ForrTel:The Essentials Of Corporate BloggingWhen And How Businesses Should Use Blogs

Charlene Li

Principal Analyst

Forrester Research

March 22, 2005. Call in at 12:55 p.m. Eastern Time

Theme

Blogging requiresa new mindset

Agenda

• What are the elements of a successful blog?

• What types of blogs should companies consider having?

• What steps should companies take to set up a blog?

• What guidelines should companies have for bloggers?

Blogging isn’t close to mainstream yet — so why bother?

Base: North American online consumers

Source: Consumer Technographics® August 2004 North American Devices, Media, and Access Online Study

50%

5%

3%

2%

43%

12%

6%

9%

I have never heard of blogs

I regularly read blogs

I am interested in creating a blog

I have a personal blog

All online consumers

18-24 year old online consumers

Bloggers consider themselves opinion leaders

Source: Consumer Technographics® August 2004 North American Devices, Media, and Access Online Study

Percent of users who agree with the statement, “I am a natural leader — people always listen to my opinion.”

Base: North American online consumers

35%

47%

48%

All online customers

I have a personal blog

I regularly read other people’s blogs

Elements of a successful corporate blog

• Meets business objectives

• Meshes with other corporate communication efforts

• Builds a relationship with the audience

» Return visits

» Comments

» Trackbacks

• Listens and responds

• Has a distinct voice that shares a passion, a point of view

• Uses transparency to develop trust

Successful blogs do not necessarily have . . .

• Comments

• Daily updates

• Only one author

Case Study: GM’s FastLane Blog (fastlane.gmblogs.com)

• Written by Bob Lutz, Vice Chairman of GM

• Comments are screened before being posted

• Goal is to promote new cars being introduced

• Lutz writes about his views on recent press reviews, events, and comments on the blog itself

Case study: GM’s FastLane Blog

Recent posts on FastLane

• The benefits of front-wheel drive versus rear-wheel drive

• Why he loves the auto industry and car design

» “I did always know I wanted to work in the auto industry. For one simple reason: We design, engineer, build and sell dreams.”

• ‘Mea culpa’ on a previous posting

» “The following sentence . . . is a good example of the velocity of one’s words contaminating one’s intent.”

Eating one’s words, gracefully

“It was developed specifically for European roads and drivers, and, as such, is not

intended for American needs or tastes.” Bob Lutz, March 4, 2005

“What I should have said is that BLS is . . . built on the same architecture as the Saab 9-3, that, for exchange

rate reasons, we can’t profitably bring to the United States. So this generation is going to be Europe-only. Our current thinking is that the next generation will be

available around the world.” Bob Lutz, March 10, 2005

Case study: Microsoft’s Channel 9

• Engineers talk about their products in videos

• Commentators have profiles, and comments are recorded

• Other tools include discussion boards, wikis, and member directory (16,024 to date)

“Channel 9 is all about the conversation. Channel 9 should inspire Microsoft and our customers to talk in an honest and human voice. Channel 9 is not a marketing tool, not a PR tool, not a lead generation tool.” 

Channel 9 uses community tools aggressively

Typical profile on Channel 9

Types of blogs

• Internal team blog

• Product support

• Issues/thought leadership blog

• “Executive” blog

Avenue A/Razorfish “peers network” merges blogs and social networks to facilitate collaboration

Internal blogs: Disney captured information for sharing

• Ops/engineering team set up Movable Type blogs for shift logs to share information over 24 hours

» Also included discrepancy and ratings reports

• Information was distributed via RSS

» NewsGator installed as the aggregator

• Wikis from Socialtext were used for internal collaboration and product development

Internal blog: Market research and public relations

• Market researcher may blog current industry and company news

» Can distribute the blog via an RSS feed

» Create different feeds for specific projects

• Public relations provides links to stories about the company

Personal employee blogs

• Employees will blog for themselves, so set up clear guidelines

• Establish which rules are inviolable

• Set expectations on when companies will intervene

Corporate blogging policy example

1. Make it clear that the views expressed in the blog are yours alone and do not necessarily represent the views of your employer

2. Respect the company’s confidentiality and proprietary information

3. Ask your manager if you have any questions about what is appropriate to include in your blog

4. Be respectful to the company, employees, customers, partners, and competitors

5. Understand when the company asks that topics not be discussed for confidential or legal compliance reasons

6. Ensure that your blogging activity does not interfere with your work commitments

Product support blogs: Maytag’s Skybox

Ka-thunk uses the blog to announce product enhancements and provide support

Stonyfield Farms has several “issue” oriented blogs

Recruitment blog: Every company could do this

Mock whiteboard problem video

Executive blog: Boeing’s vice president of marketing, Randy Baseler

Executive blog: Boeing marketing vice president uses it to connect

“I hope it [the blog] will help solve one of my biggest frustrations — not being able to talk with everyone as often as I like about what's going on in our industry and our company.”

– Randy Baseler, vice president marketing, Boeing

• No comments, trackbacks, and few links• But it’s a start

Should your company have a blog?

• Does your company routinely have conversations with customers?

» This is not sending out a “message”

• How much control does your company need to exert over communications?

• Does your company have something important and unique to share?

• Is your company ready to listen — and act?

Setting up your first blog

• Determine the role of blogs in your communications ecosystem

• Decide who will write the blog

» Start small

» Look for the mindset, not the position or title

• Set up clear responsibilities, guidelines, and metrics

» Make one person responsible, someone who’s obsessed with customer relationships

» Link the blog to a clear business goal

• Use appropriate technology

» Start with hosted solutions like TypePad, Userland, and iUpload

• Practice — launch with several postings and post frequently in the beginning

Managing your blog

• Encourage and respond to comments from readers

• Manage bad news quickly and truthfully

• Syndicate and market the blog

• Be transparent and build trust with your readers

• Measure what matters

• Have guidelines on what can/can’t be done with blogs

Blogger Code Of Ethics

1) I will tell the truth.

2) I will write deliberately and with accuracy.

3) I will acknowledge and correct mistakes promptly.

4) I will preserve the original post, using notations to show where I have made changes so as to maintain the integrity of my publishing.

5) I will never delete a post.

6) I will not delete comments unless they are spam or off-topic.

7) I will reply to emails and comments when appropriate and will do so promptly.

Blogger Code Of Ethics, Continued

8) I will strive for high quality with every post — including basic spell-checking.

9) I will stay on topic.

10) I will disagree with other opinions respectfully.

11) I will link to online references and original source materials directly.

12) I will disclose conflicts of interest.

13) I will keep private issues and topics private because discussing private issues would jeopardize my personal and work relationships.

Summary

• Blogging requires a new mindset

• Determine the role of blogs within your communications ecosystem

• Start small with people who are passionate about developing customer relationships

Charlene Li

cli@forrester.com

www.forrester.com

Thank you

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