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Shel Holtz
Communicating at the Intersection of Business and Technology
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The value of corporate blogging

An item from PRLeap.com on corporate blogging quotes Sally Falkow, senior strategist at Los Angeles-based Expansion Plus—an “Internet and PR firm”—touting search engine visibility as “one of the most important reasons to start a corporate blog.”

Search engine visibility is certainly a desirable outcome, but if it’s the motivation behind starting a corporate blog, your odds of success will drop precipitously. When Neville and I interviewed Michael Wiley, the man behind General Motors’ blogs and podcasts, we never once heard him talk about search engine visibility. His remarks focused squarely on a connection with the customer. I was particularly struck by Wiley’s observation that many of the comments to GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz’s posts on the GM Fastlane blog seem to come from people who have been waiting years for a channel allowing them to engage directly with someone in a position of authority.

Wanting to engage the customer (or other constituent audiences) must be the driving motivation behind a corporate blog. Embracing that concept will help ensure that the blog stays focused and builds positive relations. The GM blogs, according to Wiley, have received somewhere between 5 and 10 comments that were so inappropriate they needed to be deleted. This remarkably low number is attributable in large part to the customer focus of the blog and the clear evidence that the company really is listening to its customers.

Falkow does recognize the power of a corporate blog to put a human face on the company. But nowhere in the article does she address building relationships or interacting one-on-one with customers. (Of course, this doesn’t mean she doesn’t recognize the connection between blogs and social audiences; it could easily be that the reporter left out those remarks. Falkow has her own blog: falkow.blogsite.com.

02/28/05 | 3 Comments | The value of corporate blogging

Comments

  • 1.I am very familiar with Falkow's operation. I have also had a collaboration with her technology partner (MyST Technology Partners) in setting up some classroom experiences for my students at University of Michigan. I have posted on Expansion Plus in my own blog here:

    http://thecommunityengine.com/home/archives/2005/02/your_meme_in_th.html

    In a nutshell, you have summarized her position accurately. She sells principally to small to medium size businesses. For them, the story has to be a direct ROI story. They are looking for people to find them on the Internet and convert into paying customers.

    Often, small businesses are scared by the cost of interaction (you note in another post today how blogging could be a full time job). This is something a behemoth like GM could afford but just seems outrageous to a small business.

    My own personal cut is that blogging may serve as a means of raising web visibility for targeted keywords, but as adoption of blogging grows, those keywords will have to be very targeted indeed. More likely, in the type of one-way blogging that Sally Falkow undertakes (the system she uses does not have a commenting mechanism), the continuous updates to the site will raise its information value to people already searching for a product causing them to return for more. A recent doubleclick study indicates that people's web search behavior for products like clothes, computers, and travel can last as long as 10 weeks culminating two weeks before the actual purchase. Sites that have the highest information value will likely draw return visits and therefore more chances to close the deal during this search period. The site will likely have been initially found by search on generic terms (and in 26% of cases pay-per-click).

    The case for interaction, in the case of small to medium businesses, comes in understanding what it is your customers are trying to figure out during the evaluation process. That information can be very valuable in ongoing marketing and product devleopment. In the case of long sales lead products like software development services, interacting by blogging may be the most efficient way. Small businesses with products like this are the best candidates for interactive blogging services because the interactive sales and customer service processes are obvious to them.

    I summarize all of this with links in this post:

    http://thecommunityengine.com/home/archives/2005/02/the_value_of_in.html

    I enjoy your blog and podcast. Like the new 40 minute format. The GM guy was good.

    Bud

    Bud Gibson | February 2005 | Ann Arbor, MI

  • 2.Thanks Bud, for your observations and your kind words. As I look at blogs like Paul Wodehouse's Tinbasher Blog, it strikes me that very small companies can benefit from a blog that includes comments to encourage a dialogue. Paul's is a very small business but he still finds tremendous ROI in the results of the direct connection between him and his customers. Of course, he values the search engine visibility, too.

    I'm looking forward to reading the post you referenced.

    Shel Holtz | February 2005 | Chicago, IL

  • 3.I am well aware of the benefits of blogging to build community and relationships. But it's not always something the company wants to do. In fact, one of the companies I am working with right now is balking on that very point.

    They are wary of opening communication with their public as they had a bad experience with postings in a forum some years ago.

    I am working with their PR and Marketing team to get their CEO to blog. But loosening their iron grip on the 'party line' is not easy.

    Small and mid sized companies are probably more focused on the immediate return they get.

    And for them increased visibility across a wide spectrum of keywords that occurs naturally from writing posts in the blog is a desired outcome.

    Sally Falkow | February 2005 | Pasadena CA

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