Artisan Journalism & Marketing Project Link Blog: Authenticity is All, Says PR Firm Burson-Marsteller

This linkblog is a warehouse for posts related to a yet to be revealed grassroots media and marketing project - more specifically an "artisan journalism" & customer artisans project. It's actually two interrelated projects. OK, ok, the first is a nonprofit anniversary media tour this December to tsunami-struck Indian Ocean region this coming December with bloggers, amateur writers (root word: 'for love of') with a personal connection (survivors, aid workers), journalists, photographers. The question: What has one year wrought in individual and collective lives? But that's not all. What can marketing learn and apply from grassroots, participatory media? Stay tuned...

Authenticity is All

Blog writers often have very personal motivations and passions – these are the voices that rise above the noise
Real people write readable, credible blogs, corporations don’t
- If I’m only saying, ‘Use Microsoft products, rah rah rah,’ I lose all ability to have a conversation,” said Robert Scoble, prominent blogger and Microsoft software evangelist. Fortune, January 10, 2005
Openness is essential
- Be as candid as possible; be clear about what you can’t discuss and why
- Respectfully acknowledge dissenting opinions
- Marketing “hype” will be evaluated with skepticism and cynicism, or worse ridiculed and treated with sarcasm.