Your business needs a blog... with a strategy

Andy,

First off, thank you very much for the two links (I'm sure Toby would say "thanks" as well...).

Secondly, you are totally correct- though it would make sense that I agree with you.

If you are not participating in the conversation, you are missing out- big time. Just like Frank Arrigo says- somebody is having that conversation with your customer or potential customer.

Blogging allows the customer to develop a relationship with you and your products. Once they make that investment in their minds and lives, they are far more likely to invest money as well. Engaging the customer in a dialog opens them up to establishing a bit of "pride of ownership". That is good news for you and your product/ service.

Negative comments happen. I get them regularly. Keep this mind though; they are happening everywhere. If you are the one hosting the party, you have more control of the converesation, but the bulk of your audience is going to be interested in your responses and will give you the benefit of the doubt as well. Think of it this way; the customer with a bad attitude is going to say negative things regardless. You can either allow them to speak all alone and not engage them- giving them all the airtime to themselves. Or you can engage in the conversation and at least have a chance to defend youself. You might not win the argument, but you at least have the chance to try.

As far as Australia goes, it is no different than any other market anywhere in the world. Every company needs to blog. If not, they sure better be reading blogs and listening to the conversations that are going on and have a plan for how to respond to them.

Andy -

Yes, many thanks for the shot out to Diva Marketing (Blog) and the link to the great mini case that Tim wrote about how Masi is using blogs as a business strategy.

Totally agree with you and Tim. With the speed of the expansion of new blogs it is very likely that someone is talking about your company somewhere. (If there is not buzz about your brand .. well that's a thread for another post!).

Keep in in mind there are two sides to this digital conversation: "listening" and "talking." We can learn so much from blogosphere conversations (consumer generated media) that are in the customer's language without the filter of a moderator. Formal research has it place, but ability to listen in on the 'raw talk' of our customers is priceless.

This is still such a new game for most businesses. For many people , it's a new concept and a scary idea that the 'protecting the brand' may entail more open discussions than trying to hide what everyone already knows anyway. And organizations will also learn that comments are not that easy to come by and as such the 'fear factor' of negative comments will (for the most part) not be that big a deal.