.

2. More community news — from China:

For those of you who haven’t followed Jeremiah’s trip back to China for a family reunion — here’s your chance to check out some really cool pics from China as well as a fascinating journey back into time.

Check out images from his trip over here

Here’s a fascinating write-up from Jeremiah that neatly ties his thoughts together and the China Trip Blog he created.

3. The Church is Back!

It’s been a while since I read some really cool posts from Ben and Jackie over at the “Church of the Customer”. Their most recent post outlines WOMMA’s 20 new rules to identify & prevent astroturfing scandals such as the recent Edelman fiasco!

Here’s a recap of the Edelman case:

In case you missed the story, a blog ostensibly authored by a couple traveling across America in their RV and spending nights parked in WalMart parking lots turned out to be a fake blog, the brainchild of WalMart’s PR counselors at Edelman – Source: Shel Holtz

Here’s a sampling of the questions from WOMMA’s blog:

Q 7. Do we forbid the blurring of identification in ways that might confuse or mislead consumers as to the true identity of the individuals with whom they are communicating?
Q 4. Is all of the information provided to advocates, consumers, and the media factual and honest, and are all of our claims accurate?

Ben or Jackie, I’d love to hear your take on the Borat phenomenon. My “Borat” post is coming up tomorrow.

4. Are we there YET? Corporate Blogging?

A definite must-read for anyone interested in corporate blogs and its attempts to transform corporate marketing; check out one of the most recent posts from the Diva Marketing Blog which chronicles the various aspects of both business blogging and a recent study called the Blogging Success Study:

The Blogging Success Study released Nov 2, 2006 by Dr. Walter Carl, the students in his Advanced Organizational Communications class (Spring 2006) at Northeastern University and John Cass and his colleagues at Backbone Media, Inc.

As Toby rightly points out, the Blogging Success Study (I should spend more time on it), epitomizes the very nature of all things blogs and wikis, by offering the opportunity to offer feedback on all the chapters! Nice.

Feel free to check out the entire post here & check out the study here.

5. Custom Search for Small Business:

Mike recently contemplated the possibilities for local and niche businesses through Google Co-Op, which allows us to “harness the power of Google search technology to create a free Custom Search Engine that reflects specific interests”.

Well, the wait is over. John from Duct Tape Marketing has created the nifty Google Custom Search for Small Businesses. Read all about it here and you can check out the Small Business Google Search tool here.
Have a great week ahead!
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Coming Up:
Tomorrow’s post: Breaking News — Jeremiah moves to Podtech!

Tomorrow’s Wednesday post: Why “Borat” succeeded while “Snakes on a Plane” did not?

Day-after-tomorrow’s Thursday post: What is MPlanet, Marketing Unconference, and what’s it gotta do with me?

My Blogging Schedule:
I know I’ve been rather erratic in my blog postings over the past month or so — lots happening at my end. Things have finally smoothened out and it’s all back to normal. So, I decided I’ll start writing 5 times a week

Monday through Thursday and again on Sunday.