How do you enable legions of bloggers if you are a company like Microsoft? What policies and procedures do you put in place? What approval process can handle thousands of blogger posting each day? Who owns the corporate blog, Corporate Communications or Interactive?

Andy Sernovitz, with input from early participants like Sean O’Driscoll from Microsoft started the Blog Council to help corporate bloggers address these and other issues on a weekly basis. I decided to reach out to them and get some more information and perhaps some clues on how to deal with these questions. Enjoy …

BlogCouncil.org – Solving the Challenges of Corporate Blogging

About Andy

Andy Sernovitz is CEO of GasPedal, a word of mouth marketing consulting firm. He is author of the hot and sexy new book Word of Mouth Marketing: How Smart Companies Get People Talking. Seth Godin wrote the foreword and Guy Kawasaki wrote the afterword.

Andy teaches Word of Mouth Marketing at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism and previously taught Internet Entrepreneurship at University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business. He was a founder and CEO of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA), which made the idea of consumer-friendly, consumer-controlled marketing into the #1 most important marketing phenomenon. He recently left WOMMA to return to private life and is now its “President Emeritus.”

In past lives, Andy founded and ran the Association for Interactive Marketing, the big trade group in the dot com days; was an email marketing guru; ran a business incubator; started some startups; and sat on some boards.

About Sean

Sean O’Driscoll first joined Microsoft Corporation in 1992 as part of the worldwide sales organization. During his early years with the company, he held several positions responsible for the recruitment, development and engagement of Microsoft Partners. As part of these responsibilities, Sean was accountable for developing business alliances with many of the company’s largest independent software vendors, including Great Plains Software, Siebel Systems and Computer Associates.

In 1998, Sean joined Microsoft’s professional services organization and helped establish the company’s first support and consulting business focused on global ISV, system integration, and OEM partners. In January 2003, he rejoined the Customer Service and Support operation as Director of MVP (Most Valuable Professional) and Technical Communities.

In his current capacity as General Manager, Community Support Services, Sean is responsible for developing social media and community-based support models and leading the worldwide MVP program. The MVP program is designed to award and recognize amazing individuals in technical communities around the globe who share a passion for technology and the spirit of community.

Sean is currently transitioning out of Microsoft and has launched CGT Consulting, an independent consultancy focused on applying social media and influencer programs to driving business strategy and long term results.

Sean graduated from Pacific University in Forest Grove, Oregon, with degrees in business administration and philosophy. He now lives just outside Seattle, Washington, with his wife Kari, and two daughters, Erin and Lauren.

Is microblogging the latest fad or the next big thing? Microblogging is just like regular blogging, except it’s limited to 140 characters. The leader in the space is Twitter.

According to a recent blog post by Peter Kim, Twitter is now used regularly by 6% of American online adults. That sounds about right to me, although Twitter power user Robert Scoble thinks the figure is “way too high.” But if you want to reach an affluent, well-educated, early adopter audience, there might not be a better communication channel out there.

To get a better sense of this emerging social media tool, we assembled a micro-panel to discuss it: Jeremiah Owyang, a senior analyst on Social Computing at Forrester Research and a fan of Twitter, and David Berkowitz, director of Emerging Media at 360i, who is skeptical about Twitter’s application to business. We hope you enjoy the lively debate!

Twitter: Valuable Tool, or Waste of Time?

Listen learn and weigh in – Let us know which side you are on by leaving a comment on this blog. Or, feel free to comment on a topic you would like us to explore further.

Coming up will be another Prof-cast, “Pay per Click: Boom or Bust??” It features Alan Rimm-Kaufman, who leads the Rimm-Kaufman Group and is a fan of Pay per Click, and Steve Rubel, senior vice president at Edelman, who is skeptical about the future of Pay per Click.

So don’t miss it …

As director of business development for KnowledgeStorm, Matt Lohman identifies new channels for marketing and helps clients leverage those channels. Which is why Web 2.0 makes a great addition to KnowledgeStorm’s existing toolbox for B2B marketers.

I had a chance to interview Matt along with Robert Lesser, president of Direct Impact Marketing. Robert and I wanted to better understand what B2B marketers are asking for and how our survey of Web 2.0 tools stacks up as a resource. Enjoy …

Matt Lohman of KnowledgeStorm discusses Web 2.0 Tools on a podcast

About Matt

Matt is director of business development at KnowledgeStorm, Inc. He is responsible for KnowledgeStorm’s content licensing and partnership deals, new sales channel development, and market research efforts. His specialties are online content partnerships within B2B business and IT media, sales channel development, and market research. Matt recently has focused on creating thought leadership that explores topics relating to online content and emerging media such as podcasts and blogs.

I’ve been following The Marketing Technology Blog by Douglas Karr, and I’m in awe of him and his natural blogging ability. He blogs on his topic daily, sometimes more, and produces really well thought out posts. As a result, he has built a strong following on his blog that is rivaled by very few. And he’s done it in record time!

I decided to reach out to Douglas Karr and interview him on a podcast to bring you some key learnings on how to build the audience for your blog. Enjoy …

How to Build a Successful Blog Quickly, a Podcast with Douglas Karr

About Doug

Doug is currently a product manager for a major permission-based email service provider – named one of the fastest growing private companies by Inc. magazine. Doug is also a proud member of the Indianapolis Colts Marketing Advisory Board, led by Pat Coyle, the Colts’ database marketing director. Pat and Doug also launched the Indianapolis Book Mashup – a book club to discuss the latest business, marketing and technology publications.

One of the blogs that I admire most is the Influential Marketing Blog run by Rohit Bhargava. To truly understand the genius of it, you really need to look at the little things Rohit does. For example, check out his social media bio and how his blog titles are optimized for search engines.

He also wrote some great content on an emerging topic called Social Media Optimization (SMO), which I edited for my audience taking my inspiration from his original content.

I asked Rohit to do a podcast with me to better understand SMO and get his views on social media and what PR’s role will be. Enjoy …

Influential Marketing podcast with Rohit

About Rohit

Rohit Bhargava leads the interactive marketing team at Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide in Washington, D.C., and is a founding member of the 360 Digital Influence team at Ogilvy. He is a frequent speaker at industry events and is a specialist in combining “traditional” interactive marketing efforts with innovative social media marketing strategy to help clients succeed in the new media landscape. His current list of clients includes Intel, Johnson & Johnson, Lenovo, and Unilever. Prior to joining Ogilvy PR, he was executive producer of the interactive team at Leo Burnett in Sydney, Australia, and he has worked internationally in several countries. He authors the popular Influential Marketing Blog and recently signed a deal to publish his first marketing book with McGraw-Hill.