Category: business blogs

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Internal, External Business Conversations

Hugh writes a great post about why business blogs can help organizations improve customer connections. (Updated to later illustrate that the concept is relevant in intra-organizational discussions as well.) The metaphor is that there is a membrane that surrounds every organization, and that membrane impedes real information flow and, with it, learning. The nugget:

Hugh: “The more porous your membrane (“x”), the easier it is for the internal conversation to inform the external conversation, and vice versa.”

In other words, if there is alignment, or “equilibrium,” between what’s happening inside the organization and what’s happening in the customer base, both sets of stakeholders will be better off. Customers will be getting what they want, and organizations will have happy customers. And, presumably, reasonable profits.

This triggered four thoughts:

  • The theory above sounds a lot like this.
  • For this to work, it can’t just be “conversation,” it has be the RIGHT conversation.
  • There is a flow to this. Flow 1 is “out to in.”
  • There is a second flow to this. Flow 2 is “in to out.”

So, first off, this sounds a lot like thermodynamics. I had to go look up the thermo stuff to put this post together, and then it made my head hurt (again, like it did mumblysomethingsomething years ago, the first time I saw it in school), so I closed that page quickly. But, I think a way to characterize this model is through paraphrasing that law into something like this:

“Insight spontaneously disperses from being localized to becoming spread out if it is not hindered.”

Insight is good. Knowledge is good. Knowledge of real customer needs can help an organization do the right thing for the market. Knowledge of what a supplier is doing can help a customer make better decisions.

Another way of putting this…communication in this way changes the game from being zero-sum to being collaborative. Things tend toward zero-sum when information is withheld, and power and manipulation come into play. This changes that.

Moving onto the second point above, the idea of “conversation” needs some clarity. We’ve come to use the word “conversation” as shorthand for “folks who ‘get it,’ and want to work collaboratively, and want to share information, etc.” However, all conversations are not the same. More importantly, all conversations are not equal.

For this model to work, some conversational structure may need to be in place. If customers are clamoring for something (let’s say, a fad-ish feature in a product that may have long-term detrimental effects), the company can react in two ways. In the first case, the company can listen to those customers blindly, and deliver exactly what they want. In the second case, the company could try to explain some of the shortcomings of following that approach, and try to reach a middle ground where both parties agree, that results in a longer-term positive outcome for both sides.

Both cases reach equilibrium, but they are certainly not equal conversations.

Which brings us to points three and four above, the flows. There will be an increasingly strong “out-to-in” flow if a company is not meeting the current needs of its customers. If there is a flood of feedback going across that membrane from out-to-in, and nothing is being done about it, there is a sure bet that at some point in the future that organization will be in trouble. However, if that out-to-in flow is moderate and steady and is responded to with an equal in-to-out flow of information about how the company is responding, you can bet the company is marching ahead in step with where its customers are going.

The “in-to-out” flow, on the other hand, is a quite interesting one. Assuming the in-to-out flow is information-rich (and not a flood of the same-ol’-B.S.), the company is providing some insight and novel ideas to the marketplace. This is good. However, similar to the example above, if this flow gets too strong, the company may be outrunning its customers, and providing products or services that require change the market can’t yet absorb or isn’t ready for yet (see the Apple Newton for an example). In this case, the company should take a step back and perhaps slow down a notch and listen to what’s coming back in from the outside.

Food for thought.

Others commenting on this:

Lee LeFever
BlogSpotting (Heather Green)
Fredrik Wackå
Scoble

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Business Podcasting As A Competitive Intelligence Tool

The fine folks over at B2BMarketingTrends were kind enough to ask me to contribute to an article on the business uses of podcasting. In particular, they were interested in an answer to the question “How can podcasting be used to enable customer-facing personnel to stay abreast of what’s going on with competitors and to provide market intelligence?” The full article is here.

The four most salient points:

  • Podcasting delivers the information to users automatically, typically via a combination technology called RSS (for “Really Simple Syndication”). It is a simple program that regularly checks to see if any updated information is available. The user’s device automatically downloads this competitive information when it becomes available. This is in marked contrast to a “competitive intelligent intranet” that you must check regularly and navigate for updates, or a process that requires an individual to locate, print, and organize electronic or paper documents or e-mail messages.
  • The flip side of this is that individual users can choose to “subscribe” to only the particular podcasts within their organization that they deem relevant. So if an individual only wishes to receive information about a particular set of competitors, he/she can easily specify those preferences. With an individual’s attention already stretched thin as a result of e-mail overload (not to mention the problem of unsolicited messages, or spam, and a seemingly endless number of voicemail messages), the ability to receive only relevant, selected podcasts can aid not only in significantly improving productivity but also assist in reducing some of the challenges that information overload causes for sales team members.
  • Competitive intelligence information has an exceedingly short shelf life. Since podcasting ensures updates automatically, a sales team has the assurance of having the “latest and greatest” information that may be available. They can also update their podcasting platform by checking out resources like Agora.io for further information on this as well as see how they can better connect with their audience, customers, clients, etc.
  • Podcasts are, by their very definition, portable. But, more importantly, they allow people to “time-shift” to better fit their own schedules. Similar to audiobooks (which, according to National Public Radio, experienced double-digit growth in 2004), you can access competitive intelligence podcasts during a morning commute, on a subway, or while engaged in other activities such as jogging. So instead of needing to carve out time in an already hectic schedule to review and study the latest competitive information, this information can now be accessed whenever it is most appropriate for the individual (and it can be paused, rewound, and replayed as many times as desired).

Link: Listen To Information About Your Competitors…On Your iPod?

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Vespa To Launch Corporate Blogs

Article today in the WSJ regarding how Vespa will be launching a corporate blog ($), which will be penned by U.S.-based Vespa owners. According to the article, VespaBlogs.com will have “four bloggers will be selected to regularly contribute content about the products and broader lifestyle topics.”

A couple of salient points:

  • Initial statements seem that the bloggers will be be given relatively free rein — a “code of ethics” to which they will adhere, but it doesn’t appear that Vespa will have editorial control.
  • This is a great application, for the right company. Vespas evoke emotion and passion, and Vespa owners will be apt to build a community around these blogs.

This is similar to the work that was done for Knight Ridder Digital’s That’s Racin’ property, which is home to four racing enthusiast blogs:

(disclosure: Manifesto co-conspirator Lisa Stone worked with KRD on setting up the TR blog network)

Hopefully, Vespa will be emulate what was done here (in freedom-of-expression and clueful-ness, not in content, naturally), and the Vespa blogs will have the same type of authenticity and no-holds-barred direction that KRD has allowed their customers/fans/evangelists to pursue.

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Cerado Launches Business Blogging Practice

It appears that there must be some sort of as-of-yet undocumented “conservation of blogging” law. (Did you read that as “conversation of blogging,” the first time through? I did, and I wrote the thing. Funny how much power the word “conversation” has in this context.)

Rick Bruner has retired from Business Blog Consulting. Rick’s work in this area has been nothing short of impressive, and he states that “I think the mission of the blog has to a certain extent been accomplished.” For Rick and his blog, maybe. For the broad market, absolutely not. The work’s just beginning.

Through this blog, I’ve been writing about the customer-facing aspects of business blogging for a long time. Been thinking about it for longer. Been doing it through this forum, and sometimes here, and over here as well. Throughout this process, have been helping others get blogs up and running, in an ad-hoc manner. And now, it’s time to formalize things a bit.

With that long-winded intro (yes, I know I’m totally burying the lede here, but the context is important), it’s time to announce that Cerado has launched a formal practice around business blogging. This practice assists organizations in getting right the strategy, implementation, training, technology, execution, and continuous improvement metrics that are needed to use blogs as a tool to connect more closely with customers. Additionally, effective blogging often results in particularly strong SEO. This constitutes even more reason for businesses to embrace blogging. Due to the many positives of doing this, many businesses are looking to set up a blog on their site.

Aiding us in this effort will be Lisa Stone, who set up this blog network, and also set up this one, and who blogs over here (and here, and here), and who was instrumental in starting this as well.

This is going to be fun.

It’s been a blast figuring out the right ways to apply the rapidly emerging capabilities (both technical and social) of the blogosphere in the business context. (Things like applying the underlying concepts of podcasting behind the firewall are a particularly salient example of this.) And we’re continually figuring out new ways to bring the customer conversation into the enterprise, in an effort to connect customers and organizations more closely together.

This evolution is another step along this journey. And we’re excited to be taking it.

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Great Business Blogging Article From CIO Insight

Ed Cone has just published an in-depth article on enterprise blogging, entitled “Rise of the Blog” in CIO Insight.

A very well written piece. A particularly spot-on assessment was:

“By enabling comments on its blogs, Sun can get a look at what mix of customers, partners, developers and employees is frequenting its sites, and respond to them. Customers who used to interact only with their salesperson can now communicate with members of the product team.”

DING! This really is the meat of this conversation. Sun’s folks seem to agree.

Jonathan Schwartz – “There’s an immediacy of interaction you can get with your audience through blogging that’s hard to get any other way, except by face-to-face communication. There’s no other way any individual, never mind someone who’s running a company as large as Sun, could speak face-to-face with that large an audience on a regular basis.”

Tim Bray – “This is a fantastically effective listening device. Customers are coming to us directly as bloggers. People see us do something wrong or stupid, or missing a chance, and they tell us. We get dozens of comments a week that can help us, and they go to the right people—how else is a smart guy in Cleveland going to find the relevant person at a computer company with 30,000 employees?”

This is the vanguard of this thinking, and really is presaging a move towards real customer interaction, as opposed to the things that have been called “CRM” but are really tools for managing sales teams and the Street.

Another bit in there that really stood out was the reference that Jared Spataro of Open Text made regarding the internal use of blogs as a communications medium during the integration phase of M&A activities. (Would have liked to have seen more depth on this; it sounds like a great application.)

Of course, David Weinberger gets the digging quote, saying that “public-facing blogs with voices that sound recognizably human will kill the ‘pompous and inhuman’ tone used in much corporate-speak.”

Indeed.

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BusinessWeek Business Blogging Cover Story Nails It

The cover story of the current issue of BusinessWeek sums it up well: “Blogs Will Change Your Business.”

Reading through the article, the one quote that resonated (and continues to do so) was this one: “Your customers and rivals are figuring blogs out. Our advice: Catch up…or catch you later.” It definitely feels like we’re at the inflection point; about to hit Geoffrey Moore’s chasm with respect to business blogging.

A couple of interesting tidbits:

Tidbit 1 – BW has launched blogspotting.net, their own actual, honest-to-goodness blog to cover the emerging area of blogs and business. To Heather, Steve, and the rest of the BW team…nice job!

Tidbit 2 – They also did a nice job pulling together a quick list of things to consider when launching a business blogging initiative. (Unfortunately, BW buried the link in a place requiring serious excavation in order to find it.) The highlights:

  • Train Your Bloggers
  • Be Careful with Fake Blogs
  • Track Blogs
  • PR Truly Means Public Relations
  • Be Transparent
  • Rethink Your Corporate Secrets

Boilers are stoked. Pressure is right. It’s time for this train to leave the station.

Although the quote noted above is spot on, the customer angle, and the “how are people really addressing business blogging” aspects were glossed over a bit in the article. (However, considering the article’s breadth, that’s understandable.) That being said, still would have like to have seen more case studies, and more examples of the different ways organizations are using blogs to connect with customers.

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Sunny, With An 80% Chance Of Kicking Some Serious Ass

Based on a recommendation, was checking out the WeatherBug site. Was scrolling around, and found an interesting, but mostly innocuous post:

“Why do you use your WeatherBug?

Hey WeatherBug users, we want to know! Why do you use your WeatherBug? Is it deciding what to wear in the morning, scheduling your weekend plans, checking on vacation locations… Open up to us and tell us why! While you are at it, let us know what else you would like to see in WeatherBug and ask us anything. Seriously, anything.

Click on the comment link below and scroll to the bottom of the page to let us know!”

Now, check out the footer on that post:

(234) Comments

Holy cow. Customer stories. And more customer stories. How about this, from “Pete”:

“I’m on disabilty so I’m kind of the Weather Guy for My Wife. I go to the Weather Bug all the time and then I go to my wife with the updates. I have had the weather bug for a long time now and I just enjoy everything about it. I like to call my friends all over the States and I look their weather up before I call them.”

Or this one, from “Jim”:

“I am a Wildland Firefighter. I use WeatherBug to keep me posted on the current and predicted weather. This allows me to prepare myself and the crew for extreme fire behavior due to high temps and low humidity, thunderstorms, etc.”

Or another use case, from “Jeff”:

“I am a Paramedic and working in the weather is what I do. I rely on Weatherbug for the accurate forcast and realtime weather stations so I know what to expect where I am working. I also access WeatherBug from my Nextel phone.”

And “J.D.”:

“The reason I use my WeatherBug is because I not only like to get my local weather, but I also use the feature for other towns across the United States, because I am a huge NASCAR, and IRL racing fan.”

These are not members of some homogeneous “market segment.” These are real people, conversing and telling their real stories, voluntarily. Good on ya, WeatherBug folks, for reaching out to them.

Connecting like this can’t help but serve them…and you…very well.

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Sun’s Blogs For Customers

Sun’s business blogging efforts get a nice spotlight piece in the Technology Review that just landed in the mailbox, which was penned by Wade Roush. Blogging and customers…whyzit matter? Here’s why:

“Sun’s Simon Phipps, whose job title is chief technology evangelist, says that researchers and developers can swap more ideas, build better software, and meet customers’ needs faster if they are active in online communities, where blogs play the dual role of soap- and suggestion-box. ‘In a world where you must speak with an authentic voice,’ says Phipps, ‘the obvious way is to let the people you most trust—your employees—speak directly to the -people you most want to appeal to—your customers.'”

and

“…not only do Sun’s blogs show customers that the company is paying attention to their concerns, but they have also become a major channel for communicating with programmers outside the company who write crucial third-party applications that run on Sun’s hardware and operating systems.”

and one more for good measure

“Consumercustomer-oriented (ed. – sorry…had to do that) companies that abjure the blogosphere are missing out on opportunities to generate buzz, monitor customer concerns, and—perhaps most importantly—show their human side.”

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Paternalistic Relations

ZDNet’s David Berlind gives some well-deserved credit to Scalix founder Julie Hanna Farris for her willingness to engage in “public conversation that includes all of her constituents (the press, potential customers, casual onlookers, and even competitors).” I’m in agreement with Berlind on this.

He goes on to say:

“Public relations personnel cringe at the idea of executives diving into the blogosphere and mixing it up with the press and end users. Maybe that’s because of how the blogosphere prevents them from interceding when an executive is about to say something that shouldn’t be said. Personally, I think it makes both the executives and the company seem more open and approachable. When a vendor executive lays it on the line like that, he or she knows that the blogosphere is probably going to respond with brutal honesty. Just that sort of open invitation says something about a person’s belief in what they are saying and willingess to engage–unfortunately, it’s a rarity in our business.” (emphasis his)

Right on.

And then, Berlind’s first sentence in the pull quote seems especially prescient after reading the followup from Steve, who writes

“Let your executives have fun if they want to, ok? But guide them on what works/doesn’t. That’s our role as PR professionals.”

Whoa. Did I misread that? Please tell me I misread that. Steve…”have fun?” As if this is some kind of game? If one was a cynic, one could interpret that as a wink and a nudge…”we’ll let those dotty executives go and play in the blog-box, but we’ll be there to hold their hands in case they get off-message and, heaven forbid, communicate what’s actually on their minds.”

:soapbox:

It’s not about the veneer.

It’s not about a sanitized, perfectly-crafted, and ultimately synthetic message.

It’s about reality, warts and all.

It’s about real people, interacting with other real people.

:soapbox:

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The Business Blogging Field Guide, Part 7: The CEO Blog

Ah, the CEO Blog. Such the conundrum. A great opportunity…here is a means for an organization’s leader to connect and communicate directly with the market. At the same time, a great challenge…if done poorly, a CEO Blog can be worse than doing nothing. Such interesting times, no?

Although commonly called a “CEO Blog,” the name itself is a bit of a misnomer. Although a CEO Blog is oftentimes written by the chief executive of an organization, the name has been co-opted a bit and now commonly refers to a business blog that is written by any high-level executive of an organization. Heck, even BusinessWeek gets it right: “Execs are finding blogs useful for plugging not just their products, but their points of view.”

As in any other medium, there are differing takes on what topics are appropriate for a CEO Blog. There are some who take issue with a CEO Blog when it is injected with humanity. (My two cents…if a blog is going to be a medium of conversation, then it absolutely needs to enable a personality to show through, as long as the blog doesn’t become an exercise in pure narcissism.)

The real power of the CEO Blog, however, is that it can be a strong — and perhaps the supreme — means of differentiation for an organzation. Ultimately, products commoditize and best practices can be copied. The only real differentiators that are sustainable are the connections that form between members of an organzation and customers. The CEO Blog is an opportunity for the individuals who are guiding the ship to make these connections, and to make them real.

No, the CEO isn’t going to have the opportunity to connect directly with every customer, but that’s not the point. The point is: when an opportunity arises, if the leadership is accustomed to engaging in real conversations with real people, those leaders can make the most of a situation (more on this here and here).

“CEO Blog” example #1


Blogger: Bob Lutz
Role: Vice Chairman
Company: GM
Blog Location: http://fastlane.gmblogs.com
What’s right: “As I said before we appreciate all of the comments… positive and critical, keep ’em coming. I would love to address more of them directly if there were more hours in the day. Every so often, however, a comment cries out for a response so loudly that I have to put thumbs to Blackberry.”

“CEO Blog” example #2


Blogger: Bob Parsons
Role: Founder and President
Company: GoDaddy.com
Blog Location: http://www.bobparsons.com
What’s right: “As I write this, I am now 54 years old, and during my life thus far I suspect that I’ve encountered more significant life events than most people ever dream about. Here’s some information about me: I grew up in a lower middle class family in Baltimore’s inner city. We were always broke. I’ve earned everything I ever received. Very little was ever given to me. I’ve been working as long as I can remember. Whether it was delivering or selling newspapers, pumping gas, working in construction or in a factory, I’ve always been making my own money.”

“CEO Blog” anti-example #1 – Don’t do this!


Blogger: Peter Zencke
Role: Board Member
Company: SAP
Blog Location: http://www.sap.com/community/pub/blogs.epx
What’s wrong: “To access this page or item, you must log in to SAP.com. If you are an SAP.com member, please log in by entering your e-mail address or user name, and password.” That, and the fact that the last time that Zencke posted was in October, 2004, on the scintillating topic of “Translating Ideas Into Marketable Solutions.” Wieux-hieux.