Hat's off to Josh Bernoff, Forrester Analyst and co-author of Groundswell for an insightful new report: "Time To Rethink Your Corporate Blogging Ideas"Obviously Josh grabs your attention that "Corporate blogs rank at the bottom fo the trust scale...." Basically Josh points out that business blogs that act like commercials or PR vehicles are no more credible (actually less) than TV or PR...heck, more people said they trust the Yellow Pages which didn't make a lot of sense to me.
Josh is bravely telling business that blogging is a terrific media if used correctly. Most of his advice comes right out of the Compendium Playbook:
"Blog about the customer's problem. Don't blog about your products; blog about something your customers care about. Rubbermaid blogs about getting organized, for example. Emerson Process Experts blogs about factory automation. If you can bring value to your customers around their problems, they'll remain interested in you. Blogging about your customers' problems makes it far more likely that bloggers in your space will link to your blog, which increases both traffic and search relevance."The greatest marketing tactic in the history of mankind is the similar situation. Nobody cares about you. They care about solutions to problems. Blogs give you the ability to tell stories (as Seth says) about customers who have had similar problems that have been solved by you. Talk about problems and solutions in the real world.
When you think about blogging and search...people search on problems not on brands.
Another terrific piece of advice from Josh:
"For B2B companies, get your employees in on the act. In companies that sell to other businesses, corporate communications typically sponsors the corporate blog.9 This is a mistake because product executives, product managers, and field marketing or sales support people better understand audience needs. When these staffers speak, B2B audiences recognize their expertise, trust their messages, and engage in the conversation. This is how dozens or hundreds of corporate-sanctioned bloggers at companies like HP, Microsoft, and Sun develop product connections with their particular customer groups."
Regular readers here know that this is the core of the Compendium value proposition. I'm a huge fan of the Richard Edelman study that found "Employee bloggers to be 5 times more credible than C-level Bloggers."
I have to respectfully disagree with Josh Beroff on limiting this to B2B companies only. We have lots of examples of retail and other B2C's. I had a call yesterday with LL Bean discussing this very issue. Why shouldn't buyers blog about how and why they pick certain products for the book. Every time I see the J. Peterman skits on Sienfield I think what great blog content this would be to know the stories behind the products.
Although not a client, I talk about Home Depot a lot. Who better to tell me stories about customer situations that might be similar to mine or educate me on the classes in my local store than the people who actually work in the store? Home Depot has 2400 stores and nearly 250,000 employees. There have to be at least several hundred that would be terrific (and trustworthy) bloggers. These are real peole, they live in my community. Their kids go to school with my kids, they support the same local causes I support...Let them Blog!Anyway, Josh Bernoff? If you are out there listening. Thank you. Great wake up call for a lot of Corporate Blogging Programs.
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