The Business Blogging Field Guide

Slide 1: The Business Blogging Field Guide

Slide 2: Agenda • Introduction – What are web logs, or blogs? Guided Tour: The Business Blogging Field – Guide • The Tour Guide • The Recommender • The Maven • The Customer Advocate • The Do-er • The CEO Blog

Slide 3: What are web logs, or blogs?

Slide 4: What is a Blog? • A weblog (usually shortened to blog, but occasionally spelled web log) is a web- based publication consisting primarily of periodic articles, normally in reverse chronological order. (source: Wikipedia) • The first blogs date back to 1997, and historically focused on personal musings, political discussions, and myriad other “non- business” topics • 2005 will be remembered as the year that business blogs hit the radar

Slide 5: How popular are blogs? • Estimates of the number of blogs vary from a few million to 70million+. (Some analysts estimate only one-third of blogs are regularly updated.) • Between 12 and 14 million Americans (10-11 percent of Internet users) regularly use blogs. • Users access blogs via Web sites and email newsletters. • 34 percent of blog users have posted material to the blogs they visit. • Each of these metrics grows daily. Sources: iMedia Connection, Perseus White Papers, Pew Internet & American Life Project, Technorati

Slide 6: Common Traits Of Blogs • Frequently updated • Presented in reverse chronological order • Authored by a “person,” not a “company • Authentic voice, not “corporate-speak” • Many outbound links, even outside the organization • Example: GM’s Fastlane Blog, authored by Vice Chairman Bob Lutz and others (http:// fastlane.gmblogs.com)

Slide 7: Who reads blogs? • Reliable demographic data on typical blog users portray a desirable, literary, professional, cutting-edge audience. • This audience is: – Better educated and better paid than the average Web user; often younger too. – Information-hungry: Blog readers consume more magazines, radio, movies and books than other Americans, online and off. – Uses the Internet as their news, entertainment and communication medium of choice. – Spends more money online than the average Web user. Sources: Pew Internet & American Life Project, Quris

Slide 8: Demographics: Web users v. blog users Source: Quris/Bruner, “View from the Inbox” research, n=1,691 Web users, July 2003. Corroborated by Pew’s “Content Creation Online”

Slide 9: Corporations Blogging • Boeing • Craigslist • Edelman • GM • Google • HP • IBM • Macromedia • Microsoft • Mobius Venture Capital • RedHat • SAP • SUN • Yahoo! • …and many, many others

Slide 10: Characteristics of successful blogs • Successful blogs include: – Daily updates to a blog consisting of a single Web page of entries organized chronologically. • The most successful blogs often update >1x/day and include an archive. • Example: Most visits to University of Tennessee Law Prof. Glenn Reynolds’ site, Instapundit.com, generate one pageview. His site draws 100,000+ unique visitors each day. – Strong relationships within the “blogosphere” or blog network of related links. Most blogs link primarily to other blogs and non-traditional sources of news and information. • Example: One study found that only 9.9 percent of active blogs had a current post that linked to one of 2,875 traditional news sites. • Example: Technorati.com tracks over 55,000,000 blogs that generated over 1.2 billion links around the Web.

Slide 11: Why Do Companies Have Business Blogs?

Slide 12: Why Companies Blog – Customer Facing Reasons • Customer connection • Visibility • Networking • Real-time feedback • Differentiation

Slide 13: Why Companies Blog – Unique Internet Traits • Search engine notice • Brand visibility • Blogs are the “anti-spam” • Persistence • Timeliness • Extended audience reach through syndication Not just to talk…but to listen. •

Slide 14: Why Companies Blog – Linking and PageRank Google says: “PageRank performs an objective measurement of the importance of web pages. Instead of counting direct links, PageRank interprets a link from Page A to Page B as a vote for Page B by Page A. PageRank then assesses a page's importance by the number of votes it receives.” “PageRank also considers the importance of each page that casts a vote, as votes from some pages are considered to have greater value, thus giving the linked page greater value. Important pages receive a higher PageRank and appear at the top of the search results.”

Slide 15: What Kind Of Opportunity Do Blogs Represent For Your Company?

Slide 16: An Opportunity To Provide More Value To Customers • Blogs give an immediate venue for feedback and dialogue • Opportunity to learn about company updates, strategy • Provides opportunity to find others working on similar problems • Grants insight into the individuals behind the corporate veneer Photo credit: http://wiki.elearning.ubc.ca/WhySocial

Slide 17: An Opportunity To Provide More Value To The Organization • Company value – Real-time feedback from customers on current offerings – Unfiltered feedback from customers on current offerings – Low-risk environment to get feedback on future company direction – Infrastructure “in place” when a timely even breaks – Opportunity to build a daily addiction • Competitive edge – Can develop real relationships – “Integrity is our scam” – Expanded visibility • Provide an injection of voice, tone, personality and stickiness to the current web site • Can also solve the “last mile” issue that can thwart the development of daily content audiences by providing users the optional service of receiving blog(s) via email

Slide 18: An Opportunity To Better Understand Customers • Identify “hot button” items (both positive and negative) in real-time • Identify influencers, advocates (and detractors) • Site metrics – Measurable – Trend tracking – Referrals

Slide 19: Guided Tour: The Business Blogging Field Guide

Slide 20: The Business Blogging Field Guide • Business blogs have the opportunity to uniquely connect with customers and prospects • Many different ways business blogs can be used to create relationships • The Business Blogging Field Guide – The Tour Guide – The Recommender – The Maven – The Customer Advocate – The Do-er – The CEO Blog

Slide 21: The Business Blogging Field Guide: Tour Guide Blogs \"Tour Guide\" example Tour Guide Blogs Tour Guide\" blogs give a glimpse into the company. Not unlike an actual physical plant tour, this type of blog Blogger: Noah Acres gives a \"behind the scenes\" glimpse into Role: Director of Sales and Marketing the goings-on of the corporate Company: Bigha machinery. Sometimes they cover current events at the organization, Blog Location: introduce the reader to some of the http://www.bigha.com/blog/archives/000059.php members of the company, or highlight particular products or items of note.

Slide 22: The Business Blogging Field Guide: Recommender Blogs Recommender Blogs “Recommender\" examples \"Recommender\" blogs (commonly known as \"link blogs\") are not designed to be a destination in and of themselves, Blogger: Jeremy Zawodny but are instead a resource for readers of a particular business blogger. One can Role: Platform Engineering almost think of these types of blogs as Company: Yahoo! reviews or, as the name suggests, recommendations of items that the Blog Location: blogger believes will be of interest to his http://jeremy.zawodny.com/linkblog or her readers. In contrast to almost all of the other types of business blogs, Recommender blogs oftentimes do not contain commentary on or visibility into the Blogger: Robert Scoble company for which the blogger works. Role: Technical Evangelist Rather, the blogger becomes a resource Company: Microsoft (now PodTech) for his or her readership and, as a side effect, brings more attention to the Blog Location: organization for which the blogger http://www.google.com/reader/shared/14480565058256660224 works.

Slide 23: The Business Blogging Field Guide: Maven Blogs “Maven\" examples Maven Blogs \"Maven\" blogs (the maven moniker shamelessly stolen from the Malcolm Gladwell book The Tipping Point) are Blogger: Carolyn Elefant business blogs that highlight an Area of Expertise: Solos and small law firms individual's expertise in a particular area. Company: The Law Offices of Carolyn Elefant Blog Location: Contrast these to the \"Tour Guide\" http://www.myshingle.com blogs. Where the tour guides are showing an inside view of the company, the mavens are putting their expertise out there for readers to discover. Blogger: Ross Mayfield The most interesting thing about the maven business bloggers is that, Area of Expertise: Wikis and collaborative technologies typically, the blogs are centered around Company: SocialText a business area or concept, and are not Blog Location: focused on the blogger's employer or associated organization. http://ross.typepad.com

Slide 24: The Business Blogging Field Guide: The Customer Advocate “Customer Advocate” examples Customer Advocate Blogs Customer advocate blogs (or advocate- styled posts within a larger, more general blog) are those that expressly Blogger: John Dowdell engage directly with the customer, solicit Role: Customer Support feedback, answer direct customer Company: Macromedia questions, and generally reach out and act as a bridge between customers, their Blog Location: concerns and suggestions, and the http://weblogs.macromedia.com/jd/archives/2005/01/real_jumps_s organization. When done well, customer advocate blogs will communicate full-circle, and follow the following steps: Blogger: Robert Scoble Role: Technical Evangelist 1) Engage the conversation Company: Microsoft (now PodTech) 2) Distill and group the feedback Blog Location: 3) Prioritize the feedback http://radio.weblogs.com/0001011/2005/01/06.html 4) Report back 5) Get to closure

Slide 25: The Business Blogging Field Guide: “Do-er” Blogs “Do-er” examples “Do-er” Blogs Whereas the Maven business blogs typically are written at a high level, cover a broad industry, and oftentimes Blogger: Bryan Cantrill (middle) do not overly associate the business Role: Solaris Kernel Development blogger with the organization they are Company: Sun with, the \"Do-er\" blogs dive to a deeper level. In some ways, these types of Blog Location: business blogs could be thought of as a http://blogs.sun.com/roller/page/bmc/20050125 more narrowcast version of the Maven blog, concentrating on a particular area of expertise within a particular organization. Blogger: Archie Reed It is extremely important to note, Role: Secure Identity Management however, that Do-er blogs in particular Company: HP are not restricted to the high-tech industry. In fact, some of the most Blog Location: interesting stories and insight from down http://h20325.www2.hp.com/blogs/reed in the trenches comes from areas outside of high-tech.

Slide 26: The Business Blogging Field Guide: CEO Blogs CEO Blogs “CEO Blog” examples Although commonly called a \"CEO Blog,\" the name itself is a bit of a misnomer. Although a CEO Blog is oftentimes Blogger: Bob Lutz written by the chief executive of an organization, the name has been co- Role: Vice Chairman opted a bit and now commonly refers to Company: General Motors a business blog that is written by any high-level executive of an organization. Blog Location: BusinessWeek gets it right: \"Execs are http://fastlane.gmblogs.com finding blogs useful for plugging not just their products, but their points of view.\" The real power of the CEO Blog, however, is that it can be a strong -- and perhaps the supreme -- means of differentiation for an organization. Blogger: Bob Parsons Ultimately, products commoditize and Role: Founder and President best practices can be copied. The only real differentiators that are sustainable Company: GoDaddy are the connections that form between Blog Location: members of an organization and customers. http://www.bobparsons.com