Overcoming a Common Objection to Business Blogs: The Lowest Common Denominator
By Tom Chandler on Feb 8, 2007 in Business Blogging, Engagement Marketing
Because I’m busy writing and I miss things, I depend on other blogs like the The Copywriter’s Crucible to keep me up to date.
In this case, the Crucible published an analysis of Edelman Research’s – A Corporate Guide to the Global Blogosphere.
One point really hit home:
Businesses need to engage the blogosphere to find their advocates and detractors and to start a dialogue to enable the influencers amongst their readership to be more effective.
While it’s a marvel of passive voice, this passage illustrates a stumbling block I often find among among my business clients.
The Negative Internet
Many businesses view the online world with some suspicion, believing that online speech is largely negative in nature, and that little good can come from engaging with difficult online personalities.
Indeed, several clients in one market have pointed to unmoderated online message boards as examples of why they’re not interested in an online presence.
For those clients, it’s important to differentiate the “lowest common denominator” of the message boards and the “directed” content generated on blogs.
Unlike a message board - where anyone can see pretty much anything at anytime - a blog provides a directed conversation.
Humans are social creatures, and tend to congregate with like-minded souls - even online.
Thus, a business blog becomes a rallying point for the brand’s online partisans - one that arms them to participate in other, less-controlled online discussions about the brand.
The Amplifier Effect
While many businesses view a corporate blog as a small, discrete chunk of the online world, the truth is a blog is an amplifier - provided the company’s message is relevant, interesting and transparent.
The trick, of course, is educating businesses to the positive role a blog can play - even when all they can see are the “content cesspools” that populate the online world.
Technorati Tags: engagement, engagement marketing, blog, blogging, business blog, business blogging, edleman, copywriter’s crucible
The theory of business blogging is sound and proven time and again by research and statistics. I think what is needed is more well known case studies of how business blogging has improved a brand’s image or increased sales - which is going to take time.
Throughout marketing, PR and business mindsets as a whole, many are aware of the need to start engaging but are waiting and watching to see if others get their fingers burnt, rather than taking the risk themselves.
The door is still wide open for early adopters to gain an advantage on their rivals by engaging with their marketplace and improving the way they market themselves online.
Matt Ambrose | Feb 9, 2007 | Reply
Your point about early adopters gaining an advantage is spot on.
I’m dabbling in one not-inconsequential market that’s seemingly designed for blogging - where a company willing to blog would gain a huge advantage.
The response from the half-dozen marketing managers/directors/imposters I’ve approached has been a variation on a theme: everyone will have one of these in a couple years, but we’re not ready yet.
A lot of people struggle to find metrics to measure ROI, but most small and medium sized firms aren’t blogging for more basic reasons.
They don’t have a lot to say; don’t know how to say it; or don’t know who’s going to say it for them.
Tom Chandler | Feb 9, 2007 | Reply
As usual the smaller businesses are seeing the advantage of blogging. A small business owner or marketer can reach a significant audience with just the pounding of the keyboard and at no cost. The big advertising dollars spent by the major brand marketers are losing their sizzle and effectiveness as people recognize the freedom, variety, dynamics, and clarity of the Internet and blogging.
So I say, let the corporations wait, as the smart businesses jump in first. Coming in later with big bucks and a big bang will not help the wealthy corporations, because it is truly an even playing field.
Bill Dueease | Feb 20, 2007 | Reply
Bill,
Good point.
I’m also thinking most bigger companies will produce what I call “corporate blogs” - channels that reflect most corporate communications (which is to say lifeless and impersonal).
In a competitive market situation, it’s possible a small company blog would prevail simply because it’s more engaging; small organizations have the ability to be more “real” than big companies.
Do you see smaller companies adopting blogs more quickly than larger organizations?
Content seems to be the gating factor for both…
Tom Chandler | Feb 20, 2007 | Reply
Tom,
Yes, I definitely see smaller companies not only adopting blogs more quickly but more completely than the larger companies. The smaller the company the quicker they will adopt blogs, and with more enthusiasm, once they recognize and understand what blogs can and will do for them and their business. Getting the word out to the small companies about blogs, what the benefits are, and how they can get their message out with little effort is vital.
Using blogs, much smaller companies can compete with the bigger players and beat them easily with little, if any cost, and on their own terms. Smaller companies can tell it like it is and produce very accurate and useful content that has real value to readers. The big boys will have to submit their own content to so many different editing groups and layers who will alter, eliminate, and reduce the content to remain in the protection mode. Or they will produce so much excessive wordy content to cover their posterior t that it will not be relevant or readable
Bill Dueease | Feb 21, 2007 | Reply
I agree with the fact small businesses will look towards blogging to generate competitive advantage.
In slightly larger companies, the current marketing/pr function very often seems to be engaged with fulfillment rather than generating the actual content, or business proposition - which may well be down to the product manager or business unit owner. There is this division of labour.
The people with the message don’t currently have the skills to deliver the message either.
My view is that existing company structures will actually work against the online world of instantaenous and spontaneous corporate blogging, because not only will decisions take far too long, the tools don’t exist for inside the company for proper collaboration (internal blogs and wikis anyone?).
Emailing 6 people (groan) asking for their veiws just doesn’t make for a responsive situation. And blogging by committee will probably deliver that lifeless and dull voice that Tom mentioned above.
In the smaller business, on whether to accept the content of a blog post - the decision maker is usually the producer of that post - reducing decision time…of course.
Matt Lambert | Mar 26, 2007 | Reply
It’s interesting that the bigger companies are taking a beating in this thread (and perhaps deservedly so).
Still, the only company that’s been responsive to bloggers in the fly fishing space (it’s not a random example; I have a top fly fishing blog) is one of the biggest.
The smaller companies — who have the most to gain and (supposedly) fewer barriers — are simply waiting.
Anecdotal for sure, but is it playing out across other industries? Are small and medium-sized companies long on opportunity but short on bandwidth and vision?
Tom Chandler | Mar 26, 2007 | Reply