Products Don’t Blog, People Do
During my post-layoff sabbatical I have researched companies for whom I might approach to discuss employment opportunities. In addition to other criteria, companies must have a strong set of products and/or services, are positioned within their industry for growth, have an executive team in place who “get it” in regard to their business and the use of social media, and are utilizing (or are planning to utilize) social media. These are not necessarily social media vendors, these are companies that may be in advertising, consulting, IT, SaaS (software as a service), or another vertical.
Regardless of the vertical, one of the things I look at is the company’s use of social media. Any company that is going to compete in this day and age must have a solid social media strategy / plan and the means to execute. I am amazed at how many companies are not using social media, or have initiated the use of some social media without understanding how to use it. (Yes, here goes Steve again with the “strategy and planning” lecture…). For social media related vendors, the use of social media to run their own organizations is critical. The old adage “eating one’s own dog food” is especially true in this regard.
Take something as simple as a blog. Simple, yet so many companies and individuals incorrectly use blogs. I have seen many definitions for blogs, and Dave Evans provides one version in his book Social Media Marketing, An Hour a Day, “A blog is basically a diary that others can comment on.” Whether you agree with Dave’s definition or not, the point is that blogs are not a means of one way communication - outbound publishing. A blog is meant to foster conversation.
OK, so the improper use of a blog might be expected from a company that isn’t into and may not fully understand how to leverage different aspects of social media. Although misguided, there are many blogs created by “products”.
However, what is really amazing is when companies known for providing platforms for their client’s social media initiatives are so terribly off target when it comes to leveraging social media to run their own business.
I won’t name one company I came across, but they were behind a couple of the most well known and successful uses of social media to engage their clients’ customers for product innovation. Campaigns that are constantly used as case studies for what can be accomplished with social media. Their management has even been featured in some trade publications. Even though their CIO properly uses his blog to share information, raise discussion points relevant to their business, and solicit comments, they have two other “blogs” which totally miss the mark. One is the “Tech Blog”, and one is the “Product Blog”. The Tech Blog is s primarily an FAQ more suitable to the support page. The “Product Blog” is nothing more than a series of product functionality press releases. I’m sorry, but products don’t blog, people do.
Repeat after me… “social media is not outbound publishing”, “social media is not outbound publishing”, “social media is not outbound publishing”. Well done. Blogs are written by a person or people - identifiable persons or people – who have something relevant to say and want to solicit conversation. Blogs are not just another means to push information out. And they are certainly not the right venue for product functionality release announcements. Those belong on the News/Press Releases page.
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Steve – Great post and emphasizes the difference between Web 1.0, when websites were just online marketing materials, and Web 2.0, where UGC (user generated comments) are such an important component (the words USER and COMMENTS should be emphasized here). Companies thinking that they have entered the world of Web 2.0 by simply implementing a social media application remind me of one of my first mentors years ago who would always reference ‘a fool with a tool’.
Allen, I like “fool with a tool”. So true in too many cases. That is one of the reasons why the Tools / Rollout Plan component is the seventh of my Seven Components of Successful Community – they are just one (although important) part of a social media initiative.
You’re correct of course Steve
. Our clients resist bringing the actual people to the forefront of their communities, with a myriad of your standard corporate reasons (my favorite being “if competitors see his/her name, they’ll lure them away!”). At the end of the day, a person will blog only if they want to, and most people are resistant. I think it boils down to simple fear – of writing, of criticism, of conflict, of unemployment. I liken it to a junior high dance, sometimes you just have to grab someone’s hand and bring them to the middle of the floor, push them together and let them boogie. Unfortunately they frown on this in most office settings.
Andrew
Andrew,
Your statement that “…, a person will blog only if they want to,…” is right on. To that end, they should be allowed to blog about subjects they want to as long as it furthers the companies objectives. I’ve seen companies try to get their employees to blog within their area of expertise, about subjects they thought were relevant. As a result, the blogging effort was a moderate success with a decent number of good blogs being produced.
But then one particular company decided to tell the employee what to blog about – all to support the marketing message – regardless of whether the blogger thought the subject was interesting or applicable to their area of expertise. The resistance to forced subject blogging by the employees was not surprising, and little to no blogging was done after that point.
Steve, this is so true. Your post is a great lesson on how to approach blogging. You need to be human, you need to have a voice that sounds like it’s coming from a person. If you’re labeling your content a “blog” make sure that it is.
While you can and should use tools available to you for lots of creative purposes, like submitting software updates on a blog tool, that’s not a blog, that’s a software update and should be packaged and labeled as such.
It’s a great post that really does make blogging easy to understand.
Heather Strout | @heatherjstrout
I would have to agree, but then when it comes to technology and business the mix is rarely well balanced, and sometimes the taste is awful.
I run a company that focuses on collaboration and we have been involved in social media efforts for some of our clients. For my part I run my own blog on our website and like to believe that I fall into the category of a blogger that has something relevant to say and invites conversation.
However, I like to feel I take it one step further. I see my blog as a way of bringing together the idea of communication around experiences that are very relevant to our business, that will provoke conversation (or at the very least some thinking), and most importantly give my clients a chance to see a little more of us in action. I happen to believe that there’s something to be said for authenticity in building trust and relationship. A blog can be a great vehicle for that.
I may be alone in this, but in short I feel that the blog offers a way for me to communicate with an added ‘depth’ to those that visit our website. I’m not aware of many companies that have a customer facing blog and make an effort to regularly communicate through it. But then, I am also not to aware of many companies that try to strike a balance between people, process and technology either.
Perhaps my vision is biased? But I think that a blog is a great tool to build trust with your clients. Not only can they judge another aspect of what you’ve presented for themselves over time, but you also provide yourself an opportunity to differentiate your organization (assuming you’ve got something worthwhile to say).
Now, would every marketing or communications manager agree with my approach? Perhaps not. But then, blogging is still new, and (I would agree with you) mistunderstood. I believe that a part of the root cause is simply that people are experimenting with something new. When the rules are new, or vague, sometimes you get to make your own rules. And if my approach fails to eventually work I’m sure we’ll learn. But if it succeeds, then we’ll be able to continue blogging with a skip of integrity in our step.
Thanks again.
Some great points, Carmien. Customer facing blogs should add depth, demostrate expertise, and provoke thought if not conversation. There are tons of customer facing blogs – however (this post pointing out some examples), many are not being utilized in ways to provide maximum return. The use of social media tools without solid plan as to how and why. And, marketing or communications managers who don’t agree with your apporoach are part of the crew missing the boat.
Steve, you nailed it; now that I think about it my blogging focus is to provoke thought while profiling our expertise. Specifically, I focus on talking about business problems with a technology twist. But this focus is consistent with our business first, tech later approach.
The reality is that my use of blogging is probably more refined and targetted than most blogs, but then it’s a communication (two way being the emphasis here) tool that allows me to do things that I could do in no other way. If nothing else, it’s always nice to get a pat on the head and be told, yes, you are using Blogs the way you are supposed to be.
Which circles back to your original point. If I want to communicate one-way as a Product Blog, well, I may as well go back to a FAQ or product spec sheet.