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So what do you think of corporate blogs? Do you know what a corporate blog is? According to Wikipedia a corporate webblog is published and used by an organization to reach its organizational goals. The advantage of blogs is that posts and comments are easy to reach and follow due to centralized hosting and generally structured conversation threads.
Wikipedia goes on to explain two types of corporate blogs. Internal–meant for employees to view and comment on and external–published for the public to view.
The question here involves those corporate blogs created for the public to view, comment on and follow. Are these blogs being visited? Do consumers take the time to look for and then read a company’s blog? Why would they or why wouldn’t they? It seems that the goal of an external company blog would be to build a relationship with their consumer by providing news and up to date information about their products. While many attempt to do this, often the blog posts come across as nothing more than press releases—looked upon as just another company marketing attempt.
Josh Catone who blogs for Sitepoint, an online media company, discusses 15 companies who are successfully providing interesting, stimulating blogs that encourage discussion among readers. Quoting from a Forrester Research report on corporate blogs, Catone discusses how most B2B blogs are “dull, drab, and don’t stimulate discussion.” Most of these businesses have not seen a significant value for their blogging attempts, either. The Forrester report suggests that companies not discontinue their blogs, but rather to boost their entertainment value so as to attract and keep interested consumers.
Some of Catone’s favorite corporate blogs include the following with his comments:
Dell – Though Dell’s corporate blog rarely strays from Dell-centric news, the company posts with a great conversational voice, often breaks news on their blog (which keeps people coming back), and listens and responds to customers. Dell also posts regularly (1-2 posts per day at least) which keeps content fresh and encourages repeat visits.
Adobe – Adobe offers a huge collection of employee blogs, many of which are great reads. By allowing employees to blog, Adobe has empowered them to evangelize their products for them — many post tutorials, advice, reviews, and other great tid-bits promoting Adobe products — while not pigeon holing them into talking only about Adobe.
Southwest Airlines – Southwest Airlines’ “Nuts About Southwest” blog doesn’t take itself too seriously — and that’s a good thing. The company blogs about itself and the airline industry with a personal touch and has been producing a series of fun, behind-the-scenes videos that are both interesting and engaging.
While these are great examples of successful corporate blogs, it doesn’t help the image of corporate blogs in general. A recent article in Business Week written by Heather Green, (December, 09), further quotes the Forrester Research report with the amazing figure that only 16% of consumers put any trust in corporate blogs. They rate these blogs on the trust scale lower than direct mail, print media and even corporate emails. So what’s the secret to encouraging a brand relationship with your customer through the use of corporate blogs? What is it that’s going to make the consumer sit up and take notice of your company’s blog?
A recent posting on The Agitationist discusses the trust issue with an eye on what a social media team can do to help. The main gist of this post seems to be that a corporate blog must offer the consumer something– desired information, a solution to a problem, a believable insight into the company, entertainment, and a place where consumers can post their opinions and have proof that they have been listened to. This may be why Dell has been so successful with their blogging. By listening and responding to their customers’ ideas and opinions, they have created an active and interesting blog. Direct2Dell is a prime example of how a coporate blog should work.
I said I was going to try and learn what I can about all of the new media available now. One buzzword I keep seeing is Twitter. This is one I didn’t have a clue about, so I’m now trying to become educated in Twitterspeak.
I found this video that gives a great basic description of just what Twitter does and how it works. Check it out! I posted this link before, but I wanted to mention it again–it’s that good.
Recently we’ve been discussing traditional media vs. new media. Primarily, how has the way we receive messages and information changed? It used to be that the top dogs were radio, TV, newspapers and magazines. Those types of media have recently seen their followers surfing off to the internet for information and entertainment.
And why not? No more do we have to wait to watch a favorite show–often it will be available online whenever we want. Or else, we can Tivo the program to watch whenever–with the bonus of no commercials. Add to that the number of amazing videos uploaded daily dealing with any interest imaginable and its no wonder offline TV viewing is down.
From Zatz Not Funny
The survey said 80 million Americans watched a TV show online last year. This number accounts for 43% of the online population, up from 25% who said they watched a TV show on the Web last year.
The Nielsen ratings organization found that U.S. viewership for the opening of the 2008 TV season was down 21 percent compared with the same time last year.
With the internet, we have fingertip power to search and find just about anything we want and when we want. We can find videos on how to change a tire, fix a turkey or one that explains just exactly what Twitter is.
Radio is also available online. With sites like Live365, a seemingly unlimited number of stations and genres are available at a click. Of course with this site, there are numerous commercials that disappear when you sign on to be a VIP.
Newspapers have been seeing a continuing downward trend in their readership. An article in the online New York Times from October, 2008 discusses this trend.
Newspaper Circulation Continues to Decline Rapidly
The long decline in newspaper circulation over the years continues to accelerate, with sales in the spring and summer falling almost 5 percent from the previous year, figures released on Monday show, deepening the financial strain on the industry.
The drop occurred nearly across the board during the six months that ended Sept. 30; weekday circulation for the largest metropolitan dailies fell anywhere from 1.9 percent for The Washington Post, to 13.6 percent for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, compared with the period a year earlier.
The figures, released by the Audit Bureau of Circulations based on reports filed by the individual papers, show that circulation at The Houston Chronicle, The Boston Globe, The Star-Ledger of Newark, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Orange County Register and The Detroit News fell 10 percent or more.
What does this mean for marketing?
What does all this mean for those in marketing? Well, for one, it means that marketers have got to give those traditional media horses a break and jump on the new media thoroughbreds. This means tackling the internet, mobile phones, Bluetooth and all the other up and coming technologies head on. Integrated communications is becoming even more integrated each day and marketers need to stay current with what’s out there in cyberspace and beyond. In order to develop relationships with our consumers, we have to know their interests, what they rely on for information, and how best to distribute the message that they want to hear, when they want to hear it.
This is surely a difficult feat to manage, though, as we cannot just jump in and use these technologies for mass message distribution. This is quite easily the best way to turn our consumers away. Isolating our target market and then devising the best way to deliver our message when wanted is where we need to focus our attentions. That’s the reason behind the success of some viral campaigns. They manage to deliver the right message at the right time to the right people using the right method. The trick is to not become associated with that baaaad word, “SPAM.”
Check out the some of the negativity expressed against a software developer who produced a package aimed at mass-messaging those who use Twitter.
First the video:
Now some comments from readers of Adam Ostrow’s post from Februray 4, 2009 on Mashable titled:
Tweettornado: Twitter Spamming Software We Won’t Tolerate
@Livecrunch Says:
February 4th, 2009 at 5:49 pm
I wish all spammers would be blocked. I so hate ‘em all!
Diana Says:
February 4th, 2009 at 6:04 pm
thankyou for bringing us such up-to-date info that is helpful, in not only alerting us to new threats, but educates us about using the internet in an ethical way for business and socialisation.
I was almost drawn in by a new company last night but a fellow twitterer send a warning about the spam potential of the program so i pulled out, until I have more information on them.
well done!
Diana
Nicole Simon Says:
February 4th, 2009 at 6:07 pm
I disagree slightly. I would love to have a tool to manage several accounts, and yes even create them automatically for a real purpose. It is throwing out the kid with the bathwater – because banning these tools will make sure that the useful purposes get attacked as well. Back to pen and paper anyone?
Instead people should really head over to forums like digitalpoint / warriorforum and such where these tools are given out with instructions how awesome for spamming (excuse me: advertising and huge amounts of traffic) is – only if you tell them that we do infact watch and react on it there might be a chance to not stop them, but make their life more miserable.
It does not stop there. Spamming is an issue in every system and it is no wonder that they pop up so fast, accompanied by gurus who really are successful in this game – but only because they know how to play it.
I am not saying to give up, just react in a way we know it works. 
Jason Moffatt Says:
February 4th, 2009 at 6:37 pm
I’m not sure how much good it does to even publish this story to be honest. Just giving these guys more attention is probably having them jump with joy.
And let’s face it, tons of spamming marketers read the stuff here, and they are probably off buying the crap right now because of this and other stories condemning the software.
Agreed, the software is another pollutant.
Telling people about it probably ain’t the wisest move if you ask me.
One thing is a given. People are always going to want to learn new things and buy new things. Maybe that’s 2 givens. What we need to do as marketing messengers is to stay with our consumers as they and we learn about the new media that’s here now and that which is to come. In the past TV, radio and newspapers have been our common ground. Now and in the future we’re going to be playing in an electronic field that is constantly changing and we’re going to have to keep changing, too.
What ways do you use to stay current and electronically up to date? Do you have favorite blogs, web sites or newsletters you won’t miss? And what technological device could you absolutely not give up?
Bits and Bytes about This and That 