starting a dialogue with your market: 8 steps to establishing a successful corporate blog

www.crimson-consulting.com © CRIMSON CONSULTING 2007

Karen O’BrienCrimson Consulting

Partner, Interactive Services

Oct 11th, 2007

Starting a Dialogue with Your Market: 8 Steps to Establishing a Successful Corporate Blog

2www.crimson-consulting.com © CRIMSON CONSULTING 2007

Agenda

Sorting Through the Buzz Who’s Blogging Today? 8 Steps to Establishing Your Blog What Blogging Means to Marketers


Blogging and Web 2.0


Elements of Web 2.0 Apply to Blogs

Transparency Participation, not publishing Radical Trust The customer is the expert Collective Intelligence Tagging, not Taxonomy


Agenda



Who’s Blogging Today?

70 Million + Blogs

1.4 Million new blog posts every day

Most Major Corporations are blogging (approx 45% of F500)

A LOT of Small/ Medium Businesses are blogging

A LOT of individuals


13% of online consumers publish a blog, 19% comment, 15% use RSS, 33% read blogs


Agenda



Step 1: Do Your Research

What blogs are out there already?

Are your competitors blogging?

Who is addressing your target market?

What are the “hot” topics of interest in your market?

Who are the A-List bloggers? What can you learn from them?


Step 2: Re-Think the Basics

Web 1.0

Acquisition

Retention

Growth

Web 2.0

Attract

Engage

Extend

Attract readers to you blog

Engage readers in commentary/ discussion

Extend your content beyond your website

Source: Karen O’Brien, Crimson Consulting 2007


Step 3: Establish Clear Goals

Keys to maximizing your blogging ROI:

Know exactly what you’re trying to accomplish via your blog Set a "target action" – what action do you want the reader to

take when coming to your blog? Which conversations will drive participation in your industry? What is the key audience that your blog will reach? Will the blog format encourage audience participation? What will a company-sponsored blog achieve for your firm? Who should own the blog's content? How will the blog fit into the rest of your communication

strategy?

Without clear goals, your blog will lack focus


The Organic vs. Engineered Experience

Over-managing blogs makes them less effective

Why? Freshness comes from the spontaneous expression

of ideas Optimizing the positive impact of each thought will

inhibit passionate conversation

Marketers can align a blog with company goals by: Designing a smart blog strategy Choosing the right people to blog Setting an effective blog/comment policy

Source: Forrester Research 2006


Step 4: Understand the Commitment

To be effective you must blog regularly and the content must be relevant to the audience

How Often? 2-3x/ week minimum – ideally daily. (A-List bloggers – blog 2-4x/ day)

Typical blog entry “bite-sized” – 30 minutes to write

Time to get a following of regular readers: up to 1 yr

Practice in a personal blog before launching your professional blog


Step 5: Choose the Right Type of Blog

Which One is Aligned With Your Goals?

Employee Blogs Executive Blogs Product Blogs Issue Blogs Thought Leadership Blogs Character Blogs Community Blogs


Employee Blogs

Vendorprisey

SAP Employee Blog

“Wiki’s and RFP’s”

“We need to drink the koolaid of quality collaboration and co innovation

•Trust employees. Let them create open honest dialogues to the public from within company•Create policies to control sensitive information, but do not restrict open dialogue

•The dialogue will happen regardless of whether you allow it to or not


Executive Blogs

Sun Microsystems Official blog from the

CEO Jonathan Schwartz

shares honest observation from a ‘conference’ of startups in Silicon Valley

Excerpt from Jonathan Schwartz’s Blog regarding direct feedback from startups:

“BUT THERE WAS A TROUBLING, CONSISTENT MESSAGE. IT USUALLY WENT LIKE THIS,

THANK YOU SUN.

BUT HEY, WHY ARE YOU HERE?

I THOUGHT YOU BUILT BIG EXPENSIVE STUFF THAT RAN IN BANKS?

OUCH."

Being transparent in blogs builds trust for a company


Product Blogs

GM’s Fastlane Blog

GM’s Fastlane Blogs

“Where to see the Chevy Volt in Washington”

•Auto Industry News from GM

•Forum for GM executives to talk about GM’s current and future products and services, discuss the development and design of important products.


Issue Blogs

AARP Issues Blog

The power to make it better

“Art Buchwald on Hospice and Life While Dying ”

•Successful aging, including economic and retirement security; health and wellness; global aging; livable communities and mobility; and volunteering.


Thought Leadership Blogs

Forrester Groundswell

Charlene Li’s Blog

“Welcome to the Blogosphere, Sony”

“How Consumers Use Social Networking Sites" report now available”

•Social Media, Research, Web 2.0, Community


Character Blogs

Annies Homegrown

Bernie’s Blog

“Could you eat well on $21 a week?”

•Healthy eating, organics, social issues, green and eco-topics

•New product announcements – EG: chocolate chip bunny grahams


Community Blogs

Craig Newmark

Craig from CraigsList indulges himself

“A Cheap Green PC that Delivers”

“OK I was on Charlie Rose Last Night”

•Non-Profit, Social issues, Community and Web


Setting A Blog Culture is Strategic

Source: 2005 BACKBONEMEDIA INC.


Step 6: Start Blogging!

Jump in by starting with a practice blog A great majority of corporate blogs leverage one of

the major blogging platforms: Wordpress, Typepad or similar

Don’t aim to be 100% perfect Use a conversational tone, as if talking with a

colleague Experiment with tone, content types, including links,

photos, videos or other media to support your blog The longer you wait, you are delaying a dialog with

your market


Step 7: Promote Your Blog

Include your blog URL on everything you would normally include a website URL on

Submit your blog URL to search engines and blog directories such as Technorati

Link to other blogs

Become an active commenter on other blogs

Provide RSS or XML feeds to allow syndication of your blog

· Publish original research or breaking news


Step 8: Measure Your Success

Measure experience not page views Measure Return on Influence – not Return on

Investment

Blogs: Frequency and depth of interactions Blog traffic Number of RSS subscribers Advertising revenues Affiliate sales Product sales Consulting revenues Search engine ranking Number of comments Number of inbound links/trackbacks Brand impact


Understanding the Influencer

Tends to be well known, mentioned and/or linked to by other members in the community or blogosphere

Has a high number of views or readership to their blog or post Has a high number of comments/dialog surrounding their posts

Source: Buzz Logic 2007


Agenda



Why Marketers Should Care About Blogs

Technology buyers are turning to blogs for info (word of mouth is the most trusted reference)

The ranks (and influence) of corporate bloggers is continuing to grow

B2B Marketers are investing more in emerging tactics

www.crimson-consulting.com © CRIMSON CONSULTING 2007

Thank you!For more information, contact:

Karen O’Brien

Partner, Interactive Services

Crimson Consulting Group

[email protected]

Tel: 415.720.6859

Email: [email protected]: www.crimson-consulting.com

Blog: www.webstrategyblog.com