TechCrunch wonders if it’s time for Microsoft to change its culture. They have an interesting analysis:

The trouble, I feel, lies in the middle layer of the cake — as it does so often in real life (damn the jelly). The issue is that the best ideas often occur on the lowest levels, as much because those levels are highly populated as that they are the youngest and freshest, and these ideas must trickle up…. Unfortunately, when you factor in the inevitable corporate friction, you’re looking at years of development for a product which may or may not even be worthwhile. By the time the sausage is made, everyone has already moved on to quail…

Microsoft is simply too big and too inflexible to really push truly interesting products out the door as fast as they need to. This isn’t any sort of big revelation, but it’s a problem with a solution: turn the company upside-down…. The Microsoft method of slowly advancing employees’ responsibilities has created so many middle men that there is hardly any other kind of person working there any more.

Lindsay Robertson writes a Guide to Online Publicity for Dummies. It’s full of great stuff for bloggers and PR people.

Here’s a fantastic tip:

A Monkey Can Send a Mass Email: Build Relationships and Understand What Your Real Job Is

A publicist should ask him or herself not “How can I get my news/content on a blog?” but “What news/content do I have that this blogger will want, but doesn’t even know it yet? And especially: what do I have that’s better than what this blogger has already found on his or her own?” To paraphrase the famous Dale Carnegie quote: when you go fishing, you don’t put what you want (strawberries) on the line, you dangle what the fish wants (worms). Duh to that.

[via kottke]

I talk a lot about good practices in blogging for your business. A lot of times, I talk about how it’s done wrong. But today, Jason and I were discussing one of our clients, All Star Tire. The team behind All Star Tire’s blog does everything right.

* They blog about specific products they sell: TSW Wheels, DUB Spinners, Lumarai Wheels.

* They have great newpaper-like headlines for their posts: HRE Performance Wheels and Dymag Racing announce strategic partnership.

* They talk about their customers and the work they do for them: this Maserati owner and this Dodge Viper owner.

* They tag and categorize their posts with short, descriptive tags that make sense. Their posts also are short and informative.

* They educate their customers but more importantly, by doing this through a blog, they open a dialog with those customers.

These are simple bullet points to hit when you write for your own blog. Get yourself noticed and open up your business by talking about what you do, what you sell, to whom you sell it.

37signals has another great post on writing for your website. They do a great comparison between Samsonite’s About page which contains phrases like:

By identifying trends and interpreting travelers’ needs, Samsonite continues to infuse innovation and new ideas into travel, re-igniting the sophistication and experience of the past.

And Saddleback Leather’s The Saddleback Story which tells a personal story about their goods:

It all began when I had my first bag made while living in Southern Mexico as a volunteer English teacher to kids who needed a little help. I had looked everywhere for just the right bag, but with no luck…

In my search, I walked into a little leather shop and met the fellow working leather in the back. I asked him if he could make me a bag if I were to draw it out. I told him that I wanted this bag to be made so well that my grandkids would be fighting over it while I was still warm in the grave. He said “Si” and I said “Bueno” and that’s how it all started.

37signals gets it right:

A personal story like that is something a little guy can deliver that a big corp can’t. A tiny company can bring people inside the fold this way and turn a perceived weakness (small size) into a strength.

Too often I see small companies trying to sound corporate on their websites. They use corporate-speak that is worse than being impersonal; it’s just invisible. I, and probably most web users, don’t even read About pages when they talk in buzzwords and industry terms. But give me an interesting story and I’ll stick around. You’ll probably find your users will too.

If you want a little more on the subject, read 37signals’ entire post.

Woorkup.com covers How To Write News for your Website. It’s another great read for those who need a primer in creating web content. The bit on Content is excellent:

Don’t waffle. Explain everything without using any more words than necessary. Fill the first paragraph with a succinct summary of the whole article, then expand on it further down the page. Make your news accurate and easy to understand. Journalists will avoid stories that are overcomplicated or will cut out technical jargon. Their aim will be to encourage readers to read all the article. That should be your aim too. Always give a link to a contact, contact page or phone number.

Carsonified covers 10 Things to Consider When Writing For the Web. It’s a great overview for anyone who considers their web content. My favorite tip is this:

Avoid the use of ALL UPPER CASE in your copy as it takes 57% longer to read. Also avoid starting every word with a capital letter in your headings.

And though they cover “The Right Length,” they only mention sentences. One of the most important things is to keep your actual content short. No one goes to your website to read long pages of content. Be brief and to the point.

Jason Fried of the immensely successful 37signals talks to Inc Magazine about his typical day.

I spend most of my day writing. I write everything on our website. Communicating clearly is my top priority. Web writing is terrible, and corporate sites are the worst. You don’t know what they do, who they are, or what they stand for.

and…

I spend another good portion of my day thinking about how to make things less complicated. In the software world, the first, second, and third versions of any product are really pretty good, because everyone can use them. Then companies start adding more and more stuff to keep their existing customers happy. But you end up dying with your customer base, because the software is too complicated for a newcomer. We keep our products simple. I’d rather have people grow out of our products, as long as more people are growing into them.

If you aren’t reading 37signals blog Signal Vs. Noise, you should be.

Golden Communications is pleased to be part of Google’s AgencyLand program.

AgencyLand is a great tool for us as it provides the latest news and techniques in search engine optimization and search engine marketing – all valuable information we are able to leverage for our clients.

Yes, people really do work at Google – and, we love them (especially when they work for our clients).

Pictured above: Ryan (GC), Audra Gussin (GC) and Beth Hardy (Google).

Beth heads up GoldenComm’s Account Team at Google. Basically, our advocate and advisor. We want to thank Beth, Chris and all our team members at Google who work hard for us (and our clients). You are so appreciated!

If you were lucky enough to catch this incredible event, Google owned, GMail was down for about 10 minutes  this afternoon just a little after 1pm PST.

Today September 1, 2009, Google's Gmail server is down.