My Prescription for a Good Corporate Blog

Corporate Blogs Aren't Trusted

Don't take my word for it. Forrester Research found that most people just don't trust them. In fact, only 16% of online consumers who read corporate blogs say they trust them. But that doesn't mean companies should stop. Along with the diagnosis, Forresters's Jeremiah Owyang gave a great health checkup for corporate blogs. Below is a prescription that should lead to better corporate blogs.

Embrace "Personal Brands"

Some companies are worried about their employees gaining too much brand recognition.

I for one don't  really care what the name of the blog is, or which company the blogger works for. If Chris Brogan left Crosstech Media or if Steve Rubel left Edelman, I'd still follow them. That's because they offer good content that helps me do my job.

Worry less about hiring people with "personal brands" because they might eventually leave. In today's job market, excepting contract employees, anyone can leave at any time for a better gig. The focus should be on hiring smart employees and if they have "personal brands," benefit while you have them. Make sure they want to stay and you might hold onto them for a while.

Readers Don't Care Which Company You're With

Too many companies make the mistake of  thinking that people will automatically want to tune into their new corporate blog because of the company. Maybe Google can do this, but chances are your company isn't  that important in the average blog reader's eyes. Content is key.

Your Blog Readers Are Opting In to Receive Future Content. But That's a Precarious Trust. 

People aren't going to subscribe to receive content that isn't of value. If a blogger or a twitter user writes about topics that don't interest me I simply un-subscribe. And I don't think twice about it. I'm not concerned with the Twitter etiquette some espouse. Waste my time and you're gone. I have enough noise in my life.

Give Away Some Valuable Information For Free

At Omniture, we have a few bloggers that write about very specific topics. For example, Adam Greco, gives tips and tricks on how to get more out of SiteCatalyst. His blog has become our most popular one because each post provides helpful tips that can help web analysts do their job better. I'm convinced that to be successful, a corporate blog needs to give away some information for free (rather than charging consulting fees for it.) There is a fine line here, but if done correctly, even companies that rely on consulting dollars will realize more revenue because their potential clients can see the value of these services.

Be Patient with Twitter

If you're using Twitter as a marketing tool to promote your blog content, remember that it won't pay off immediately. You can't just send links to your own content. Sometimes people with 10 Twitter followers decide to follow 1,000  people. This never works. Usually the account is shut down for spamming. It takes time to build a genuine audience on Twitter. People aren't going to flock to you, well unless you are Shaquille O'Neal, Dave Matthews or Al Gore.

Don't be a Social Media "Tool"

 

Photo used under Creative Commons from ppdigital.

Social Media Tools are just that: tools. You still need to be a good marketer to have success.

Now, we're all still figuring out how to use social media to do effective marketing, but I do know a few things that definitely won't work. Here's what doesn't work for me:

Add me as a friend on Plaxo, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter or any other social network. Then immediately start sending me spam. That approach amazes me. I mean, has that technique ever work for anyone?

Just because I accepted you invitation to "connect" doesn't mean I want to be pitched. At least try to establish a relationship first. I have a pretty liberal policy for accepting "friends" on social networks. Even if I barely know you I'll probably add you as a friend if invited. But if I don't know you well, it is really just an invitation to get to know you better. Imagine if I approached you at a party and said "Hi, I'm Brian. Want to be friends? Want to buy some insurance from me?"

I've noticed that the most effective Twitter users usually add more value than. People will follow you on Twitter or subscribe to your blog if you provide information that can help them. Conversely, if you are constantly plugging your company or talking about your lunch, people will quickly unsubscribe.

One great example of how an influential thought leader uses Twitter is web analytics guru Avinash Kaushik. This sums up how he uses Twitter:

Well, there are a lot of uses for these tools but if you're trying to use them to influence people you're better off starting offering something that can help them. Once they trust your advice you are in a better position to influence. In fact, they may seek you out...

Social Media Will Help You Do Your Job Better

I firmly believe that the more I immerse myself in good social media content, the better employee I become. When I began my job at Omniture, I started following just about any blogger that wrote about the company.  Then I expanded my Google reader to include anyone that talked about competitors. It has been a very quick way to understand complex industry issues  and how our customers use our products. 

Organize Your Feeds

My RSS reader has various folders such as web analytics, online marketing, search marketing, social media, PR, news, sports, friends blogs, and a few others.  It really has become the starting point for everything I do on the web. 

Share

You don't need to write a blog to create content on the web. Sharing things you find interesting is a great way to start.  I share items that I think others might find valuable.  If you're interested, here are my Google Reader shared items.  I forward other articles to coworkers or to my Gmail (which I automatically tag and archive for later use.  I star others or send them to my Google Notebook for possible blog topics or an idea to share with my team.  Steve Rubel has some awesome posts on how to use Gmail as your personal nerve center on the web.

Make Your Google Reader Your Own Customized Database

When I need to find an item later, it is easy to run a quick search.  Since I have subscribed to a lot of blogs for a couple of years, I have an amazing repository of valuable information that can help me do my job better.  When I need to find advice about a particular topic, I usually just search my Google Reader. I currently follow about 400 different feeds.  Even though sometimes I get overwhelmed and I don't actually read every word, it is easy to find information later. Since I subscribe only to content that can help me, I rarely get off-topic results.

Make Social Media a Priority

Even if you can just dedicate 15 minutes a day to social media, it will pay off if you do it correctly.  If might make sense to block out time on your calendar every day for it.

You Can't Be Everywhere

Just join the most strategic conversations. Pick some expert bloggers to follow and star out by reading each post.  Slowly add more to your reader.  Leave a thoughtful comment if you can add to the conversation. As you get comfortable with that maybe take a look at getting some accounts with other social media services.  I'll talk about some of the services that are worth considering in future posts.

Social Media Won't Work For Your Business if it's Mandated

One thing I've learned about social media is that you can't force people to use it. The best way to start using it is to start with a small group of people that understand social media. Find the people in your organization that are already blogging or using Facebook, Friendfeed, Twitter, etc.

Start Small

Take for example the recent launch of Yammer. The service, which is basically a Twitter for businesses, has gotten a lot of buzz lately so I decided to try it out. A few of my coworkers had also decided to check it out so we have a small community growing. I'm not sure if it will catch on but I'm convinced that the only way it would is if our small group becomes passionate about it and begins to use it to share useful information. If not, it becomes just another task and it's use will quickly will fizzle out.

Change Your Thinking

Tools like Twitter and wikis can really help increase productivity if used correctly. Think about how many work emails you have in your inbox that could be relevant to others in your organization. How much easier would it be to just post status reports and general updates to an internal wiki? It requires a change in thinking, but eventually could really help increase productivity.

Some Aren't Ready Yet

However, there are some employees that just aren't ready to adopt these tools. Yes, email is inefficient, they say, but that is what they are used to. It won't work if you push them to use these tools. Just start small with those in your office who "get it." As you grow in your use of these tools, show success stories to management. If you can point to specific instances of a blog post helping to create a lead, they will begin to accept blogging as a legitimate business activity. Show them how these tools can help them do their job better. You can use web analytics tools to track visitor engagent on your blog and can even show how each post influences revenue.

Social Media is Not a Campaign

I think it is helpful to not think of social media as a campaign or a project. It is an ongoing effort- an interactive way of communicating with your customers and potential customers. As you continue in your social media efforts, you'll see more and more ways to include social media elements to each campaign, product launch, event, etc.

By the way, check out this great post in ReadWriteWeb about using social media to reach people that don't use social media.

Is Twitter a Legitimate Source of News?

I was watching CNN's coverage today of Hurricane Gustav, when the anchor, Rick Sanchez, quoted a tweet that someone wrote on Twitter. The anonymous twitter user claimed that some homeless people were being turned away from public services in New Orleans. Sanchez then said that CNN had yet to verify the veracity of the report.

My initial reaction was to question whether this source was worthy of being quoted on CNN. After all, anyone can say anything on Twitter. Visit Twittervision and you'll see all sorts of silly stuff. Should we really care what @starwarsfanboy1962 has to say about the latest news?

After I saw that, I tuned in for a few hours. I think CNN did a great job of covering the storm. Anchor Rick Sanchez referred to feedback from his Twitter account several times. I really like that CNN is using Twitter, MySpace and Facebook as a way to gather feedback and allow viewers to interact with the anchor.

A TV news anchor interviews eyewitnesses by phone all the time, so why not by Twitter, email or another social media tool? The only difference is that people use their real names when they do interviews by phone. I think I would have had a different reaction had Sanchez reported that John Smith, a school teacher from New Orleans, had witnessed something and reported it on Twitter.

Be Transparent

Be transparent on Twitter. I like to follow people that tell me who they are. Twitter allows people to link to their blogs, LinkedIn profile company web site, or more. Before I follow someone, I want to know why they are credible.

Some questions I ask myself before I follow someone on Twitter:

• Is this someone from whom I might be able to learn something?
• Are they just trying to sell me something?
• What do they usually write about?

Follow the Right People

The key to Twitter is selecting the right people to follow. If you're new to Twitter, one of the best ways to start is to select one person that is credible and well-known. Since I'm interested in PR, social media and online marketing, I started by following well-respected bloggers like Jeremiah Owyang, Louis Gray, Steve Rubel, Todd Defren, Brian Solis and of course Robert Scoble.

Slowly Add New Followers

Look to see who your trusted Twitterers follow. Who are they conversing with regularly? Slowly add some of these people after you review the topics they regularly write about. You can also remove people if they write too much about trivial or uninteresting topics. I follow most people that follow me. But if I get many tweets about what they are eating for lunch, I usually "unfollow" them. I also avoid following people that are following hundreds of people yet only have a handful of followers. This is usually a signal that they are using their Twitter account to spam people. A lot has been written about "twitter karma". My philosophy is that I have enough things to do at work. I'll only use Twitter as long as it helps me do my job better. As soon as it becomes more of a distraction than an aid, I'll drop it and move onto another tool (like Friendfeed, which has a lot more options for filtering content.)

Does Twitter Help You Do Your Job?

It can. As I mentioned above, it can also be a massive waste of time. It all depends on how you choose to use it. I have found that it can be an excellent way to network with people in my field. It can be a great way to learn too, since smart people often share the best content on the web.

Monitoring Twitter

Services such as Twitter Search and Tweetscan provide an excellent real-time window into live events and brand perception. Just type in any keyword and you get instant feedback. Since these tools are free and easy to use, every company should be actively monitoring their brand online.

Attendees to conferences, trade shows and other live events can now provide real-time feedback. A smart presenter will monitor these services and will modify their presentation as needed. I'm looking forward to checking these tools during our next Omniture Summit in February. I'm sure that presenters such as Adam Greco will poll his followers on which topics they'd like to learn about prior to his presentation.

What are some interesting ways that you use twitter? Have you found it to be a useful tool or a mindless distraction?

If you use Twitter or if you want to try it out, follow me at twitter.com/brianwatkins. I'll try not to waste your time too much.

Monitoring and Responding

In the next few posts I'm going to talk about creating a framework for engaging your customers and potential customers online. My company uses the following steps: Monitor, Respond, Influence, Publish

Monitor

So you've decided that it's important to participate in the conversation about your brand online. The problem is there are so many places to watch. Depending on the size of your organization, this could easily be a full-time job.

Luckily, there are several tools out there that help (some are free- some cost a lot.)

Free Tools

• The Social media firehose was created by social media guru Kingsley Joseph at Salesforce.com.
• For Twitter, Twitter Search (formerly Summize) and Tweetscan help you monitor keywords in real-time.
• Friendfeed is a good place to identify trends.
  
• Identify the influential forums in your industry. Is there an online discussion in your industry?

Paid Tools (this is not meant to be a comprehensive list, but includes some of the more common tools. Feel free to leave a comment if you want to recommend others)

Less Expensive Tools

• Andiamo, Buzz Logic, Radian6, Trackur

High end solutions (expensive but impressive. These solutions do much more than just monitor. Visible Technlogies, for example, offers an engagement module where you can respond to posts directly from the interface. Some companies choose a solution like Cymfony that helps them gather competitive intelligence.)

• Visible Technologies, Cymfony, BuzzMetrics, Collective Intellect
  

Remember that companies can't "join the conversation." Only employees at your company can do that. Jeremiah Owyang and Peter Kim both commented recently about this. Social media allows individuals to communicate with other individuals. You can easily run into trouble if you view social media tools as just another avenue to broadcast content.

Respond

It might make sense for a product manager to leave a comment regarding the product that he or she works with. Maybe a customer service expert should be the one to address issues, rather than PR. The main rule here is: Be Transparent. Whoever chooses to respond - be sure to divulge your relationship with a company. No good can come of pretending to be someone you aren't.

It might help to put together standard responses for certain issues that occur regularly. (If this is the case, make sure you are passing this information along to the appropriate department. For example, if you continually see complaints about your product online, there is a good chance that a large percentage of your customers are experiencing this same issue.) If you are using a standard response, be sure to customize your response to each instance. No one wants to read the same statement over and over again. (Here's an interesting podcast about how Comcast's Frank Eliason does this.)

Leave comments on blogs or forums. Here a few good reasons to leave comments:

• address customer service issues publicly
• refute inaccurate statements about your company or products
• clarify your company's position on an issue
• Recognize other companies or individuals in your space
• Add value to the conversation

Suggestions?

What are you doing to monitor and respond to posts involving your brand? I'd love any suggestions.

Next time I'll discuss the other parts to our framework: influence and publish.

How does your company keep track of what is being said online?

Can Social Media Help Your Business?

Well, that's the point of this blog.

I moderated a clinic last week at the Utah Technology Council on PR & Social Media. I saved the presentation I gave on Slideshare in case you want to see it. (I like Slideshare a lot, but I agree with Kevin Dugan, who says "without detailed speaker notes, SlideShare can be like watching the TV when it's on mute.")

The presentation is a good starting point, but the blog format is a great way to explore some of these concepts more in-depth. In the next several posts I'll write about how you can set up an effective social media program for your company. To start off, I'll answer a few basic questions that I hear regularly:

Who "Owns" Social Media in Your Organization?
I think it helps to designate one person at your work that "owns" social media. For our company, it made sense for it to be run by PR. At your company, it might be someone in marketing or product management, or whoever is passionate about social media. The ultimate goal is to get your whole organization to embrace social media, but you should at least begin with a social media champion. It is also important that you get at least one executive "sponsor" of social media within your company. Michael Dell was a huge proponent of engaging with customers online, and helped instill a social media culture at Dell.

It should be noted that these techniques can be used for well-established companies and emerging companies. In fact, I don't know a lot of people like me who get to spend most of their time on social media strategy at work. If you're using the right tools the right way, social media should actually help you do your job better.

Which Social Media Tools Should I Use?
It depends. You shouldn't worry about tools until you have a strategy in place. (see Josh Bernoff's POST Method)

It might not make sense to try to create a "viral video" for YouTube or to make a podcast. I've seen companies whose competitors start doing something with social media and the immediate reaction is "we need one of those too!" If the social media tool isn't aligned with your overall strategy then it probably isn't worth the time.

Where Should I Start?
Well, where are your customers and potential customers right now?

At Omniture, we first began with an audit of all the content online in the areas of Web analytics, online marketing, search marketing, etc. We tried to identify the top influencers in each category. Which bloggers are leading the discussion? Start by following the thought leaders and where they are producing content. We found that a lot of the influencers in our space are on an industry message board and blogs. In the past few months, more have begun to use Twitter to communicate short messages. We monitor everything but decided to first focus on these main areas.

Create a Blogger Relations Program
There a two categories of bloggers. The first creates much of the original content online, the other "directs traffic" by linking and pointing their readers to good content online. You should try to incorporate both types of bloggers in your outreach. Before you ever reach out to a blogger you should first read the blog and understand what they cover. It has been covered ad nauseum elsewhere, but basic PR rules apply when interacting with bloggers. Don't try to pitch a blogger something he or she doesn't cover, don't spam, etc.

This is a good stopping point. Next post I'll cover developing a framework for monitoring and responding to posts about your brand.