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President Blog From Sun
Jonathan Schwartz, President and Chief Operating Officer of Sun Microsystems, finally did it. His blog is out there and he's counting on some attention:
"OK, I'm starting a blog. Why shouldn't an officer of a public company start a blog? Hey, life is short. At some point, take RegFD to its logical extreme, and this is how we're all going to be communicating anyways. Think about it.
Odds are, this is going to attract some attention. And not just from Mike Dillon (Relax, Mike). Even from some who may not know what a blog is."
14 Tips For Group Blogging
Much discussion on corporate and organizational blogging is focused on branding, PR or external communications in general. But obviously you can think of many different uses, for example knowledge sharing or collaboration. After a discussion with Common Purpose, Jonathan Briggs of re:engage provides a guide to blogging for groups. Here are a few of his 14 points:
New European Corporate Blogs
CorporateBlogging.Info's list of European Corporate Blogs is updated. It's not an impressing list yet but you'll find some interesting examples of business blogging.
inscene.de - embassy is, according to MarketingProfs.com (via Eck.Punkte.log), an European fashion label building their brand by having 18-28-year-old bloggers around the globe spot trends in their cities and blog about them.
You'll also find two blogs from the UK.
Rainier PR Breakfast Blog from Rainier PR and The Mobile Technology Weblog from unstatic.
UPDATE: Changed reference for inscene.de
Corporate Blogger John Mudd
John Mudd is a real estate agent in Florida with a very active interest in corporate blogging. His company weblog at HomeInTampaBay.com provides him with a way to network with current, past and even future clients.
"I'm sharing my thoughts with them openly and honestly, and considering how rare that is in the modern world, it's no wonder that I'm able to translate blogging into business", he says.
"Mr. Real Estate" will also participate in the Global PR Blog Week 1.0 coming up in July. John has kindly answered my questions on corporate blogging and he talks about branding, driving traffic and generating media interest. Both Ray Cox (previous posting) and John Mudd are examples of successful small business bloggers. I think that's a lot more interesting than if Bill Gates should decide to blog...
What do you expect/hope that the blog will deliver in terms of marketing and branding? Something different compared to other ways of communication?
John Mudd: The blog allows me to share my personal real estate expertise with current clients, as well as with prospective buyers and sellers, simply because it is a regularly updated report on what's going on in the Tampa Bay real estate market, and I talk about other things, such as national real estate buying and selling trends and interest rate trends, all which directly effect the real estate market. In short, it brands me as a real estate expert, but it goes beyond the Realtor brand that brands all Realtors - it proves it because the information is there for people to see. "Mr. Real Estate" is a brand that I created for blog entries on my blog and other blogs, and it's followed me around in reviews of my blog.
Also, my blog is my favorite traffic-driving tool for my website. Blogs, because they're updated regularly and because every word in your blog becomes a keyword to a search engine, bring plenty of traffic to your website, or blog. As I told Inman News, all of my business comes from my blog and my website, although I'm never sure which one business comes from. I do mail to a regular geographic region regularly, but they're always directed to my website. I have mostly high-end buyers, typically penthouse and beach condo buyers, which is what I target. I recently made a deal with a Realtor in Venezuela that he give me 2.5% commission (the standard buyer fee, since his standard commission is 5%) when the buyer I sent him buys a home or condo there. The buyer found me on the Web.
My blog is also scanned by news media members, from local weeklies to the St. Petersburg Times (who did a huge story feature series on Tampa Bay home prices after scanning my blog) to CNN. The Tampa Bay Business Journal gave Tampa Bay one side of the news on a record-making purchase of an office building on Eisenhower Blvd. I gave my readers every angel.
Has clients or prospects reacted in any way? What do they think?
John Mudd: It depends on the person. One guy called me to make sure I sold real estate once. He thought the blog was part of a newspaper or magazine. Others have called me based on items I've blogged about, such as new construction. Current and past customers read it and send e-mail comments on what I write. They enjoy reading it, they tell me. It's a great way to network with current, past and even future clients. I haven't had any negative responses. I think people like it because I'm not trying to market myself to them. I'm sharing my thoughts with them openly and honestly, and considering how rare that is in the modern world, it's no wonder that I'm able to translate blogging into business.
This post is also used to update the Corporate Bloggers-section of CorporateBlogging.Info.
A Business Model Saying No To Blogs
I don't believe that blogs will save the world. I'm not even sure that a majority of organizations need them. But Melcrum, an UK/US research and information company, seems to have a business model that would greatly benefit from being more blog friendly.
Melcrum provides free e-newsletters that are quite good. More often than not, I find items I wan't to link to at another blog I'm publishing (in Swedish only). The latest newsletter, for example, includes tips on how to make an impact as a new comms leader. It's deeply interesting to my clients, I think.
But Melcrum won't let me link to it. The newsletter can't be found on their site and the article has no direct link.
Melcrum is not the only publisher making this choice, they're just a good example since I experience this every month. I can understand why they do it. I can't be sure, of course, but I guess it has something do to with exclusivity. Nonetheless, the result is bad - for me and for them. If I still want to point to their findings I have to write a complete summary. 10 times out of 10 I choose not to. For them, that means business opportunities lost.
They will undoubtedly survive. I'm not that important. No blogger is. But the lot of us...? When all they have to do is to facilitate linking, or start a content feed of their own? When all they have to do is to include blogs in their business model?
Corporate Blogger Ray Cox
Ray Cox pretty much hated the electronic world, he says. He found it very impersonal and full of old news. But in 2002 a friend of his talked to him about weblogs. "I liked what I saw, and as they say, the rest is history... I was off and blogging".
Today he runs www.raycox.net and www.northfieldconstruction.net. He is the first corporate blogger to answer my survey - and he'll tell you about concrete results from blogging. Stay tuned for more in the coming days.
What do you expect/hope that the blog will deliver in terms of marketing and branding? Something different compared to other ways of communication?
I hope the NCC blog will let people have a good feel for my company. I don't do speculation home building...only custom client projects. I want to make sure people know they have real people that live in our area building their homes and commercial buildings. The connections I post to the site try to show the real human side of the building business, not just the nuts and bolts part. I work both into the site. The blog format is not a "stale" webpage designed by some marketing firm...it is a real life snapshot of life here. I also try to include things about Northfield from time to time to help people from out of town get to know the city.
Has clients or prospects reacted in any way? What do they think?
I have had several very good contact reports from my site. We have had a few jobs where the people straight out tell us they decided to work with NCC after visiting our site and determining "we were the kind of company they were looking for".
This post is also used to update the Corporate Bloggers-section of CorporateBlogging.Info.
Why Corporate Blogging Won't Work
Scott Rosenberg on corporate blogging: "I'm sorry to be the pessimist at the party. But for large numbers of workers in America, particularly those at big companies, the dominant fact of life remains don't piss off your boss. And, in an era of health-insurance lock-in and easy outsourcing and offshoring, many U.S. workers remain doubtful that they can simply waltz into a new job should their activities displease the current hierarchy to which they report. So the odds of them feeling at ease publishing honest Web sites about their work lives are extremely poor."
He could very well be right. And I think you'll find other countries where the corporate hierarchy prevents blogging in its true sense: Denmark, Germany...
I'll return to this question soon. Hierarchy is but one of many circumstances which hinders blogging, and to find out where corporate blogging will work we need to find those circumstances.
"The truth is not interesting, the conversation about the truth is"
Viggo Cavling, Editor in Chief of Swedish magazine Resumé, discusses a new theory of relativity for advertising and market communication (in Swedish only). "The truth is not interesting, the conversation about the truth is", he claims.
Blogs are not involved, but they could very well have been. His approach is blog-like.
The background is how Volvo decided to market their S40-model - a new car with an old name: a movie called The Mystery of Dalaro. Being used to car marketing where everyone claims to be the fastest, safest, cheapest or whatever, this stands out. You don't learn much about the car at all. "It's got a new design" or "They're a little bit more sporty now".
When the movie had been on the Web and in TV commercials for a while Carlos Soto, the director, claimed to have been lied to, and published a "correct" version. The result, according to Cavling: "Everyone talks about the new car with an old name". People turned to Volvo dealers to ask about Dalaro, people started chat-groups and revealed that one man in the movie lied about being a graphical designer. Sales took off and brand awareness increased.
Cavlings conclusion is that if you want to stimulate interest and curiousity, don't say that you know the truth. Say you're close to finding the truth, and people will listen.
No blogs were involved. But considering the distinctive features of blogs, among them conversation, it would be no surprise to see blogs used in campaigns of this kind.
Combining Newsletters and Blogs
Before syndication of content (feeds, that is) was an alternative, I had very positive experiences from publishing newsletters. A great way to remind the audience of your existence. It is also a more powerful tool if you want a designed environment for your message, or if you have several messages that reinforce eachother.
So what about newsletters and blogs working together? Nick Usborne points to a couple of relevant articles, and I think that AdRants is a good example of how it can be done.
Corporate Blogs Communication and Learning Tool
John Cass has been doing exciting research and publishing on corporate blogging this month. Starting to conclude(?) he highlights two major benefits of blogging: Communication and Learning.
Blogs: New audiences for advertisers
It's been questioned and discussed for some time: Will blogs offer an advertising opportunity? Yes, an experienced media buyer says according to Business Blog Consulting: "This is driven by the success of the blog we tested, plus the desire to tap into audiences that haven't seen the client's message before. We will likely renew our deal with the first blog, and possibly increase our commitment to them from a monetary perspective."
Blogs delivering Customer Interaction
Micro Persuasion cites iMedia Connection, arguing that businesses are turning to blogs to leverage employee intelligence, introduce products and drive interaction.
Blogging is here to stay
Blogging will not disappear. At least not according to a WordBiz study, where 63.8% of the responders felt that blogging was here to stay and only 8.5% believe it's just a passing trend.
Corporate Blogging Policies
Is Corporate Blogging a powerful communication tool? Or a dangerous toy with much greater risks than potential benefits? A blogging policy could make the difference.
UPDATED June 3, 2005
So far we haven't seen that many policies, but there are some examples you can use to write your own. Sun's Policy on Public Discourse recognizes the risk and offers Sun employees advice:
The attitude towards blogging is generally the same in Groove Network's policy, commonly said to be the first one.
Both of these policies deals more with employee blogs than corporate blogs. There's just a fine line between the two, but if you're looking for a more corporate angle IMN might help you. IMN Chief Executive Officer Kathleen Goodwin have eight basic tips for companies researching blogging (pdf. Among other things, she says "Provide each internal weblog publisher with a set of weblogging standards. These include confidentiality policies, product disclosure guidelines and basic dos and don'ts (i.e. don't refer to customers by name unless they want you to. Do update the thread on a daily basis.)".
More examples:
Finally, take a look at Scobleizer's Corporate Weblog Manifesto. It's not a policy or guideline by normal corporate standards, but he makes a couple of good points.
Corporate Blog - A Short Definition
Blogs - an abbreviation of 'weblogs' - are published on the web, typically as microsites standing by themselves but today also as parts of traditional web sites. They reflect the interests, thoughts and opinions of the person, sometimes persons, publishing the blog. Blogs are characterized by frequent updates, an informal tone and many links to other blogs and web sites.
A corporate blog is a blog published by or with the support of an organization to reach that organization's goals. In external communications the potential benefits include strengthened relationships with important target groups and the positioning of the publishing organization (or individuals within it) as industry experts. Internally blogs are generally referred to as tools for collaboration and knowledge management.