Blogging for Business
Everything you need to know and why you should care…
Authors: Shel Holtz + Ted Demopoulos

Chapter 2: Business Uses of Blogs
• Help reach communication goals
• Build goodwill and attract new business, improve customer relations, enhance brand, recruit employees, build support for initatives
• Never launch a “let’s launch a blog”

Overarching Rationale: Engaging the Customer

• Nature of the customer has changed
• Customer = buyer, investor, partner, media, virtually everyone your organization touches

“Perfect Storm”
• Timelines come to a climax at the same time = perfect storm with customer at the apex. Timelines:
o Detachment of organization and customer
o Distrust of businesses
o Pervasive availability of the Internet
• Organizations disengage
o Customer has no input, connection to supplier (shoe buying experience example)
o Inability for a customer to influence the products and services available for them to buy
o Perceived lack of interest on the company’s part to listen to customers or communicate with them
• Skepticism
o Organizations have grown more distant from their customers
o Customers have responded to the deceit and greed of the business world with lower levels of trust.
o Customers need to engage one another AND the company

Social Software
• Vision of the internet:
o Everyone is a publisher
o Everyone is connected to everyone
• Social software:
o Software that enables the average person to collaborate with others online
• Blogs
• Wikis
• Social tagging sites (Flickr)
• Social networking sites (LinkedIn)
o New breed is easier to use = lower barriers to entry

Engaging the Customer
• Open a new marketing channel for products and services
• Reinforce the company’s brand
• Provide customer service
• Make company announcements
• EXECUTIVE BLOGS
o Blogs by senior company officials
o NEW PR contains more than 170 blogs by senior execs
o execs offer their perspectives on issues facing the company

Annual Report Blog
Appears once a year Appears frequently
Writing is Formal Writing is Candid
Cover Broad Issues Focuses on Specific Issues
You can’t respond Audience can comment

• COMPANY BLOGS
o Representative of a company writing on the organizations behalf
o Some companies hire bloggers
o Items that could be covered on the company web site….but a blog provides benefits such as:
• Speed
• Ability for readers to comment
• Presentation of information in a less corporate manner
o E.g. EDS Blog: The Next Big Thing
• PRODUCT BLOGS
o Updates about the product
o Issues affecting a customer’s purchase
o Address customer questions
o Announcement promotions
o Offer tips
o E.g. The Corvette Blog

• CUSTOMER SERVICE BLOGS
o Issues a product is facing
o How the company plans to address them
o E.g. Ebay Blog

• ADVOCAY BLOGS
o A blog dedicated to an issue
o Interested audiences get updates to company’s actions, position and reaction to developments
o E.g. AARP, Cisco Systems (gov’t relations)


• EMPLOYEE BLOGS
o Company blogs by any employee
o Lawyers may worry about what an employee may say
o E.g. Microsoft employee Robert Scoble Blog


Summary
Blogging is here to stay and can be a powerful tool for any business.

Ideas from this chapter for our presentation:
• Talk about the benefits of a blog for a business
• List all the different types of blogs
• Show examples