Naked Conversations  explains the why and how of blogging to business people. It helps businesses strip away the layers of corpspeak (consisting of a mixture of bull, polish, and  obfuscation)  that prevent businesses and customers from really getting to know each other. It shows businesses how to use blogs to have a meaningful dialog with customers and partners without layers of of polish and shine that customers know obscure real meaning.

Using more than 50 interviews with people at all levels and in all sorts of businesses for case studies, it demystifies blogging, explaining why it is more efficient, credible and effective than traditional business communications tools.  Naked Conversations  explains the perfect storm conditions battering traditional marketing mixes of ads, PR, websites and collateral materials.    Blogging did not cause the situation but represents enormous promise of fixing what’ s broken, and in so doing, will bring companies and their constituencies closer together while improving the bottom line.

From this book, business and marketing decision makers will learn: Blogging is not just another tactical communications distribution channel, but a new strategic medium that benefits both companies and customers Why businesses of all sizes and in all places should blog Why such traditional taboos such as praising competition or publicly discussing product prior to launch make sound business sense in today’ s new Conversational Era How a poor understanding of blogs is costing one small specialty manufacturer $10 million in replacement products for disgruntled customers How a reviled software giant is seeing a newpublic image of openness develop thanks to thousands of active employee blogs What an outspoken NBA owner does with his blog to connect to team fans What employers and employees should know about hiring and firing due to blogging and  a code of ethics for blogging

"For the past five years, Microsoft employee Scoble has maintained one of the most popular blogs on the Internet. Mixing personal notes with passionate, often-controversial commentary on technology and business, his blog is 'naked' — i.e., not filtered through his employer's marketing or public relations department — a key part of its appeal. In this breezy book, Scoble and coauthor Israel argue that every business can benefit from smart 'naked' blogging, whether the company's a smalltown plumbing operation or a multinational fashion house. 'If you ignore the blogosphere... you won't know what people are saying about you,' they write. 'You can't learn from them, and they won't come to see you as a sincere human who cares about your business and its reputation.' To bolster their argument, Scoble and Israel have assembled an enormous amount of information about blogging: from history and theory to comparisons among countries and industries. They also lay out the dos and don'ts of the medium and include extensive statistics, dozens of case studies and several interviews with famous bloggers. They consider the darker aspects of blogging as well — including the possibility of getting fired by an unsympathetic employer. For companies that have already embraced blogging, this book is an essential guide to best practice." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Featuring a foreword by Tom Peters, this is a resource you and your business can't do without.

According to these experts, blogs offer businesses something that has long been lacking in their communication with customers--meaningful dialogue. Devoid of corporate-speak and empty promises, business blogs can humanize communication, bringing companies and their constituencies together in a way that improves both image and bottom line. With a Foreword by Tom Peters, author of such business bibles as In Search of Excellence, this book uses more than 50 case histories to explain why blogging is an efficient and infinitely more credible method of business communication. Blogs are easily linked, allowing information to spread rapidly, and blog readers are active, not passive, participants in the communication. Business and marketing decision-makers will find themselves excited about the possibilities after just a few pages. * Interviews with Mark Cuban of the Dallas Mavericks, Bob Lutz from General Motors, Jonathan Schwartz of Sun Microsystems, and other prominent business leaders showcase how businesses are beginning to use blogs to connect with customers in new ways. * Explores how blogging has changed the rules of communication and competition. * Gives business owners the tools to launch an effective blogging strategy and the reasons why they should.