The Affari Blog

We run across so many people that are trying to be all things to all people.  I love this article written by Maria Ross, because it gives great advice on determining your target audience.  There’s also a link to watch an interview with marketing guru Seth Godin…and yes, it is remarkable!

By Maria Ross 

Oct 18, 2010 -

Small business owners are ambitious. You want to capture as many sales as you can — and want to build a brand that will get you there. You drool with envy at big businesses like Apple or Nike who can rally their “tribes” with ease when they introduce new offerings. 

Wouldn’t it be great, sigh, if you I could just launch and the masses come running, Twitter lights up like a house on fire, and the launch video I created with my Flip camera and my dog goes viral?

This is what I love about creating brand strategies for small businesses. They are hungry and they are “biased towards action,” as an old manager of mine used to say. That’s exciting.

What becomes less exciting is being the headmistress forcing them to walk before they can run. That kind of brand loyalty can’t be “created” overnight. It’s not about slick ads or cool logos. It’s not about how many hits you have on YouTube or the catchiness of your tagline. Brand runs deeper. It’s the core and the essence of who you are, what value you provide and to whom you provide it. Good branding starts with crafting a strong brand strategy first that addresses three dimensions:

• Visually: What do you look like?
• Verbally: What do you sound like?
• Experientially: What does doing business with you actually feel like?
  

Building your loyal tribe means communicating a clear and consistent message across every single customer touchpoint. It means walking your talk and proving yourself over time.

Seth Godin has talked in the past about building tribes. In a 2009 video, he explains that in order to create this zealous following, you need to be specific versus general. That translates to, “You can’t be all things to all people.” I advise small business clients to create a persona of their ideal customer — not average, but ideal — so they have an actual living, breathing person in mind to which to direct all their brand communications. If they target a few types of customers, then it is okay to create two or three personas, but a small business with a small marketing budget can’t afford to market effectively to 20 different audience types. They are better off directing their precious time and resources to really “going deep” and connecting effectively with two or three.

Some small business owners, scared that this means turning down money, refuse to target an “ideal” customer. “But what if someone outside of that ideal wants to buy from me? And someone from this random demographic bought from me once, so we should do a whole marketing campaign for them.”

Hold on. Creating a brand that targets an ideal customer does not mean you create a checklist and turn non-ideal customers away like a nightclub bouncer. If someone wants to buy from you who you didn’t intend to attract, then you can still sell to them. It’s not about who you will sell to; it’s about where you will proactively focus your marketing time and effort.

It’s like Nordstrom and Walmart. At the very basic level, both companies are retail shops that “sell things to consumers.” But Nordstrom goes after a higher-end customer with a quality and customer service brand promise. Walmart goes after a customer for whom low-prices and convenience matter most. Does this mean Walmart is “rude” to their customers? No. It just means they know who they are and who they are targeting, and they don’t try to attract everyone in the retail market spectrum. It doesn’t mean someone who shops at Nordstrom won’t pop into Walmart every now and then for something when the need arises. It just means Walmart is not necessarily spending time and money making a brand promise that speaks to people who care more about high-end customer service and less about price.

Think about your authentic brand: Are you set up to deliver what you promise? And for whom does that promise matter the most? Then use your imagination and market knowledge to build an ideal customer persona so you know who you are talking to:

• Give them a name, an age, an occupation. What are their demographics? What is their household income, where do they live?
   
• Walk through their day. Where do they work? Do they commute to work? If so, by what means?
   
• What is their family life like? Do they have one?
   
• What do they do in their spare time or for fun? Do they like team sports, or solitary activities? Are they foodies or do they mostly just grab fast food?
   
• What magazines do they read? Where do they get their news and information? Or do they just care about entertainment? If so, what do they watch on TV or what films do they like? Are they active Internet users or strictly offline?
   
• What groups or associations do they belong to? Could these be places you could join to network with your ideal customers or groups you can partner with to do events or presentations and reach these folks?
  

Once you create this one- or two-page profile, you can start to see what their life is like — and what problem your products or services might be able to solve. You can then speak about benefits in words they care about. You can also find creative ways to market to them that you may never have thought about. More importantly, this can help you avoid bad investments on marketing activities that seem amazing on the surface but that will never attract this target customer.

Again, this is not a checklist. If others get caught in this net and are attracted to your brand, then great. Something about your message must resonate with their lifestyle or needs and, therefore, they can be great tribe members. What you want, though, is a brand that connects with a target person, not just a generic, average composite of someone who doesn’t exist in real life.

Once you start focusing on an ideal customer, you will be speaking their language and they will care more about what have to say and sell. Quality is what makes a tribe successful for your business and brand — not just quantity.

Maria Ross is the founder and chief strategist of Red Slice, a branding and marketing consultancy based in Seattle. She has advised start-ups, solopreneurs, non-profits and even large enterprises such as Microsoft, Discovery Networks and Monster.com on how to craft their brand story to engage, inform and delight customers. Maria is the author of Branding Basics for Small Business: How to Create an Irresistible Brand on Any Budget (2010, Norlights Press). 

Blossom, Buttercup and Bubbles Rock Twitter! (Along With Lost Powerpuff Girl Lady Gaga)by Simon Dumenco
Published: September 17, 2010

A few notes about this week’s Top 10 Most Tweeted Brands chart, a collaboration between Advertising Age and What the Trend:

• Sports brands dominate our list this week, with three of the seven spots going to, basically, balls in flight. The NFL and European soccer (football) loomed large, while the U.S. Open became a global Twitter obsession as well with a lot of help from Spanish tennis superstar Rafael Nadal.
• The MTV Video Music Awards top our list this week. The VMAs got a huge boost from the raw-meat-dress-wearing Lady Gaga as well as a couple of other pop-cultural icons who sort of became a meme of their own, namely …
  An Indonesian TV station helped set off a surge of Powerpuff Girl memories.

 



• Kanye West and Taylor Swift. Both performed at the VMAs, which caused endless speculation about potential backstage weirdness between them, given that Kanye notoriously interrupted Taylor’s 2009 VMA acceptance speech. Kanye renewed the controversy by apologizing (”I’m sorry, Taylor”) on Twitter recently, and now I just wish they’d hook up already and make adorable, arrogant babies together.
• You’ve gotta love the Twittersphere for its left-field obsessions. Supercute superheroes the Powerpuff Girls — Blossom, Butttercup and Bubbles — improbably make our Top 10 this week thanks to people tweeting their favorite memories of the iconic cartoon series in the wake of its airing on Indonesian TV. By the way, effective immediately, I’m launching a new meme — #PowerpuffGaga — in an attempt to spread the word that Lady Gaga was a Powerpuff Girl in her youth, but was cut from the team. It’s true; I swear!

How is this chart made? See Notes, below.

For more information about What the Trend, visit the WTT FAQ. And check out WTT’s Week in Review, compiled by its in-house editors and covering an expanded general list of Top 20 trends (including hashtag trends) here.

Simon Dumenco is the “Media Guy” media columnist for Advertising Age. You can follow him on Twitter @simondumenco.

I recently had a colleague ask me about social networking and some of the more popular sites that are out there right now. Her company recently charged her with managing its social networking front using mainly Facebook and Twitter. I remember receiving a message from her reading, “Okay, so I’m on my Twitter page, but I don’t see where I can update my status.” After fumbling for about 10 minutes, she was finally able to figure it out. A day or two later she asked me for my take on social networking and if I think it’s a good idea for companies. I believe it can be very useful for companies, especially from a PR stand point - but you need to make sure it’s done correctly. Since explaining what “done correctly” means is difficult without going into great detail, I wanted to exemplify a brand that is doing a great job with social networking (and pretty much every other form of marketing they partake in); Starbucks Coffee Company.

It seems like Starbucks does everything right, so it’s no big surprise that they have very strong social networking ties. Creating a Facebook, Twitter or Myspace can be a challenging thing for companies. A major problem companies have with social media is actually producing enough relevant content on a regular basis. Starbucks is constantly promoting events, special offers and other cool Starbucks-y stuff, making Facebook a very strong branch of their social network. Because Facebook allows for much more content than Twitter, Facebook allows Starbucks to promote events, post pictures, share news and much more. They even conduct poles and post video content on their site! Recently, they have posted a photo album of Howard Schultz’s trip to Rwanda - which is a really great PR piece that doesn’t feel like a PR piece. You can spend a lot of time taking short surveys, browsing media and reading discussions on their Facebook site. Because they update often, Facebook users will be notified of new posts and messages Starbucks sends out. And because Starbucks provides a lot of relevant content, users will be more willing to reply and partake in the Starbucks Facebook experience.

Twitter is a much different animal. Twitter gives you 140 characters to send messages to your followers - and that’s about it. While it’s not as extensive as Facebook, that doesn’t mean it isn’t useful to a social media mix. Twitter has blown up in 2009. Celebrities and major corporations have fueled a major draw to the site - and its simplistic style make it easy for all age groups to use. With Twitter, more so than with Facebook, consistency is more important than content. Your followers follow you for your input on certain issues, but on Twitter, timely posts can be more important than the actual content of the posts. While constantly updating your status will keep you in news feeds, you can’t just post anything. Posting relative content is always necessary - a lot of posts will actually ask questions that get responses from other Twitter users (yes, I still refuse to use the Twitizen lingo…) which is a great way to portray that you want to interact with your followers. An example is Starbucks’ current Twitter post, “What did you get with your drink this morning?” Starbucks’ Twitter also takes the time to directly reply to many of the posts it receives.

Starbucks’ most recent campaign has been to promote the free pastry giveaway (that actually happened this morning). They plastered Twitter and Facebook with promotions, status updates and ads promoting the event. Thousands of people replied to status updates and notes posted for the event. From reading the site today, it sounds like plenty showed up (many stores reporting that they were out of supplies within hours). While this illustrates how powerful social networks and ecampaigns can be, there was another interesting occurrence that leaked through the Starbucks Facebook page this morning….

The Starbucks Facebook page has a lot of cool interactive content, including an extensive collection of Discussion Boards. While this sounds like a great idea, it’s turning out to be somewhat self-destructive. There are three anti Free Pastry Giveaway boards up right now where disgruntled customers are sounding off with their unsuccessful visits to Starbucks locations this morning. Many posters complain of poor customer service, broken promises and other negative comments concerning how the promotion payed out. Starbucks replied to some of these threads - however, they did not apologize - claiming they gave specific instructions for customers to follow. I understand that with every mass promotion (especially when you are giving away free food) there are going to be some mishaps and blunders, but this blow up is very preventable. While I love a lot of what Starbucks is doing, I believe the Discussion Board is a very dangerous piece of their social media mix. Sure, great posts can help further your brand’s rep, but (multiple) negative posts can do much more damage. I like the Discussion Board - I just don’t think the topics should be user generated. Starbucks should control the Discussion Topics and monitor from there. This will allow them to have more “YOUR Ideas for a Starbucks Drink” and “Do you go to a shop in a mall, Target, Barnes & Noble, or a Individual Starbucks Coffee House?” boards rather than “Starbucks Supports the Troops(I think not)”, “Free Pastry FAIL” and “Rude Customers” (a board where Starbucks employees complain about rude customers that come into stores - UNBELIEVABLE).

This really goes to show how difficult it is to cultivate a pure social media network. A company as brilliant marketing-wise as Starbucks can create a very relevant, complex and successful social media mix, but it is still susceptible to mishaps and backfires. The truth is, we’re all still really figuring out social media, some of us are just further along than others. This case-study actually turned out to be quite interesting. Instead of praising and building-up Starbucks the entire thread (as I had planned after witnessing their strong social media skills), I was able to witness firsthand a minor flaw in their social media mix as it evolved right in front of me (on my computer screen). I’m sure they’ll take the steps necessary to resolve any mix ups. Guess I’ll have to keep checking back to see if they take my advice regarding ditching the user created Discussion Boards…maybe I’ll create a Discussion Board letting them know they should read this blog…

Facebook
Twitter

Blogs, Twitter, Google Ad Words and Facebooks. These are all buzzwords in every social media conversation. Everybody is out there in cyberspace looking for ways to catch up with the digital age and the rapid impact it has made within the marketing world. The metamorphosis from email and AOL chat rooms to digital communities and electronic forums happened seemingly overnight. As new e-communications and e-publications become more and more popular in people’s lives, so too do they start to trickle into the mainstream media and business worlds.

Case 1: The Twitter Bug
Turn on CNN. It seems like every time I catch a story in the middle of the day a reporter is talking about what people are Twittering about. That’s nuts! …or is it? Is doing some active research on what people around the country are talking/sounding off about not newsworthy? If the content relates to mainstream topics (such as the economy) then maybe CNN and other similar news sources are on to something. Twitter is providing a one-stop service that allows researchers to read what people are saying across the country … and if that isn’t enough of a selling point for you, then consider the fact that Twitter is free and runs live.

Case 2: Chat it Up
Turn on ESPN. Most mornings I try to catch some sort of sports news on TV - unless one of my teams lost badly the night before. 1st & 10 is one of my favorite shows in the mornings. It provides insights from various sportswriters, news, updates and various other sporting content. Every morning there is one person on set whose sole job is to monitor what chatters are talking about in the ESPN chat room and report back to the crew. The crew then derives show content from these viewers’ chats. What ESPN has created is a simple forum to gather viewer generated content. Incorporating interactive online-polls is also a creative way ESPN has engaged the viewer and captivated them on both TV and web fronts. It’s innovative, easy and efficient. Now the production crew can sit back and watch the free storylines roll in.

Case 3: Blog for a Reporter
Turn on your computer speakers. Our office took part in a mass e-conference call today that focused on how reporters from mainstream media outlets (such as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and AP) deal with story pitches. The reporters discussed methods, techniques and trends that they see on a daily basis. While the main message seemed to be that they look for stories with high-quality content, there were some trends that I noticed from all of the outlets. The reporters told horror stories of sorting through hundreds of email pitches and press releases. They complained of certain media tactics such as mass pitching (pitching to everybody) and over pitching (pitching, and pitching, and pitching some more). Each reporter mentioned the importance of the internet - especially the importance of blogs when it comes to researching popular topics and storylines. When asked, “Do you prefer receiving pitches via blogs or normal PR tactics?” a reporter answered, “Blogs are normal. Blogs are the normal PR tactics now.” That response spoke so much to the fact that blogs are changing the way news is shared and can really bolster an effective PR campaign if done correctly and strategically. It screamed: Don’t just get people talking, get people blogging!

The blog-o-sphere is so new and vast that it has become difficult for traditional companies to adapt. Look for major players to make the transition and for some of the new, up-and-coming companies to rise greatly due to strong blogging tactics.

Josh Hallet,  of <strong><a href=”http://www.hyku.com” target=”_blank”>Hyku</a></strong> and <strong><a href=”http://www.empircalpolk.com”target=”_blank”>Empircal Polk</a></strong>, has asked me to be a session leader for the 2007 <strong><a href=”http://www.blogorlando.com”target=”_blank”>BlogOrlando</a></strong>.

Now, unlike conferences you may have attended, BlogOrlando is specifically an <strong><em>un-conference</em></strong>.  The concept grew out of the realization that most people at trade shows, academic conferences, and industry gatherings learned a heck of a lot more from the Q&A sessions or just talking amongst themselves during the social time.  So why not take those good parts and make the entire conference like that??

<center><img src=”http://www.blogorlando.com/images/bo-nodate.gif” alt=”blogOrlando” border=0/></center>

So, what is BlogOrlando, you ask?  Well…

<blockquote>Hyku, in partnership with Rollins College will host the second edition of this FREE event that is open to bloggers and non-bloggers alike from Florida and anywhere else. We hope to bring together a good cross-section of folks to discuss blogging, podcasting, public relations, social media, citizen’s journalism and other related topics. In addition to the Friday event we planned some outings at the local theme parks over the weekend. The event was as much a social/family gathering as it is a ‘work’ gathering.</blockquote>

I attended the <strong><a href=”http://www.stateofsunshine.com/2006/09/21/heading-to-blogorlando-tomorrow/” target=”_blank”>first BlogOrlando last fall</a></strong>, and learned a great deal.  In fact, it helped spur me to move from Blogger to my own domain and use WordPress.

If you have even the smallest interest in social media - especially blogging - then you should make the trek to Olrando for the day.  There are some great people leading various sessions, including bloggers who I read every day.  From politics to media to blogging for business to second life, BlogOrlando has something for just about everyone.

<center><img src=”http://www.blogorlando.com/images/BlogOrlando_BeThere.gif” alt=”blogOrlando” border=0/></center>

I’ll be there.  Will you?

We at Affari Edge are interested in starting a Tampa Bay chapter of the Social Media Club:

Social Media Club is being organized for the purpose of sharing best practices, establishing ethics and standards, and promoting media literacy around the emerging area of Social Media. This is the beginning of a global conversation about building an organization and a community where the many diverse groups of people who care about social media can come together to discover, connect, share, and learn.

 Social Media Club will bring together journalists, publishers, communications professionals, artists, amateur media creators, citizen journalists, teachers, students, tool makers, and other interested collaboraters. Essentially the people who create and consume media who have an interest in seeing the ‘media industry’ evolve for everyone’s benefit. We are more than just USERS, we are the reason the tools exist - we are the people who communicate our thoughts and ideas near and far. Join us and let’s shape the future together!

Anyone intersted in the Social Media Club should contact me (Jim Johnson) via email: jjohnson {at} affariedge {dot} com.

We’ll be contacting others in the community to set up the first interest meeting in the next few weeks.  Stay tuned.

Constantin Basturea, Director of New Media Strategies at Converseon and author of PR Meets the WWW, one of the blogs in my feed, has a significant compilation of public relations and communicaitons blogs, containing674 feeds.  I don’t read all 674 of them, but I read quite a few on a daily basis.  I have found them helpful as I further develop my public relations skills, and informative about what is going on in the PR industry.

However, public relations is not the only industry with a significant number of blogs.

No matter what industry you are in, there are going to be bloggers writing about it.  Some of these blogs could even be your competitors! Use sites like Technorati to search for blogs on your industry and make a habit of reading them.  Even if you aren’t blogging yourself, or your company has not started doing it, you will find your industry blogs as important as reading trade publications or business periodicals.

BusinessWeek Online posted an article in advance of the April 9th magazine with the title “Don’t Quit Your Day Job, Podcasters”.

So, once again, something we don’t understand we mock? The traditional media never takes the time to understand why the “little people” embrace a new voice in the wilderness.

The fact is, most podcasters do produce shows while maintaining a day job. Yours truly not only produces podcasts professionally, but I promote other companies using various web technologies, I service computers and networks, and currently writing a book and kit about podcasting for small businesses!

Quoting from their own article;

While there has been an explosion of shows over the past couple of years, offering everything from advice on how to manage your money to Italian lessons, podcasting’s business prospects are just developing. The share of Americans who listen to audio downloads from the Web has grown only slightly in the past year, to 13% from 11%, according to a survey released last month by Edison Media Research. Those listeners increasingly are crowding around the most popular podcasts. But a lack of standards for placing podcast ads or measuring audiences has hobbled ad spending, which only hit $80 million last year.”

So, in the same article where they slam the content, and the producers, they admit that a measly 2% growth resulted in $80 million in revenue, for a few thousand “indie” shows? Seems like someone should revisit 5th grade math! This is an amazing phenomenon! 2% growth shows revenue increase of over $30 million in one year?

A big factor in how revenue is tracked in podcasting is how many companies produce podcasts for advertising (like ESP and Affari Edge!) vs. how many shows are “indie” content, hobbiests, or, the larger slice, companies producing podcast content for self-promotion or training? Would it surprise you to learn that less than 5% of podcasts are produced with revenue from ads as their main reason for existence?

I can tell you that this is a labor of love for the vast majority of producers, myself included. However, the trend shows VAST growth in households who know what a podcast is, and have been exposed to one in the last year.

Even the author of the study from the Edison Media Research center, Tom Webster, author of “New Podcasting Statistics - Is The Glass Half-Full, or Half-Empty?” had this to say on their site:

Certainly, given the impressive growth in awareness of the term “podcast,” one might have expected more than a two percentage point increase in the behavior. On the other hand, this is 13% of America we are talking about–and while I am not…yet…at liberty to release the percentage of Americans this year who subscribe to Satellite Radio, it is pretty close. So, on the one hand, growth is relatively small, but on the other, podcasting has achieved a similar penetration to Satellite Radio, without the benefit of a honkin’ big marketing campaign, Howard Stern, or Oprah.”

I would think that BusinessWeek should look a little more closely at the numbers before snubbing 50,000 potential subscribers, audience members in the millions, and colleagues in the industry.

The fact is, those of us who produce podcasts for profit, also produce many more for fun, for free, or for a free voice in the new media.

The numbers are growing rapidly, as people learn they don’t need an mp3 player, or Ipod to hear a podcast, and will likely see a change in how they “timeshift” their entertainment, news, music, and yes, even their magazines. RSS changed the world, and shows little sign of slowing down.

The irony is, when I go to the article to read in full on BusinessWeek, they have a full-screen, intrusive pop-up style ad running on the page, blocking my view (which rotates between sponsors) and is more than a little annoying. Geesh, when will they learn?

For Immediate Release

Affari Edge Announces
Grant Program for Non-Profits:
$5,000 to Enter Social Media

TAMPA, Florida – Affari Edge, a local authority on using social media, announced today a grant for Tampa Bay area non-profit organizations, offering up to $5,000 in social media consulting and training services. “Giving back to the community is a core principle at Affari Edge,” said Dave Sizemore, one of two partners at Affari. “Because of our expertise with social media, we felt we could help a local organization explore this new technology.”

Social media is a name attributed to a collection of technologies including but not limited to blogs, podcasts, virtual communities, wikis, and virtual worlds that enable people to communicate with each other online in ways that mirror offline interpersonal interaction. Prominent examples of social media also include sites such as MySpace, Flickr, Twitter, Wikipedia, Digg, and many more.

“It’s a natural extension of any organization’s marketing and public relations efforts,” said Wendy Robbins, the second partner with Affari Edge. “By using these new technologies, we can help any organization build a close-knit community.”

Applications will be accepted until May 15, 2007 and will be judged based on a number of criteria.  More information is available on the Affari Blog on the Affari Edge website.

Affari Edge is a full-service advertising agency offering a comprehensive range of advertising and public relations services. Affari Edge is made up of creative gurus, with extensive business experience, from small business ownership to leading different aspects of some of the largest empires in corporate America. The mix of business background with creative expertise leads to superior results. Affari means business.

# # #

At the end of a recent blog post by Brett McMurphy, who covers the University of South Florida sports for the Tampa Tribune, was the following paragraph:

I’ve been told by the higher ups we’re doing away with the comments portion of the blog. Instead, you can go to the Forum: Talk Bulls link at the top of this page. We’ve created the Forum as a place for Bulls fans to gather and discuss various topics.

A quick peek a the TBO.com Bulls forum shows very little activity, except for recently. One poster asked why the switch to the forum. Brett posted the official reason:

“While we’ve generated a very good amount of traffic to the sports blogs, and have seen a spike in the number of comments being posted, we’ve begun to migrate the discussion away from the blogs and into our TBO Discussion Forums.

We encourage the interactivity, but this is a site-wide attempt (not just Sports) to make our Forums the gathering place for a lot of the back-and-forth discussion we’re seeing in the blogs. The hope is that the users themselves will initiate a lot of the discussion, rather than just reacting to your blog posts.”

Ah. Well, there is one problem. You see, USF fans have three major discussion forums already:

• The Bulls Pen - An independent website owned by USF alumn Brad Meyer.
• USFNation - Part of the Scout.com network.
• USFBullsEye.com - Part of the Rivals.com network.

These are in addition to the forums on media sites like ESPN, CBS, and CSTV

On many of these sites, fans talk about what Brett (and other Tampa Tribune reporters/columnists) write about USF. So why does TBO.com feel the need to create yet another message board?

Yes, I know - blogs and forums are both social media. By using forums, TBO.com is trying to fit into the new communications model. For this, they are to be commended. They are doing something that their main competitor, the St. Petersburg Times, is not doing.

However, I don’t believe substituting forums for blog comments is the right way to go.

Forums are great when there are a number of die-hard posters willing to engage in dialogue about a topic. That’s why the USF forums listed above do so well. They each have a siginificant number of Bulls fans postingon a large range of topics every day. The media-based forums don’t draw the same number or intensity of fans.

That being said, why not marry blog comments with forums? If a TBO.com blog generates a large response via comments, the blogger (be it McMurphy or any of the other Trib bloggers) should shift the discussion to the forum by starting and maintaining a thread there. Then s/he could simply post a blog entry that asks readers to join the discussion on the forum. TBO.com bloggers could even “break” stories on their forum, and drive traffic with a blog post indicating “breaking news on the … forum.” There are a number of ways that forums can be used that will work far better than saying “Want to comment? Go to our fourm and…”

TBO.com needs to understand that it’s not about forcing their readers into avenues that “Mother Trib” (as Steve Otto calls it) wants. It’s about giving the readers as many options to communicate as possible. It’s far easier to comment at the bottom of the post than to find a link to the forum, register for the forum (or log in), find the thread on which they want to share their thoughts (or start a new post), and then comment. One step is replaced by four.

As an avid reader of several TBO.com blogs, I hope they reconsider this decision.