Time for a change...

suddenly, I hate the title of my blog. Every time I see someone link, I wonder what they thought as they typed it out, with the quotation marks...zzzzzzz.

Anyhoo, I'm feeling sassy and I am changing the name of my blog. Suggestions?

Comments

• Anonymous
  June 19, 2006
  "Heather's unMarketing at Microsoft"
  
  ;-)
• Anonymous
  June 19, 2006
  This is a good lesson in marketing...
  
  Here are my ideas:
  
  "The Daily Ham"
  
  "Ham I Am"
  
  "Marketing Matters"
  
  "Blog This!"
  
  "Truth, Justice and The Microsoft Way"
  
  "From Where I Sit"
  
  "Jonas's Mom's Blog"
• Anonymous
  June 19, 2006
  Alex...Hmm, "unMarketing"...definitely goes with my "I am not a marketer" thing ; )
  
  WIne-Oh...definitely nothing with "ham"...oh I am gagging. Least favorite food.
• Anonymous
  June 19, 2006
  Microsoft(R) Web Log For Marketing(TM) 2007, Enterprise Edition
• Anonymous
  June 19, 2006
  Heather Hamilton's Insight...Microsoft,Marketing,Recruiting
  
  I'm kind of tired of hearing the word "Blog". Everything and everyone has a "Blog". I'm going for "Insight" or "In-Sight" as the new word for Blog. For example: Did you read my 'In-sight' today? or I have an 'In-sight' page at www....@....com
  
  But I guess its important to have the word "Blog" in there for when people search for Blogs.
  
  Anyway, that's my 2cents..
  
  Nathan S.
  
  Hope that Helps a little
• Anonymous
  June 19, 2006
  The Way It is....
• Anonymous
  June 19, 2006
  Sorry couldnt resist. Its my least favorite food too.
• Anonymous
  June 19, 2006
  Paul...that's awesome. I love it. Definitely the front-runner! The subtitle could be "free snark inside!"
  
  All these recommendations are helping.
• Anonymous
  June 19, 2006
  The comment has been removed
• Anonymous
  June 19, 2006
  Skip- pretty funny.
• Anonymous
  June 19, 2006
  The Heather Hamilton Show
• Anonymous
  June 19, 2006
  The comment has been removed
• Anonymous
  June 19, 2006

• Heather Free-Flowing
  - Ms. Real 2007 lol
  - Heather's Tabs
  - Heather Ponders Out Load

• Anonymous
  June 19, 2006
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  June 19, 2006
  Super Fantastic Happy Family Fun Time Heather Blog
  
  I've always secretly been bothered by your blog title. :P
  
  Keep it simple.  The danger in overthinking it is that it's gonna end up weird.  Someone more wise than I would tell you that your brand is you, not your blog title, so don't sweat it.

• Anonymous
  June 19, 2006
  The Connecting Post

• Anonymous
  June 19, 2006
  Heather's Marketing Flow is in Town
  
  HH Kiss Kiss
  
  Marketing People 101 with Heather
  
  Heather Hamilton: Seattle Weather has effected me so
  
  Heather Hamilton: It must be a dead animal in the crawlspace

• Anonymous
  June 19, 2006
  How about:
  
  Getting the job...
  
  or
  
  Time for a change

• Anonymous
  June 19, 2006
  Here are some of my suggestions:
  
  Heather's take on Recruiting and Marketing at Microsoft
  Recruiting for Msft Marketing - The Heather way
  Marketing and Recruiting - The Msft overlap
  Marketing, Recruiting and other interests
  
  
  Gaah ....none of them sound ok...bad time for me I guess

• Anonymous
  June 20, 2006
  OK, brainstorming is good. : )
  
  (Scott, it's secretly always bothered me too).
  
  Maybe "Heather Hamilton: gagging at the thought of ham and sniffing stinky sponges" Hmm, I guess that's not marketing related.
  
  James-my mom is going to love the "something dead in the crawlspace" one.
  
  I think what I am looking for is something that represents the sometimes focus on marketing/recruiting but is also a little funny.

• Anonymous
  June 20, 2006
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  June 20, 2006
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  June 20, 2006
  "Dude, where's my marketing blog?"

• Anonymous
  June 20, 2006
  Heather's marketing blog. Now with zero grams net carbs!

• Anonymous
  June 20, 2006
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  June 20, 2006
  Wine-Oh...you mean I'd have to be witty once a month? One of my favorite bloggers, Heather Armstrong, changes hers regularly. Coincidently, her maiden name is Hamilton and I found her blog during a temporary bout with internet egomania. But she's way more funny than me. I'm not sure if I can be funny on demand.
  
  Hmm, I'm thinking of just taking one of the recommendations, sticking it up there and seeing how people react. Of course, I won't change any of the graphics without technical help...mostly because I know the limits of my skills.

• Anonymous
  June 20, 2006
  "Marketing Blog by Heather"
  
  or "Heather Hamilton's Marketing Blob"
  
  or "About Marketing by Heather"
  
  No need to include Microsft in the title. People will soon figure it out. Actually, very soon ;).

• Anonymous
  June 20, 2006
  I think your funny without trying too hard, which is a good quality to have. You are just being yourself. Sometimes I feel people arent themselves on their blog for the sake of blogging.
  
  You dont have to change the whole thing. Just the text, maybe the pic if you find a funny one. From this post alone it looks like you have a years worth of titles to bank on. I dont think you have had this many responses since your posting on asking people whats in a name and its correlation to a job. (I wont go there now with specific examples from that post)
  
  You can run a contest each month and have your viewers pick a name. Gets into the whole spiral marketing aspect of how to drive people to your site. Throw in some free MSN tshirts and you will build a loyal audience.

• Anonymous
  June 20, 2006
  Ben- good ones. I think you meant "blog" instead of "blob", but I have to admit that using "blob" in the title might achieve the required funniness.
  
  Wine-Oh, yeah, you need to stay away from the name/job topic...hah! I'm not sure I am going to have time to do the contest thing but I like the idea.

• Anonymous
  June 20, 2006
  Heather's "Marketing at Microsoft" Blog or
  Heather's "M@M" Blog
  
  - why fix what's not broken?

• Anonymous
  June 20, 2006
  Hey...(That's what people yell when they think they have a great idea but not really).
  
  To add to Wine-Oh's great suggestion, "Heather Hamilton's Name My Blog Contest! Blog" or a derivative of same.

• Anonymous
  June 20, 2006
  As Scott wisely pointed out, your brand is you.  But your title should encapsulate or express something about the brand that is you.  There are a few good choices already listed, but I might also try to say something about your personality and your tendency to strong opinions.
  
  Sass n Brass
  Snark, Inc.
  Search Me
  This Space for Rent
  Heather's Authentic Microsoft Marketing Conversations
  The Microsoftie
  Dont' You Wish You Worked Here Too?
  Heather's Inside Secrets to Getting Recruited by Microsoft
  Join us, Resistance is Futile
  And now for something completely different . . .
  This blog's for you
  
  or, you could go all software mathie like and make a totally inside reference, e.g.:
  
  The Hamiltonian
  or,
  The Hamiltonian Cycle
  
  see: http://mathworld.wolfram.com/HamiltonianCircuit.html
  
  Have fun with it.
  

• Anonymous
  June 20, 2006
  Paul-you are getting at what I am looking for. The personality thing is important. And I like to think I am funny sometimes...I may be alone in that thought.
  
  So I can do a title and then a little blurb underneath. I don't want to go too heavy on the recruiting aspect because I want my audience to include non-job-seeking marketers (with the thought that I can win them over to Microsoft). Plus, I find the assumption that everyone wants to work here to be a level of arrogance that I can't deal with. So I can't do the "wish you worked here" thing.
  
  That's why I'm partial to Paul Roub's recommendation. It has a sense of humor (self-critical at that), it has a marketing aspect and it's Microsoft relevant. Also, Shannon's recommendation "You've been Heathered" is kind of growing on me...don't ya kind of wonder what "being Heathered is all about?" It definitely involves something snarky for sure!
  
  No math (please no math!), but pop culture references would be OK. I'm also willing to poke fun at myself as long as it's not too painful a subject ; )
  
  And yes, I need a new picture (or else I need to stop changing my hair color)

• Anonymous
  June 20, 2006
  Of course, it bears mentioning that Frank Shaw, who added a recommendation above, is our WaggEd PR guru (is that the right way to describe you, Frank?). Don't suppose we could put some WaggEd resources on this, can we Frank? No? I didn't think so. : )

• Anonymous
  June 20, 2006
  You gotta know when to foldem Blog
  
  Don't cross me or else blog
  
  This ain't no Recruiting Blog
  
  No, I won't link to your blog blog
  
  Jason
  
  

• Anonymous
  June 21, 2006
  Jason-funny what someone who knows me in person comes up with...and a little scary!"It's a recruitING blog, not a recruitERS blog!"

• Anonymous
  June 21, 2006
  To quote the Brady Bunch:
  "When its time to change, you've got to re-arrange!"
  
  (Sorry couldnt resist)

• Anonymous
  June 21, 2006
  I like the MS Web Log 2007 EE one as well, although I thought the inside reference to bad product naming conventions was possibly a little too strong.   Depends what you want to express about yourself and your company.
  
  Hamiltonian is actually a triple entendre.  The software mathie connection is something only a mathie would get, but lots of people would get the political overtones, and the obvious connection to the author.  However, the graph/path that Hamiltonian refers to is actually the way I think about you blog.  A closed loop that travels all over the place . . .  And, it has a built-in image.
  
  Or, you could just go with "The Smell Within".
  

• Anonymous
  June 21, 2006
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  June 21, 2006
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  June 21, 2006
  p.s. you're a laugh riot.
  
  Actually, your strong sense of humor does come through, but there is a lot of sarcasm, irony, need to read between the lines, etc.  This kind of humor can be quite subtle in print, even if you have a Swiftian gift with the language.  Embedding some cues in the title is a good idea, because it is not only who you are, but it offers the new or casual reader a clue as to how to interpret what they see.  Kind of like projecting "quotation marks" around everything with your fingers.
  
  And, stop protesting about (not) being a marketer.
  
  Incidentally, Being Heathered makes me think of Scottish scenes like this:
  
  http://www.visitdunkeld.com/Glen%20Quaich/images/Glen%20Quaich%2005_jpg.jpg
  
  but, I may be the only one.  Heathers was one of my favorite movies back in the day.  Black humor is an acquired taste though.

• Anonymous
  June 21, 2006
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• Anonymous
  June 21, 2006
  How about taking a photo with you doing the bunny ears thing with your fingers and using it in the letter "o" in the word blog.

• Anonymous
  June 21, 2006
  haha...what, you thikn I look more like an "o" than an "i"?
  
  Ahh, just teasing

• Anonymous
  June 21, 2006
  What about pure simplicity? Hamiltonesque. Like it's a fragrance? There's irony there. Hmm. This is hard. If you were a product, what product would you be? I keep trying to think of it in those terms. Also, I'm a big supporter of pushing the last name. The Hamilton Room. Like it's a club. An exclusive club. I'll come up with more.

• Anonymous
  June 21, 2006
  The Hamilton Code?

• Anonymous
  June 21, 2006
  Sarah- it is hard, isn't it? As much as I love my last name, I think it might be too "blah" when I want to be "zing!". I worry what Hamiltonesque might smell like (right now, my mom is thinking "don't talk about the sinky sponge!").
  
  I have a new appreciation for all those people that have cool names for their blogs.

• Anonymous
  June 22, 2006
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• Anonymous
  June 22, 2006
  OK, Nathan, we will definitely blame it on that!

• Anonymous
  June 22, 2006
  For the MTV Generation:
  
  Heather's Crib
  
  Pimp My Blog
  
  The Real Blog
  
  Yo! MTV Blog
  
  TRL Blog
  
  Blog'd

• Anonymous
  June 22, 2006
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• Anonymous
  June 22, 2006
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• Anonymous
  June 22, 2006
  One Louder - I like it! :)

• Anonymous
  June 22, 2006
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• Anonymous
  June 22, 2006
  Good point Tod. I'll resist the urge to "try out" names. If this one doesn't stick, I'll pick another and stay with it.

• Anonymous
  June 22, 2006
  One Louder is great!
  
  I cracked up a few weeks ago when MS had this ad for Windows Media Player 11 on its home page:
  http://i3.microsoft.com/h/en-us/i/WMP11_4_8.jpg
  

• Anonymous
  June 22, 2006
  Oh yay...proof that someone gets the humor! Now I just have to worry about Nigel Tuffnel telling me to stop using his phrase.
  
  Thanks for the link too...I hadn't seen that!

• Anonymous
  June 22, 2006
  "Microsoft(R) Web Log For Marketing(TM) 2007, Enterprise Edition"
  
  How about "2007 Microsoft Web Long for Marketing system" -- the 2007 comes first, and system with a lowercase 's'.
  
  Here I'm poking fun at the "decision" to make Office 2007's official name run totally afoul to all other MS product names. (I read that Longhorn Server will officially be "Windows Server 200x", not "200x Windows Server", so it's not like Office was starting a new naming scheme.)
  
  Heather, is there any chance that you can use your marketing connections to get the people [not using adjectives to be kind] who made that decision, to change their mind before it is too late?  "Microsoft Office 2007" or "Microsoft Office 2007 System" (if they insist on using the "system" word) is the way it should be.
  
  (I still chuckle when I see "Windows 2000 Server" and "Windows Server 2003" both named side by side.  Now we'll have the same thing for Office 2003/2007...)

• Anonymous
  June 22, 2006
  I can't believe you missed the WMP 11 graphic!  I thought of you instantly.  A little humor from your marketing recruits.
  
  And your sense of humor--snarky or just funny--comes through perfectly fine.  One of the few blogs where I look forward to the next post.

• Anonymous
  June 23, 2006
  Aww, Dudley. Thanks!

• Anonymous
  June 23, 2006
  Wait, can it be "One Louder LIVE?"

• Anonymous
  June 23, 2006
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• Anonymous
  June 23, 2006
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• Anonymous
  June 23, 2006
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• Anonymous
  June 24, 2006
  It's like ten only it's one louder. It goes to eleven.
  
  Even if people don't get the movie reference, there's some relevance to blogging in that blogging makes your voice "one louder".
  
  Or people who know me might suggest that a comma is in order: " One, Louder"
  

• Anonymous
  June 24, 2006
  Hehe... I have to say I have no idea what "One Louder" means nor references. I went searching for it and still don't get it.
  
  But then again, I think it's all about context. For example, I find the blog title "setup isn't xcopy" to be a compact yet catchy title... but only if you get the references. I get the same feeling here.
  
  //David

• Anonymous
  June 25, 2006
  David: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088258/quotes#qt0212071
  

• Anonymous
  July 10, 2006
  "One Louder" is terrific.  Thanks for giving me reason to think of Spinal Tap.  I thought you were going to go with something like "Snark Bites."

• Anonymous
  October 24, 2006
  Heather, That's unfair.  If you rember correctly, "smell the glove", the album from Spinal Tap, was in my cassette player of my MB 190 all the time.  That just happened to be one of the songs on that album, and I sang every song all the time. That was never meant as any kind of comment about you.  Anyway, I just felt I had to clear my name.  BTW Brian Swindle says hello.

• Anonymous
  October 24, 2006
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• Anonymous
  October 27, 2006
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