first i feel free to write about the companie and about the latest news in our industrie. we got some traffic about this blog but noone else knew in our company how to use this tool nemed blog... some moth later a have closed the blog and got my own now :D

Mack,

This goes beyond blogging. Everytime (any time) a company uses marketing to talk about its products and services, it is failing both its customers and its company.

Good marketing always talks to and with the customers. Good marketing understands its customers' wants and needs and shares solutions to meet those wants and needs, with the focus on "you" not "we" or "us".

When marketing is about the "what" (products and services) instead of the "who" (customers), it fails to address the mission of marketing.

My strategy is to have both - integrated. Have a blog to build interest, drive traffic and create community, At the same time, have static pages that feature your products and services so that they can be easily found. Then, use the blog to establish yourself as a niche expert and to market your services directly - leading people to your static pages to make purchases or signup for services.

Mack: I've noticed this, too -- a lot of clients/potential clients I've spoken to have blogs, but their blogs seem to have little purpose.

They talk to themselves. And they have no comments whatsoever. It's amazing to think how many blogs in the blogosphere must have no comments, let alone readers.

If we agree that blogging (and as Lewis points out, *marketing*) is about dialog, then the vast majority of 'corporate blogs' lack the two-way part.

Is it because they aren't engaging their audience? Are they spending 100% of their attention on their own channel and not commenting relevantly on other people's blogs? I collected my five loyal readers because I kept talking to them ... and eventually, they started talking to me, too. Thus begat a dialog.

If I was advising a corporate client today (and I might be doing this today, as a matter of fact) on how to staff and manage a blogging effort, I'd have them spend 50% of their time finding other blogs and aggressively commenting on them -- not just writing stuff and posting it somewhere on a lonely corporate website.

How are you coaching your clients in this area?

I think its best to position a company blog as being a communication tool, instead of a selling tool. If you think of your blog as a tool to better understand customers, to better communicate with them, and in turn increase sales, that's how it's most effective, IMO. If you think of your company blog as a selling tool, then you'll make increasing sales the blog's priority, and not many of us read blogs because we want to be sold to.

It's about positioning the blog from the readers point of view. Once you do that, it's far more likely that they will feel compelled to give their feedback, and that's what can begin the community-creation process.

Hi Mack,
This is an excellent, thought-provoking post.

I just have a question for you about corporate blogs. Do you think most companies are just floundering right now, and trying to figure out how to use blogs well? Recall that when many companies, the largest among them, first established web sites, there was quite a bit of trial and error at first. Lots of sites (thankfully) were overhauled and became more customer-centric over time. Could it just be that blogs are in their infancy with most companies and might be made more effective over time?

I'll be very interested in your response and any additional insights you might have on this subject. Thanks, Mack.

Stephen: Spot-on about commenting on other blogs. I think this is a great practice not only as a community-building tool, but it also helps companies UNDERSTAND bloggers by interacting with them on their blogs, in the blogger's space.

Ted: There's definitely an incubation period involved with any blog, especially a company blog. I think the natural tendency by most companies that start blogging, is to view their blog as a selling tool. And most blog readers, assume this is how most companies will position their postings.

So it takes time for companies to not only find their 'voice', but to also 'win' the trust of the readers, who again, expect to be sold to. When they begin to see that the company is making an effort to reach out to them with relevant content, they will not only 'tolerate' the occasional selling pitch, they may begin to look forward to these.

But the bottom line is, I think companies should view a blog as a learning tool. A tool to communicate with, and better understand their customers. And to help them better understand the company. The extra sales are an ancillary benefit of that better understanding.

Mack,

I agree: a blog is a communications tool. In business (and in most use in life) communcations tools have more than a single objective. I cannot imagine any smart executive using a communications tool only as a learning tool.

While that is one good use, having run communications and marketing departments, I can share with you that the tools better contribute to more than a single objective if they are to be budgeted and useful to the business.

All communications tools are marketing tools and they all should have a learning objective and a way to measure that learning. They also have customer educational components, brand responsibility and sales objectives just to name a few.

Nothing is ancillary. This is not the principal of "either/or," all tools comply with the principal of "and." They are, and to be useful, they must be multi-functional and responsibly used to fulfill each of those functions.

Mack, it's true that companies are missing a great opportunity if they use their blog simply as a trumpet to blast out the company line about products and/or services.

Lewis nailed it -- it goes beyond blogging.

It's the same as companies who produce newsletters that end up being nothing more than sales brochures. A missed opportunity.

I advise clients thinking of doing a newsletter to be sure to include non-selling info. If you make it meaty with information the reader can use, then you have a shot at the reader actually reading it.

Should be the same for blogs. If it's merely self-promotion, readers will delete it before it gets read.

Excellent post! Lots of good comments too... which is what a blog is great for.

A company blog is most effective as a communication tool first and selling tool as a byproduct. That truly is the point. You can get feedback, help with R&D, suggestions for new products, etc. That's how I do a lot of my product development- by asking questions of my readers. It's been very valuable.

Commenting on other blogs and reading others, is very critical. I'd say it is as important as the content on your own blog. Being an active member of the community and participating/ sharing is important and will certainly help you with your own blog.

And, Ted, I would agree with Mack and say that blogging is still in its infancy from a corporate perspective. Most companies are still trying to figure out the medium and the people who use it, let alone how and what to do their own blogs. It won't take too much longer for more to figure it out. Soon enough, there will be plenty of businesses blogging successfully.

"Nothing is ancillary. This is not the principal of "either/or," all tools comply with the principal of "and." They are, and to be useful, they must be multi-functional and responsibly used to fulfill each of those functions."

Can't agree in this case. Anything that leads to a better understanding of the wants and needs of your customers, will lead to extra sales, IMO. Because once you have a better understanding of those wants and needs, you have a better idea how to tailor your marketing to satisfy them.

I think most companies see it as being blogging--->more sales, when they should be thinking blogging--->better understanding of our customers--->more sales.

Again, I think it's the difference between positioning a company blog from the company's point of view, or the customers' point of view.

"A company blog is most effective as a communication tool first and selling tool as a byproduct. That truly is the point. You can get feedback, help with R&D, suggestions for new products, etc. That's how I do a lot of my product development- by asking questions of my readers. It's been very valuable."

Bingo. It's about satisfying the customers' wants and needs directly, which results in their satisfying YOUR wants and needs, indirectly.

Mack- Good post (and comments) - really got me thinking (and blogging: I'll be posting on this topic tomorrow on Opinionated Marketers). I work primarily with smaller companies, and one thing I always advise them about is, if they're going to blog,to make sure that they take it seriously. Someone needs to be the blog-master who makes sure that the content is fresh and useful.

How many times in the good old days did we see companies starting a quarterly newsletter, only to have it run out of steam by the third quarter! With blogs, the content has to be far more frequent - it takes a real commitment.

Great post, Mack. I have a question ... if the "marketing department" starts commenting on other blogs, under which name should they do so? Should it be their own? Should it be a corporate pseudonym?

What happens when that person leaves the company? What if they start their own blog?

Because we want a blogging experience to be "authentic" we all respond more to the individual and the individual's name ... but the lines between corporate position and personal preference can easily be blurred. I am interested in your thoughts.

I agree with everything you've written here, Mack. Let me just stir the pot a little bit.

What if blogs aren't the Holy Grail of 2-way communication strategies for corporations? I have no doubt that they can be more effective than they currently are. But isn't there a possibility that someone will develop a new tool that would be more effective than blogs?

If it could be done, what would it look like?

Mack, great post. And great comments, all. I'll be forwarding this to a nonprofit that's about to start blogging. It should get them heading in the right direction.

A blog is written by a person and so it has the usual human failings.

How many times have you gone to a networking event and asked someone... "what do you do?" They respond back and begin to give you the catalog of their services & products, company history, last 6 new clients, how much money they have in their pipeline, why their way is better, blah, blah, blah.

When that happens to me, I begin to take tiny steps backwards, away from this talker who was vacinated with a phonograph needle.

It's the same way with a blog. Some people can't stop talking long enough to take a breath. Let alone long enough to smile and politely ask what you do.

As long as you have people that think blogs are for selling and that selling means one way communication, you'll have the one way blog with no comments.

Good topic, Mack. Thanks!
Chris

Gavin (& Mack & all):

What kind of naming convention should a corporate outbound blog outreach program use? I would think that for full disclosure's sake a name and a company designation would make the most sense.

"Steve at The Fix", or "Mack C at Viral Garden" or similar. It should be personal enough for personality to show -- "Marketing Team at The Fix" doesn't sound too inviting, and "Joe", who turns out to be from "Acme Corp" only after a discovery process is a bit suspicious. I'd vote for being open about the corporate affiliation and personal enough to include your name.

Sound right?

"What happens when that person leaves the company? What if they start their own blog?

Because we want a blogging experience to be "authentic" we all respond more to the individual and the individual's name ... but the lines between corporate position and personal preference can easily be blurred. I am interested in your thoughts."

Great question Gavin. Bloggers respond better to individuals, so I'd much rather have each blogger posting under their own names.

I think the bigger concern for companies is what happens when these individuals go out and start commenting on OTHER blogs. You definitely don't want to coach them on what to say, but you also want to only have bloggers that understand what your company's message and branding is all about.

In the end, IMO you have to let people post and people comment. Not 'staffs'.

"What if blogs aren't the Holy Grail of 2-way communication strategies for corporations? I have no doubt that they can be more effective than they currently are. But isn't there a possibility that someone will develop a new tool that would be more effective than blogs?

If it could be done, what would it look like?"

Cam it's funny because I asked this same question in one of my first posts on The Viral Garden, almost a year ago.

The two big limitations I see with a company blog, is that the current and potential customers have to go to THE COMPANY'S BLOG, and the tool doesn't give true interaction. The company controls the flow of what is discussed, via posting, and can monitor comments as well.

When we find a tool that lets companies freely communicate with customers in THEIR space on THEIR terms, then we'll have something. I don't see blogs as being that tool, at least not in their current form.

Great post, Mack. And the issues raised in the comments are excellent ones -- many could be used as a cornerstone of a post of their own. In particular, the issue of "how personal?" is one issue discussed in board rooms when companies think of launching a blog.

You can see how the question of "to blog or not to blog" get mired and complicated pretty quickly. But I think your common sense approach offers a great roadmap.

The post and all the comments both teach about the subject and then demonstrate it on a single page and speak volumes.

I think lots of businesses struggle with the concepts of using stuff like this because often people think a blog is just an extension of a website, a piece of brochure-ware. Everyone reading and commenting here is using blogs. But huge chunks of the population still think "90% of blogs are for nerds and geeks" as I overheard someone say recently. This is still a big part of the battle I think.

Great point Andrew, and before I started blogging, I really didn't see what the big deal was either. Until you are in this space and using these tools, you cannot appreciate just how quickly ideas flow and are shaped by contributions from other bloggers. One post can strike the right cord with the right blogger, and it can be the hit of the blogosphere within minutes.

But at the heart of this, is using blogs as a communication tool. This is what companies, and people in general, cannot appreciate by looking in from the outside.

If you are going to tell your audience about your products & services via your blog, my personal take is that you actively have to solicit feedback for it to become a two-way conversation platform.

Another issue, imho, is that every company may not have something that would be worthy of blogging about on a corporate level. I think there are some industries that are ill-suited to blogging & that a company really needs to take a look at if they are in an industry where people do want to converse with you (I couldn't see a corporate banking blog as being too worthwhile, for example).

Perhaps the company is measuring by something other than "number of comments" to determine what makes a "good" blog.

On a blog that I run for personal reasons, the number of comments is a valid metric and something that I try to encourage.

But for a blog that I run for my company, I could care less about comments. All I care about is the number of sales that can be directly attributed to the blog.

And guess what! That blog gets almost zero comments, but it brings in plenty of sales.

"Markets are conversations" is a bunch of Cluetrain Manifesto nonsense.

Markets are really for buying and selling.

And a business blog should keep that in mind if the purpose of the blog is to benefit the business and not just waste a bunch of time chatting about junk that doesn't matter.

That said, I do agree that anything you write for an outside audience should most definitely be written with the audience in mind.

No one cares about stupid industry-speak jargon except for maybe your coworker.

Hey,
I love what you'e doing!
Don't ever change and best of luck.

Raymon W.

I think you are expert in marketing. Blogs are playing amajor role in marketing(online) business. Every marketer does not have his/her own blog. I agree your posting
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Blogging is very important in online business. Because blogs increase traffic in one or the other way. So i totally agree with you... : )

If someone will develop more effective than Blogs ........any assumtions?

One thing about company blogs are they should be monitored at all times by a few people. If they are not, then they could become very biased to someone’s views. I had see a few people have company sites that were very one sided. So when people leave something like that that the public will see, there should be a set of checks and balances in place that regulates what will be going into the public eye. Some people might think that this is a given, but they would be surprised to see how many people do not think about something like this. It is the smallest things that slip through the cracks and can cause the biggest problems. So when you are going to do something that others will see, make sure that you keep this in mind before you do anything.

You are right. I admit, I’m maintaining several blogs nowadays and I do the maintenance in such a way that it will appeal to the merchant site. We neglect to think however that it can also be searched by some active or potential customers. So, in order to answer the needs of any customer, what do you suggest one should do to the blog?

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