Business blogging

Business blogs the newest thing

Making Blogs More Than Just What's for Dinner
From the Washington Post Business section
By Ellen McCarthy

Few of the 50-odd people who gathered in Tysons Corner this
week to talk about blogging seemed willing to discuss the state of
their love lives with the general public. No one wanted to rant
about the United States' foreign policies or dissect the
significance of reality television as a postmodern art form. They
didn't even want to chat about what they had for dinner the
previous night, a staple of many detail-rich blogs.

Instead, these suit-coat-wearing men and high-heeled women
gracefully sipped chardonnay while figuring out how blogs could
increase their business revenue. Yes, like most everything else
that begins existence as a hip underground trend, blogging has
gone corporate.

Blogs (short for "Web logs") sometimes take the shape of online
diaries for the lonely hearts set or digital soliloquies for those
who seek an audience for their sometimes-hourly musings. They've also acted as a
sounding board for would-be political pundits and pseudo-experts on any given topic.

But for Debbie Weil, owner of Wordbiz.com Inc., a D.C.
consulting firm that helps companies polish their online marketing
strategies, blogging is a way to connect with potential customers.
Her blog (www.debbieweil.com), touches on a wide variety of topics
-- industry statistics and innovations, but also her dog's recent
illness. All of it, even short submissions linking to other Web
pages, is written in a breezy, intimate style. And that, says
Weil, is the difference between a business blog and a corporate
newsletter.

"Good blogs are authentic, credible, very human, candid and
personal in the sense that it's usually one voice," said Weil. "A
blog doesn't have to be clever, but it does have to be useful."

Few business bloggers can say how much their daily postings
affect the firm's bottom line, but most assume that customers who
check in regularly will be more likely to purchase a new product
or be faithful users of the services offered.

One theory tossed around at the New Media Society event Tuesday
night was that e-mail marketing is dead and business blogs are
rising up as the replacement. While the medium may not be in its
grave yet, powerful spam filters that block out corporate e-mails
have certainly limited its effectiveness. But some proponents of
blogging say the new business-development tool can succeed in ways
e-mail never could.

"I don't think e-mail is dead. I don't think it's any more
difficult than it was two years ago; I just don't think it was
ever that effective," said Bill Kearney, a Bethesda technology
consultant (www.wkearney.com). "It's definitely sort of a
nontraditional public that has largely wised up to marketing speak
-- they can smell it from a hundred yards away."

There are more than 1.2 million blogs on the Internet, according
a "blog census" maintained by the National Institute for
Technology and Liberal Education, but there is little data on how
many of them are devoted to business issues.

Meg Hourihan, co-creator of Blogger, the blogging tool
acquired by Google, and co-author of "We Blog: Publishing Online
With Weblogs," believes that businesses are only beginning to
realize the capabilities of instant publishing.

"I would say it's still frowned upon by some big corporations who
are concerned about their public image. 'Will customers be
confused about what employees are saying about us, versus the
corporate communications office?' " said Hourihan
(www.megnut.com). "It has huge potential. On any corporate page,
having a Web log on the home page, it makes perfect sense, even if
it's just to direct people to other pages. It's a way to highlight
the timely content on their site."

Some bloggers list their sites on their business cards and other
marketing material, but like all blogs, business blogs are
promoted mostly through links on other blogs. People who read one
blog are likely to read others, so bloggers often endorse sites
about related topics.

Some business blogs provide a way for companies to update
consumers on movements within their firm and products being
developed. Research companies such as Gartner Inc. and
Jupitermedia Corp. have analysts keep blogs on issues affecting
the industries they study.

But, Hourihan said, not all corporate blogs have to be made
available for public viewing. Some of the most effective company
blogs are posted on internal networks, or intranets. These can
help different business divisions connect or allow employees from
disparate offices to share information when working together on a
big project. Top corporate executives can use blogs as a way to
develop relationships with employees, even if it is a mostly one-
way conversation, she said.

Other local bloggers include Scott Knowles, an employee with
TMP Worldwide who writes about marketing practices at
websense.blogspot.com, and Gary Price, a library and Internet
researcher who promotes his consulting business at
www.resourceshelf.com. Larger corporations such as Macromedia
(www.markme.com/mxna/bloglist.cfm) and Fast Company
(blog.fastcompany.com) also keep blogs to promote their
businesses.

Kearney said these internal blogs are useful to employees because
they can be active about getting the information rather then being
inundated with mass e-mail and fliers written in stiff management
jargon.

"You've got the potential of people taking their own time to go
and look at it," said Kearney, who added that blogs must be, above
all, interesting to develop a loyal readership.

Gayley Knight, founder of the Web development company
Connecting Links, set up a blog for the council members of the
Montgomery County town of Somerset. Citizens loved having intimate
access to their elected leaders, she said, but the council members
couldn't find the time to update their blogs regularly. That blog
has largely fallen off, but Knight is beginning a new one as she
assumes the presidency of the Women Business Owners of
Montgomery County.

"It seemed like it'll be a good way to not only tell what was
going on [outside the organization] but also allow people to start
using it in their own businesses and make it work," said Knight.

"I think you could find that your customers start returning.
Business Web sites do not function the way they were envisioned
during the dot-com gold rush. I think they'll return to the blogs,
because if you make it useful . . . you're going to be able to not
only manage content, but help people."