Entering the corporate blogosphere

Companies turn to blogging for a more efficient, humanist Internet presence

Story by Tara Wick

Blog: a 2004 Person of the Year in Time magazine. That’s right … person. It is, after all, people who are behind blogging.

Time magazine defines a Person of the Year as a single individual, multiple individuals, an idea, place, or machine that “for better or worse, has most influenced events in the preceding year.” It certainly seems blogging has an influence on society — personally and corporately.

Thanks to blogging, corporations no longer fear the arduous process of building a Web site, because blogging allows them to easily find a presence on the Internet in a matter of minutes. There is no HTML, no Web design.

“In its most basic form, blogging cuts through the clutter,” said Dana VanDen Heuvel, owner of BlogSavant in Green Bay, and director of business development with Pheedo, a California-based Weblog marketing consulting firm.

“You need to know almost nothing technical to start a blog. Companies can go to Blogger.com and have a blog published in a minute and 42 seconds,” VanDen Heuvel explained.

Once a corporate blog is built, a sense of community — internally and externally — can begin to flourish, especially if authenticity, education, information, and persuasion are present in an entertaining environment.

All about “blog”
The simplest, most easily understood explanation of blogging: an online journal allows someone to share news and opinions, to make connections in real time — with entries in reverse chronological order.

“If a blog is an online journal, a corporate blog is a company’s direct customer communication mechanism,” explained Brenda Haines, a partner with Blue Door Consulting in Oshkosh.

Online journaling was developed in 1997, but the term “blog” appeared around 1999 or 2000, probably concurrent with the initial developments of blogging-specific software, according to VanDen Heuvel. Originally used as social tools, online journals were coined “Web logs” in 1997 before they were abbreviated to “blogs.”

“We didn’t see blogging en masse until 2000 or 2001. It started doubling every four to five months, and in about mid-2003, the big wave of popularity hit. There are over 20 million being actively tracked. But not all blogs are public — you won’t find them all on Google — so there are actually 40 or 50 or 60 million total on the Internet,” said VanDen Heuvel.

However, the number of companies blogging is diminutive yet, with only 4 percent of Fortune 500 companies participating.

Among Wisconsin businesses hosting blogs, VanDen Heuvel mentioned Hobart Welders, a division of Appleton-based Miller Electric, and 4imprint of Oshkosh. Several Wisconsin newspapers also feature various blogs, including a number of the Gannett publications based in the Fox Valley.

Why the corporate blog?
Observation, paying, and playing are the three main reasons companies are blogging, according to VanDen Heuvel. He spelled out what each means.

Observation: “The consumer-generated media that comes out of blogs is nothing short of astounding,” VanDen Heuvel said. “You look for what people are saying about your brand, how they perceive it. That’s really the first thing people are starting to do.”

VanDen Heuvel said General Motors built its own blog when it discovered public conversations were occurring about the company in other blogs.

Consumers’ blogs regarding their preferences and opinions allow companies to observe and understand their customers and decide whether they will react to comments. Is change a necessity? Is improvement of products and services possible? Are there specific customer suggestions or requests that can be implemented?

“The Internet has become one of the largest free focus groups you can imagine,” said VanDen Heuvel. “If a company allows feedback, people will say some pretty nasty things and some pretty nice things. It’s a great benefit if the company can act on it. Face it, address it, find out why he said what he said — it might turn out well.

“But there’s also a danger: everyone else is getting an unfiltered view of what people thought about a product or service.”

If comments are negative, a company may, in turn, use its blog to defend its product or service, or it might say, “You’re right. There is a problem, and we’re going to fix it.”

Paying: “People are still trying to get their arms around whether [blogs] should be sales tools,” said Blue Door’s Haines.
However, there are businesses using blogs as a medium of advertising — a sensible, cost-efficient way to reach into a market and make a name for themselves, according to VanDen Heuvel, especially through search engines. Blogs tend to become content-heavy, and a great deal of text brings the possibility of myriad keywords, which consumers punch in to search engines when trying to locate products and services. Due to the design of blogs, search engines are more likely to pick up these keywords and bring potential customers to corresponding Web sites where they might purchase products and services.

Consumers might also provide valuable demographic information on blogs. This allows companies to target consumers with services and advertisements tailored specifically to their wants and needs.

Playing: “When companies begin playing, people are being intravenously fed information,” said VanDen Heuvel.
One or several main employees at a company post online to keep customers informed about new and existing products, offer person-to-person contact, and create a sense of community between the company and its public, therefore forming a human and favorable impression of the organization. Blogs are also effective tools for internal communication (replacing the more expensive, more complex intranets), as well as staying in touch with suppliers, as noted in Stephen Baker’s Business Week article on February 14, 2006, “The Inside Story on Company Blogs.”

“Blogs have marketing people, product designers, interviews with the CEO that are talking about the product, about the company — stuff you won’t see in press releases and media interviews,” said VanDen Heuvel. Instead, it’s authentic communication that is sometimes complete with spelling mistakes. “Blogging is the Internet equivalent of reality TV, because it’s all about reality,” said VanDen Heuvel.

Blogging the 4imprint way
At promotional products distributor 4imprint, company president Kevin Lyons-Tarr blogs to provide another channel of communication with current and prospective customers.

“People get to know us, our thinking process. It’s a good, cost-effective way to get the word out and show people what we’re all about. We use it as a marketing tool, but it’s a byproduct. We are not overtly out there marketing with it — it’s not designed to get an order,” Lyons-Tarr said.

At one point, 4imprint had plans to add a color to a bag line, but there was a great debate about which color. “We put it out on the blog and got feedback,” said Lyons-Tarr.

4imprint expanded the creative parameters of blogging with its “Love, Ludlow” project, which followed shortly after the company initiated its blog. “Love, Ludlow,” a film by David Paterson, appeared as a nominee at Sundance Film Festival in 2005. Paterson, already a 4imprint customer, contacted Lyons-Tarr for assistance in creating buzz about the film through 4imprint products and blogging.

“As I talked to him, I thought, You don’t often run into someone who’s been nominated for Sundance. So we said we’d help,” said Lyons-Tarr. And the “Love, Ludlow” blog was born.

Paterson sent in pieces of his experience, and 4imprint posted them online. “Blow by blow, he was talking about what was going on at the film festival, what he was hoping to accomplish, and how close he was to meeting his goals,” said Lyon-Tarr. “The blog was the perfect use for that. It allowed David to tell his story his way.”

Blue Door Consulting provided assistance launching the “Love, Ludlow” blog.

“We circulated to other bloggers the fact that David Paterson was blogging,” Haines said. “The content was so fascinating. When David met Roger Ebert at Sundance, Ebert said, ‘I’ve been reading your blog.’”

4imprint offers personal and business-related postings by various employees and departments, including e-commerce, merchandising, Lyons-Tarr himself, an e-newsletter editor, and an artist who reports on her 4imprint-sponsored coast-to-coast walk for bone marrow disease research.

“She took a leave of absence to do this walk, and she writes this trip diary we post on the blog site. It’s her story — not our marketing people putting their spin on it. People can relate to that,” Lyons-Tarr said. “You just want to talk with somebody as if they’re in the room. It’s not polished — people respond to that and respect that. It speaks to the human element. And it really tells people about the kind of people we have working here.”

The ecommerce employee reports on changes to technology and the 4imprint Web site. Lyons-Tarr said it’s a vehicle for this employee to inform customers of new Web site features and what the company is considering doing.

The merchandising team at 4imprint reports on trends they see in merchandising, the e-newsletter editor educates customers on product use, and Lyons-Tarr admits to being “all over the place.” He speaks about the business, products, and whatever comes to mind. “Almost all posts are opinions or thoughts you have on a subject,” he said.

Roger Ebert was reading Paterson’s blog on 4imprint. Who’s reading yours? If you have no blog, it takes just a couple
of minutes to start building a humanistic sense of community with your customers and employees.