This morning we brought up a case of men bashing the women’s PR Power Women index. Just to recap:

Here’s an unfortunate incident: Men behaving badly, particularly in the comments arena. In a blatant case of misogyny, several men take to task women marketing bloggers trying to set up a top twenty independent PR Power women index. The boys got so bad that Valeria Maltoni had to shut down comments on her post. We’re a big fan of Valeria and some of the other ladies on the list. Let’s hope these guys can get over their angst and see the light.

In addition to this blurb, I commented extensively on said post. Since the Blogs of Fire post this morning, we received an interesting email from Lewis Green — the author of the offending post — who has permitted us to reprint his email.

Thank you for your feedback. As a marketing blog, you are correct, we have bigger issues to discuss. However, I also am a political being and have spent a great deal of my life marching and lobbying for civil rights, including human rights. Much of that effort was directed at breaking down the men-only admitted doors. So when I perceive that women are creating a women-only door my natural instinct is to fight against it. I just believe that doors keep people out, and I believe people should always find doors open.

It’s clear that Lewis did not research my blog. Because we are located in DC, we see civil rights “campaigns” and political beings all the time. And much of what they have to say tends to be dressed up justifications for acting in an inappropriate fashion. Whether that’s lobbyists, cause-based marketing, or yes, the ever-spinning politicians.

Further as a PR practitioner, please don’t BS me. I can smell it a mile away. Consider Lewis’ post title, “Throwing a Bomb Against Women.” Of course, there’s the accompanying image. Classy, huh?

Let me be crystal clear: Treating women this way is WRONG!!!!!!! You can dress it up however you like, at the heart of the issue, you are slamming women, who have a harder time in the business world because of men and the societal rules that work against them… It’s atrocious to see men attack women this way, especially so recently after the Kathy Sierra controversy.

Treat Women Right

Lewis dressed up his post with an accompanying piece today asking if women are discriminated against. Some interesting stats are used, which show the growth of women businesses. Here are some stats that Lewis didn’t include in this second post:

• Only ten Fortune 500 companies are led by women
• From Lewis’s own bomb throwing post, of the Technorati 100, only eight are written by women
• Again from Lewis’ bomb post, of the Power 150 only “13% are women.”
• A woman has never been elected to the office of president or vice president

It’s apparent that women can come to business, but we won’t let them lead. Until these stats change, women should band together to support each other in their efforts to be successful. Women still have a glass ceiling they face… in the blogosphere and in real life.

You want to know what it’s like to be woman out in the social media world? Watch “Being a Chick on YouTube,” which was brought to us via Leah Culver on Pownce.

Unfortunately, just like Valeria and Lewis’ post, men behaved badly in Leah’s Pownce post. Some of the comments:

• I’d hit it.
• As a male podcasters (alex and I), I can say that it hurts us to have thousands of women leave sexual comments about us. It sucks being treated like a large piece of mansteak. Ladies, NO means NO.
• I don’t think she is the brightest bulb in the closet
• The Resident should be happy she is apparently very desirable because in 20 years, she probably won’t be getting as many second looks from horny teenagers.

Boys, one last time: Transparency’s great, but in these repeated instances it has highlighted a need to change. It’s time to stop bashing women online. And we need to celebrate female successes online and offline, anyway we can.

From Valeria’s post, here are the top PR Women bloggers. Congratulations ladies, you have the Buzz Bin’s Support. Never stop blogging.

• What’s Next Blog B. L. Ochman
• Diva Marketing Blog Toby Bloomberg
• BlogWrite for CEOs Debbie Weil
• Communication Overtones Kami Huyse
• Forrester’s Marketing Blog Shar, Charlene, Chloe, Christine, Elana, Laura & Lisa
• The Origin of Brands Laura Ries
• Branding & Marketing Chris Brown
• Customers Rock! Becky Carroll
• Conversation Agent Valeria Maltoni
• Corporate PR Elizabeth Albrycht
• The Copywriting Maven Roberta Rosenberg
• CK’s Blog CK (Christina Kerley)
• Spare Change Nedra Kline Weinreich
• Marketing Roadmaps Susan Getgood
• advergirl Leigh Householder
• Brand Sizzle Anne Simons
• Kinetic Ideas Wendy Maynard
• Flooring The Consumer C.B. Whittemore
• Presto Vivace Blog Alice Marshall
• Email Marketing Best Practices Tamara Gielen

OK, now that the LComm commercials are over, let’s discuss something meaningful. Rich Becker and I reviewed Direct2Dell on this week’s BlogStraightTalk discussion of best practices.

We thought it would be a great case study because of all the acclaim it has received. In particular, Dell has been lauded for transparency, openness and willingness to address product issues.

Au contraire. It seems to me if Direct2Dell is a great corporate blog, then the bar has been set really low. This blog suffers from self-centered focus, marketplace myopia, and just flat out uninteresting content. Are transparency and willingess to take criticism the only things that drive corporate blog greatness? Customer support can be achieved in better, easier ways like a wiki that posts latest news. Or how about press releases with comments enabled?

Snippets from Becker’s comments:

• And does Dell understand why people read its blog at all? My best guess would be that it doesn’t.
• The writing is boring. And even the chronic apologies — sorry I haven’t blogged lately — are too painful to read.
• Across the board, Dell’s communication reads as dry as crushed white soda crackers; fragmented beyond repair and often leaving purchasers wondering where they might go first for information.

Snippets from my comments:

• Direct2Dell suffers greatly from corporate propaganda, a definite disconnect on what its readers want (note the great variance in the popularity posts as demonstrated by comments).
• Dell is high tech. Where’s the high tech graphics, video, anything? Plain old text seems boring on this blog.
• Readers care about their experience, and how Dell is going to make it better, not Dell promotions. And that’s the core problem.

You can read the whole thing at BlogStraightTalk.

We’ve opened a shop on Cafe Press to sell Blogs of Fire gear. Goodness Gracious, Great Blogs of Fire is our most popular serial posting, and we figured it’d be a fun way to share some Blogs of Fire love and pride. Support the Buzz Bin, and get your Blogs of Fire gear today!

Note: The gear is non-promotional with no mention of the Buzz Bin or the livingstonbuzz.com URL.

I’ve seen a few A Listers complain about less traffic (interesting reasons for dip, too, none of which relate to them).

Here’s a thought… The top reasons why A List bloggers lose their readership, many of which relate to content. Many of these could apply to any blog that’s suffering readership loss:

1. A Lister lauds mightiness, turning off readers
2. Rips off “lesser” bloggers content without attribution
3. Rests on laurels, and stops blogging as frequently
4. Again, gets a fat head and starts insulting commenters
5. Deletes comments, repelling readers
6. Is still blogging about Facebook or the iPhone
7. Only talks about him/herself, and stops writing about the blog’s mission/topic
8. More competing blogs, and some of the other blogs are hotter, more interesting, or focus on more specialized topics (from Andrew Badera and Ben Gracewood via Pownce)
9. Isn’t a part of the community anymore (blogs or social networks)
10. Has suffered too many blogodramas

What do you think?

Susan Getgood’s Marketing Roadmaps ranks 135 of the Advertising Age 150 index and 7,285 in the world according to Technorati. Marketing Roadmaps has defined Susan as an established, straight-shooting marketing mind who delivers pragmatic social media intelligence. Given Susan’s great blog and her experiences with companies like HP, we decided to throw her some tough questions and she delivered some great answers on topics like astroturfing and measuring a blog’s success. Read on for this leader’s insights.

BB: How was BlogHer in Chicago? What do conferences like BlogHER offer you and other attendees?

SG: BlogHer was great. As it always is. Quite frankly, I think BlogHer is a pretty unique conference, and not just because of the female to male ratio. Unlike many conferences, there is a really active community year round on blogher.org.

The organizers also strive to provide different voices and different sessions than you will get at a typical industry conference. And there are conference sponsored social events both nights of the conference so we avoid that hostility suite bingo that so often happens at trade shows. Although if you want a funny story about what really turned out to be a hostility suite the night before the conference, check out Suburban Turmoil.

Having been involved with the community and the conference since the beginning in 2005, I have enjoyed seeing its development. The first year, it really was a community effort, and succeeded in equal part I believe because of the blood sweat and tears of founders Lisa Stone, Jory Des Jardins and Elisa Camahort, and the commitment of the community to make it succeed. That spirit has continued as the conference, and the company, has blossomed into the world?s largest blogging conference. Ain?t that amazing.

I’ve also enjoyed the blooming of the momosphere. In the first year, the mommybloggers who attended felt somewhat marginalized by the techies — just ask any of them, they’ll admit it. In fact they did so publicly at the time. And then the world woke up to the power of moms who blog (DUH!) and year two, the conference definitely had a mom/personal blogger feel. So much so that bloggers like me, who primarily identified as business bloggers, felt like the conference had less value for them than before. (I blogged this last year BlogHer Business in March helped address this, focusing more on the business aspects of blogging than gender and identity issues.

At this summer’s conference, I personally went with different goals, so the focus on moms and personal bloggers like food and craft bloggers was inline with my interests. See my two blog posts for more on this. The unconference on Sunday provided a great outlet for the more geeky side of me. (Susan wrote two recaps of the conference on Marketing Roadmaps)

BB: The alli controversy has some interesting depth. Is a corporate blog’s success tied comments, readership or some other form of measurement?

SG: The measurement of success of any endeavor is whether it meets its objectives. Typically, for most business endeavors, it will come back to whether people bought it ?bought the product, bought the idea, changed their minds. Whatever the initial communications objective was. So, I don’t think comments or readership give you the answer, although they can be pointers. A far better measure for business blogging is sales, or in the case of nonprofits, donations.

And we shouldn’t abandon qualitative measures. What people say is just as important as how many speak. Think about it: would you rather have one or two thoughtful comments that perhaps spur other people to comment or at least think about your point. Or a bunch of people who parrot your point just to get the link. Or a bunch of naysayers. I know what I’d pick.

And some blogs are just about sharing information. Nothing wrong with that. In some cases, it may be the better route. Alli being one example.

BB: Much hub-bub about getting consulting on blogs (astroturfing, etc.). What’s the best way for a company to seek professional assistance?

SG: Wow. This is a hot potato if ever there was. As I commented on your blog on Monday, I think astroturfing implies an intent to deceive. John Mackey from Whole Foods anonymously posting negative comments about the competition. Astroturf. Wal-Mart, RV-ing across America. Astroturf.

Forget about whether you seek professional assistance, or try to do it in-house, the best way to go about this blog thing is to start from a genuine interest in engaging with, in talking with, your customers and potential customers. Be clear and upfront about your interests, expect the same from them, and start talking. And you don’t need your own blog to do this, although it helps.

Having your own blog helps you understand what blogging is all about, and gives you a platform for your outreach. But, if you have a good, well-thought out blogger relations program that has real value for the bloggers as well as your company, but no blog? Go for it. Ah, but how do you know if it has real value or if you are blinded by your own product love?

This is where an outside consultant can be extremely helpful. But you have to put your listening ears on. When the consultant tells you that there needs to be an emotional, personal value beyond the wonderful features of your product, listen.

BB: What’s your take on the participation is marketing meme?

SG: Uhmm. Not sure what you mean here, but I’m guessing it has something to do with participating in the community stands in for marketing. I agree, in part. I think companies, and marketers, need to participate in their communities.

However, I don’t think just showing up is enough. You have to give back, really contribute to the community. Whether that is by supporting the members with eval products and exclusive info, or by supporting a charity of interest to the community, or donating products for contests. Or whatever. And you have to do it over time. Showing up the day before the announcement, and going home the day after, WILL be seen for what it is.

And there’s nothing wrong with continuing your other marketing efforts — shows, direct mail, adverts — whatever. The blogosphere is important, but last I looked, the other channels were, in the immortal words of Monty Python, “Not dead yet.”

BB: In your mind, what’s the best thing Marketing Roadmaps has done for you, and for the community?

SG: You’d have to ask my readers, but people seem to appreciate my no-bullshit approach. Some have said that Marketing Roadmaps is a no-nonsense practical look at marketing, PR and social media issues that is understood and appreciated by newbies and experts alike.

For me, it has provided an outlet to explore marketing and communications issues and meet some really terrific folks. I also think I am a better writer than I was three years ago. As they say, if you want to write better, just write. A blog gives you both a place and an imperative to write.

BB: What’s the next big thing for Susan Getgood in the social media world?

I’m doing some interesting projects for clients this fall. And working on a few other things. :-) Stay tuned.