When MSM (that's mainstream media) ventures into blogging, they're savvy enough to know it doesn't simply mean that their reporters and journalists scurry to whip out blogs. Sure, it can mean that too.
Typically (and importantly) it means readers become full-fledged creators and writers too. Blogs emerged out of the desire to reclaim the "write" side of Tim Berners Lee vision of a read-write Web. (In fairness, wikis more purely capture this writable Web vision.)
Ultimately that's the vision I have for business blogs: it's not just the company's press. There are more collaborative participatory media initiatives cropping up each day than I can point to here. Just last week, I hear two of my local TV stations tell me they're gearing up to allow viewers to video blog.
You might say that a lot of the fervor of citizen media is business model related: i.e. less staff reporters, more amateur (read: free) reporters. But it goes deeper than that. (And deeper than anything I can cover in any single blog post.)
I heard Martin Turner, of BBC Americas, last week say: "BBC broke story after story in Africa simply because we were there." Now, they've pulled back on foreign correspondents due to expense and dispatch reporters out from London as needed. There's still no substitute for being close to the action - ready, alert and probing.
Businesses rarely get out in the field or reside in the customer's environment much. Yet that's where the breaking stories are. Where the new product ideas and company directions lie.
In order to have a deep and enduring impact on everyday customs and habits, brand initiatives need to take advantage of current trends that are opposed to the contemporary norm. [For instance,] Starbucks played right into two major cultural disruptions...[and today the] coffee house culture has been established in America... - Alex Wipperfurth, Brand Hijack
Do you know where does your prospects and customers hang out and swap stories? How do you notice emerging patterns?
Marketing Roadmaps explains the intent behind the new blog, Multiple Choice:
The people who really know the scoop are the ones on the front lines. Their experiences and stories are far more valuable, and interesting, to other educators than anything we could write. And preaching to the choir here on the Roadmap, but we chose the form of a blog because it offers two-way communication, which makes it a meeting place for educators tackling security issues, versus a static resource page.
Educators speaking directly to educators. About issues faced by educators when integrating technology in the learning and testing environment – technology evaluations, practical advice on holding faculty workshops, information about new tools that might be useful etc. etc. Not just information about [company sponsor] Software Secure.
"The people who really know the scoop are the ones on the front lines." Gee, sounds an awful lot like the grassroots media and citizen journalist rallying cry to me. There's a lot of business lessons in grassroots media. Marketing and media often go hand-in-hand.
Months back, Jeff Jarvis speaks to a media executive buddy who is advising a word-of-mouth company about blogs and buzz:
He said the real value of this to marketers is in listening to what consumers say about their products. Well, then, I said, that should be transparent. Any smart company should create the means where they can listen to consumers -- really listen and let customers influence how products are designed, made, and sold...Hell, they should call it ear-of-mouth marketing.
BONUS: In another post, Susan Getgood offers great tips on when customer-centric blogs are ideal:
- Companies in markets where a strong sense of community develops offline and online;
- Products or issues that elicit passion;
- Topics and issues that are at the intersection of company and customer interests. No one wants to read a blog, written by customers or not, that JUST talks about the product;
- If corporate-sponsored (versus a customer evangelist doing it on his own -- more on that later), a sponsor that is willing to let the blog happen. The good and the bad.
Comments