Blogs, for all their hype and promise, don’t function very well as a direct-selling channel. But that doesn’t mean that blogs can’t increase sales, and no one knows that better than the brand manager for Masi Bicycles.
If you go check out Tim Jackson’s Masi Guy blog, you’ll soon notice that there’s really no direct selling going on. But there’s no shortage of talk about Masi’s products. The key is that Tim doesn’t blog about Masi bicycles. He blogs about his life, and it just so happens that one of the biggest passions in his life is Masi. Tim blogs about business trips to Taiwan one day, and taking his daughter to school and what socks he wore the next.
And in the process, he is humanizing a company that many people otherwise may have never heard of. Tim’s readers trust him, and by extension, that trust transfers to the Masi brand. I’ve seen people ask him both on his blog, and even on Twitter to advise them on what type of bicycle they should buy. Correction, they ask Tim to tell them what type of Masi bicycle they should buy.
This is the true power of social media for businesses, to remove barriers. Masi is no longer locked away in some corporate headquarters where their customers can’t touch them. Now that the company has a human face, a brand manager that reaches out to current and potential customers every day. They can meet everyday, sometimes it’s on his blog, other times it’s in Twitter.
But either way, the interaction between company and customer isn’t build around advertising and selling, it’s built around conversation.
BTW does Tim have any idea if his blogging is actually affecting Masi’s bottom-line? Here’s a quote Tim made during a podcast last August:
“In the time I’ve been with the company, within the first two years we have doubled sales. And obviously it would be nice to say that it’s all about the blog, because I’m such a blog proponent, but I know that that’s been a key ingredient to it, because it’s allowed me to reach people.”
And keep in mind that a blog like Tim’s, which he attributes as a key catalyst for his company doubling its sales in two years, can be set-up and maintained for free. Even I can see that’s a good deal.
Oh man, Mack, you’re gonna have me crying over here. I’m way more flattered than you know and I say that sincerely.
My point has been, all along, that by giving the brand a person to relate to, people have a relationship with the brand by extension. Heck, the brand is built off of a person; Faliero Masi. I’m no Faliero by any means, but I am a person and a person who likes to engage in conversation and dialog. That dialog allows me to reach people… and that’s a good thing.
Engaging people in a conversation is what it’s all about; if YOU aren’t having that conversation with your customers or potential ones, you can bet your entire marketing budget that somebody else IS… and it might just be me.
Tim the main reason why I blogged about what you are doing is because I think this is where companies are heading. You already ‘get’ what companies and their managers will figure out over the next few years. I think/hope that most marketers/managers/execs that blog in say 2010, will have efforts that look similar to what MasiGuy looks like now.
Great post about a great guy, Mack. And a wonderful example of the power of conversation and of dialog.
I’d quibble with one small point in your post, however. You say, “And keep in mind that a blog like Tim’s, which he attributes as a key catalyst for his company doubling its sales in two years, can be set-up and maintained for free.” I disagree in part with you there, because there is a cost associated with staffing or writing any blog, even if it’s simply a resource cost.
Nice case, Mack. A related question: should we start teaching sales personnel in companies how to blog about their company/product? It’s kinda related to something I have had in mind while ago – to actually combine the HRM and marketing function.
Not only sales personnel of course, other people in company can start blogging (what’s new about that?). Yet, do we have any research or cases that would suggest this is more effective then having these same people doing something else?
It’s clear that a serious blog takes some hours a day. Perhaps one is enough after you become good. That’s like 1/8 of somebodies payment. It’s not really expensive. Yet you need to to teach that person in the beginning and further down the line that person has to pay attention to new stuff on the net (a lot is changing daily). So summing up that time, it takes more, perhaps 2 hours per day. Still not a big deal on costs.
Yet I’m wondering, if that person is not a good communicator (let’s say it’s an average) but is a good developer, isn’t there more outcome if that person does something else?
And if that person is a good communicator, what should be his/her job? Can that person make something else in 2 hours with more effect?
Ufff, too many questions?
Ann, did you just read my mind? You should have warned me.
“I disagree in part with you there, because there is a cost associated with staffing or writing any blog, even if it’s simply a resource cost.”
True, there’s definitely the human resource cost associated. In fact, it would likely grow as a company becomes better at blogging.
But the flipside is, as a company’s blogging efforts improved, the growth enjoyed should increase as well.
“Yet I’m wondering, if that person is not a good communicator (let’s say it’s an average) but is a good developer, isn’t there more outcome if that person does something else?”
Here’s where an important distinction needs to be made. I have seen bloggers that had absolutely atrocious grammar and spelling, but their passion for the topic literally oozed across the screen. Some would say they weren’t very effective communicators, but IMO if you can convey your passion to your readers, it’s all downhill from there. And as many of us that blog have noticed, our writing improves the more we do it.
I don’t think the ability to write well is paramount, I think being able to communicate your passion is far more important. Writing well is definitely very important, but I think passionate writing is what counts.
Or maybe they are the same thing…
I agree. The more I read arround the more it is obvious – passion wins. Yet that was what I was reffering to. Good communicators. People that know how to bring out their inside in some amazing form for the target groups.
Yet these people are often (from my experience) a good marketing-team members. They are also very good in making “regular” marketing communications. Or not. I have a lot of world to see still.
“Tim’s readers trust him, and by extension, that trust transfers to the Masi brand.”
Absolutely right. Although I don’t have the same passion for cycling that Tim has, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Masi to someone looking for a good bike.
(Something along the lines of “Check these guys out,” not “I endorse this product.”)
And this is true much more so for Masi than it would be for … I don’t know… what are the other brands? Schwinn? GT? Cobra? Mongoose? Something like that.
In fact, Masi is the only one I’m sure of.
Masi borrows Tim’s credibility to get inserted into the conversation.
“Absolutely right. Although I don’t have the same passion for cycling that Tim has, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Masi to someone looking for a good bike.”
Bingo. I know squat about cycling, but I do know that I trust Tim, and by extension, I trust Masi. So if anyone ever feels the need to ask me what cycle they should get, I’m going to tell them about Tim and Masi.
“Masi borrows Tim’s credibility to get inserted into the conversation.”
GREAT quote!
I think that if you blog about your life your worklife has to come into it somehow. Many of us, especially those of us who own our own business, find it hard to separate our personal life from our business. The small business owner who truly believes in whatever it is they are doing to earn their living is usually so wrapped up in this endeavor that it colors every aspect of their life. No wonder a blog by Tim would include Masi bicycles – they are his life. The secret is how to get one’s workers so involved in their job and career that of course they include their company in their blogs.
Mona – Nice insight. I would also hazard a guess and say that in many disciplines, some people would be falling over themselves for such an opportunity, so “how to get workers involved” isn’t as big an issue as “how can I convince management to unleash his arsenal”…
Although, I’m sure the reverse is often true – particularly for small businesses.
Cam- Thank you man. I didn’t realize I actually HAVE any credibility. Cool!
Thanks for the compliments, but to the point Mack is making- companies have an inverse relationship between benefit and cost. The cost, overall, is incredibly small and the return is potentially far, far greater.
It’s not like I’m a genius here; I started the blog specifically for the brand, not as a personal endeavor, because I had NO marketing budget to work with and a desperate need to reach people and re-launch awareness of the brand. I simply blended my personality/ personal life with the business/ brand because that’s all I knew to do. I had less of a strategic vision and more of a “well, let’s see what happens” approach to it all.
As I wrote in my chapter of the Age of Conversation, the main point is being there and being involved in the dialogs that ARE happening. If you aren’t, you are losing the battle.
Mack says: “I don’t think the ability to write well is paramount, I think being able to communicate your passion is far more important.”
Not to split hairs here, but communicating passion IS writing well. So yeah, Mackeral, they are the same thing…. it’s not about spelling and grammar, it’s about connecting with your audience, and being “heard.”
Mack says: “I don’t think the ability to write well is paramount, I think being able to communicate your passion is far more important.”
Don’t know that I agree with that at all. To whit: today’s tempest-in-a-teapot about Dreamhost’s communication regarding their billing incident.
http://blog.dreamhost.com/
Not knowing how to write effectively can seriously damage a product image.
Yes, some folks come by it naturally, as is evidenced by Tim’s success – but good writing is one of those ‘doesn’t seem as important, until it really is’ issues.
“Mack says: “I don’t think the ability to write well is paramount, I think being able to communicate your passion is far more important.”
Don’t know that I agree with that at all. To whit: today’s tempest-in-a-teapot about Dreamhost’s communication regarding their billing incident.”
I don’t think the writing was the issue there, not seeing the issue from the customer’s point of view was the problem. It’s never a good idea to joke about costing your customers money.
I would have to agree that the effectiveness of the communication comes from the things being said, as opposed to proper spelling and grammar- unless that is what you are selling.
I always counsel folks who seek my advice on blogging that being terrified by grammar/ spelling is self-defeating. Humans make mistakes and other humans know that. Showing off your humanity is a good thing. It builds that faith and trust. Unless you are specifically keeping things very sterile/ “professional”, the WHAT is more important than the HOW… in my opinion at least.
This is a great entry and underscores what we’ve been telling our clients for years. The old thinking where nobody is allowed to speak on behalf of the company is history. I think consumers are longing for a more personal connection with companies that they do business with. We find that it’s a challenge to get people to open themselves up and blog about what’s going on, but I can see it changing slightly. Just yesterday a local client emailed me to look at his blog on MySpace – he had written a great entry about all of the steps the restaurant had taken in 2007 to be more environmentally friendly, and the things they were looking to improve in 2008. Sounds like a great idea to me!
Tim -
You’ve taken grass roots, thinking outside the box and passion to new heights. Great job!
Brandon- Yes, it appears that companies are coming around more and more. Either they are allowing employees to blog a bit more freely or they are jumping in to blogging for the first time, but it is happening more and more.
Courtney- Thank you very much for your very kind words. I am always flattered by such comments.
I just finished a 3 day bike industry conference called the Bicycle Leadership Conference. It is largely about the state of the industry and its challenges, as well as advocacy issues, etc. However, in many of the sidebar conversations, I was approached about blogging. In the tiny world of cycling bloggers and even smaller world of bike industry blogger, I am viewed as something of an “expert” (which amazes me to this day). I can’t even remember the total number of blogging related conversations I had, but it was several each day of the conference. At one point, I was “holding court” with a small group, ranting (as I always do) about blogging. Instead of the curiously annoyed or disinterested looks of years past, many people were listening and even taking notes. My point is that the “tipping point” is coming- if it hasn’t already arrived. My industry is very, very slow to embrace changes like this, but it is doing it. It’s a very exciting time for me.
“Humans make mistakes and other humans know that. Showing off your humanity is a good thing. It builds that faith and trust.”
This is a classic lesson that unless you are in the blogosphere publishing and interacting with bloggers regularly, you simply do not get. Companies and individuals that think that blogging ‘is a fad’ don’t ‘get’ your statement above at all. Their loss.