No Comments Written by Robert on July 28, 2008 – 10:48 pm

Blogging is a conversation. It has become a phenomenon because people love to communicate. It allows you to get closer to your audience, because when you say something they can respond back with what they think. In fact, the audience may well lead the conversation at times by suggesting new ideas. From the organization’s perspective, blogging can have two key benefits:

1. In an intranet, it can allow more and better conversations between staff, particularly between staff who are in different physical locations, and/or who are at different levels within the organization. It can thus break down hierarchies and silo-thinking.

2. It can establish a powerful interaction between the organization and the customer. A good blog can show that you are listening and responding to the needs of your customers. A good blog can make your customers part of the product development process.

From a personal perspective, blogging is like an extended CV. At a very basic level, a blog says “I exist and I have something to say.” At a more practical level a blog says “I exist, I have something smart to say, give me a (better) job, please.”

“Blog” is a combination of two words: “web” and “log.” It is a Webbased diary or journal. Some blogs are focused on the personal writing of the author; they are, in essence, an online diary. Others take an editorial approach. Editors trawl the Web for interesting content and might then write up a short comment and link to this content, or simply cut and paste the heading and summary from the original webpage, while also providing a link to it.

Resources:

Blogger: http://www.blogger.com

Wordpress: http://wordpress.org/

Blogs reflect a passion to communicate.

They say there’s a book inside everybody. Well, the blog lets the book out! Bloggers, the writers and editors of blogs, are people with attitude. They have a passion to communicate. You can’t have a good blog if you can’t write well or if you don’t have well-formulated opinions.

The InfoDesign blog shown above focuses on information design and is a blog I find useful. The image, taken from that blog, shows how a classic blog entry is structured:

• Date and Time: A key distinguishing feature of blogs is that each piece of content is dated.
• Link heading: A typical blog entry will link to another piece of content on the Web. (The diary-like blogs don’t always do this.)
• Summary: Blog entries tend to be short and punchy; so the general rules of Web content you’ll find in Killer Web Content are ideal for writing blogs.
• Classification: A classification structure is important for blogs especially as they grow bigger. Otherwise, it becomes difficult find older articles. The InfoDesign example blog post is classified under “usability.”
• Permanent link: Blogs have a feature called “permalink.” This gives the blog post a unique website address so that it can be directly linked to.

BLOGGING IS PART OF THE TEXT REVOLUTION

Who would have thought that in 2005 Fortune magazine would have chosen blogging — plain old editing and writing — as the number one tech trend? Let’s not get carried away, though. While blogging is an interesting trend in communication, it is simply a new part of the communications mix.

The similarities between the music and technology industries are striking. Each one desperately needs a “next big thing.” Each one desperately needs to whip up a frenzy about something that is definitely going to change the world – until the next big thing comes along. Blogs are the latest “next big thing” which is going to change everything, according to some pundits. They’re going to bring big corporations to their knees and give ultimate power to the consumer and independent advocate. And these pundits have at least one reallife story to back up their latest pet theory.

“Heard about what bloggers did to Kryptonite?” they ask. Well, in September 2004, someone blogged that you could open a Kryptonite lock with a BIC pen. This claim was quickly verified by other bloggers.

The Kryptonite Bike Lock Company responded lamely by saying that the locks were still a “deterrent to theft.” The bloggers were infuriated and lambasted Kryptonite. Finally, Kryptonite was forced to recall the lock, costing an estimated ten million dollars.

At least, that’s what became the popular myth. And a nice little story it makes too. But is it the truth? Kryptonite claimed it was aware of what was happening on the Internet from day one, and that it worked flat out to come up with a solution. The truth of the story – as usual – is probably a bit more complicated than the bloggers or Kryptonite would like you to believe.

Almost exactly ten years earlier, in the autumn of 1994, a bug was discovered in the Intel Pentium processor. Someone published information on this bug on the Web and the story began to get picked up. Intel initially ignored the criticism, claiming that the bug only occurred in rare circumstances, which was true. However, the controversy just grew and grew. Finally, Intel relented, with Andrew Grove, then CEO, stating, “The past few weeks have been deeply troubling. What we view as an extremely minor technical problem has taken on a life of its own.” A no-questions-asked return policy was announced. (Hardly anyone took it up.)

If you’re not listening to what bloggers are saying about you, you’re not doing your job as a professional communicator.

Intel didn’t listen. Kryptonite may or may not have listened. Communication has changed. Many organizations are used to a oneway system, broadcasting a message to an audience. However, the Web gives today’s consumers an opportunity to talk back in a way that was not possible before; the communications mix has become two-way. And that’s going to really shake up a lot of communications and marketing departments, because, let’s face it, most organizations are simply not used to pesky consumers talking back.

However, let’s not lose sight of the fact that Intel is still around, as are most of the other so-called dinosaurs that the Web was supposed to obliterate. The irony of the Web is that, while on the one hand it gives a voice to the individual consumer, it also rewards size and scale. The Web may have millions of websites, but it is dominated by a small number of mega-sites. And, as we will see in the next chapter, they are likely to get bigger and stronger as the Web matures.

THE ADVANTAGES OF BLOGS TO THE ORGANIZATION

Blogs tend to be personal and conversational, and I will look at why you, as a professional, should consider blogging later in the chapter. However, here I’d like to examine the potential advantages of blogs to the organization.

A human face

Modern organizations are creating greater distances between themselves and their consumers. Self-service, automation, and outsourcing all reduce the number of opportunities – the touch points – the organization has to interact with the consumer. When the consumer can’t put a “face” on an organization, it’s easy to see that organization as a soulless entity. Blogging has the potential to give it a human face.

A finger on the pulse

A key component of blogging is that people can easily post replies to any comment the blogger makes. If an organization is prepared to listen, it can spot trends – negative and positive – early, and respond appropriately to them. Done well, blogs can become a part of the product development process, helping ensure that the new product or service is addressing real customer needs. Blogs can be a wonderful source of market research, of new ideas, and of feedback.

A great blog is a window into the mind of a great thinker.

A sharing culture Intranet blogs can be an excellent way to share and explore ideas, product concepts, etc., within an organization. They can be a way of knitting virtual teams together whose individual members may live on different continents. Some organizations – such as Google, for example – use them to document product developments for patent application purposes.

THE DISADVANTAGES OF BLOGS TO THE ORGANIZATION

Blogs are no magic formula for success and can have drawbacks, including the following.

Blogs require talented writers

There may well be a book inside everybody but the stark truth is that many people don’t have very much to say and what they do have to say they say badly. I have sometimes found that the people who have the most time to write have the least to say, and that the people who have the most to say don’t have enough time to write it down. Thus, the real expertise within an organization can lay hidden beneath a pile of trivia. Blogs can be a wonderful way of wasting time at work.

Blogs are open to abuse

The very strength of blogging is that it is individual rather than organization-focused. So the organization that wants to allow public blogging needs to tread a very careful line between keeping on message and allowing freedom of expression. It’s nice that a blogger has an independent voice, but how far can an employee go in criticizing the organization just to show that independence? It’s nice to be open and transparent, but what sort of information is an employee allowed to publish?

These are not simple questions. Companies such as Kmart, Delta, and Google have fired staff because it was believed that confidential information was posted in their blogs.

It is a misconception to think that because blogs are written by individuals they are more credible. Often, the reverse is so.

Because blogs tend to be the voice of an individual, a “real” person, some believe that they are more authentic than the voice of the organization. However, the individual voice is just as open to abuse as that of the organization.

There are numerous stories of people being paid to pretend to be independent. In truth, we all have prejudices; it’s just that some of us are better at hiding them than others. In some cases, the blogger is a fiction. For over three years, thousands of people followed the blog of Plain Layne, a lesbian from Minnesota. It turned out Plain Layne was actually a 35-year-old male entrepreneur from Minnesota.

For all its virtues, the Web can be the land of the scam. “Ten Years, Ten Trends,” a 2004 study by the Center for the Digital Future, found that:

1. Although the Web has become an important source of information, the initially high level of credibility of information on the Web began to drop in 2003, and declined even further in 2004.
2. Websites by established media were trusted by 74% of survey respondents and government websites were trusted by 73%. But websites by individuals – that includes blogs – were trusted by only 9%.

Building credibility and trust takes time, so don’t expect that if you launch a blog it will be an overnight success. Blogging is a form of publishing and most publications that do succeed generally take many years to build up a regular readership. You must be willing to put in quality blogging time week in, week out. A good idea might take up one paragraph but could have taken a day or more to research and think through.

When blogging, remember that the Web has a long memory. Do not publish any material on your blog on impulse. Ask these questions:

• Who might read it? Suppose a prospective employer or customer reads it, what would they think?
• In what ways might it be interpreted?
• How will it stand up in a year? In five years?
• How will it further my career?

GET YOUR OWN WEBSITE

The real advantages of blogging are for individuals like you. You must publish today about the important things you do if you are ambitious. Publishing is about visibility. It’s about getting your name in front of those who matter to you.

If you do something great and don’t create a record of what you did, did you really do it? As far as the Web is concerned, you didn’t, and the Web is becoming the global memory. So you’ve got to get it down – get it recorded.

Academia may look somewhat mild and comradely to an outsider, but it is an intensely competitive environment, governed by the law “publish or perish.” Ambitious and creative academics get published and not-so-ambitious and not-so-creative ones get forgotten. Take Albert Einstein, for example: he gained fame and influence not after he formulated his theories on relativity, but after he published them.

We have moved from lifelong employment to lifelong learning, and the organization has become, in part, like a university. The implications are clear: as members of this lifelong learning university, we will be expected to publish more in order to show what we have learned and to share the best of that learning.

A personal website is the universal passport of the knowledge society.

In the past, many people gave their loyalty to an organization in the hope that it would give them lifelong employment and fulfillment. That’s rarely the case anymore, and the implication is that you will need to publish outside the organization so that others will become aware of your abilities.

You must look after yourself today, and your blog or other type of website is a way of saying that you are always open to new opportunities. You should never be too busy to look after your long-term interests.

Get your own URL (website address), because your website should be one of the most permanent things you carry with you throughout your life. You may change careers, houses, or even countries, but your website address and its associated e-mail address shouldn’t change.

E-MAIL NEWSLETTERS

It’s not just Web publishing you should focus on, of course. The more places you can get your name published, the better; so if there are offline magazines or newspapers that will take your copy, so much the better.

Personally, I don’t blog but I’ve been writing a weekly e-mail newsletter called New Thinking for ten years, which I also publish on my website. I follow the same schedule every week and I have never missed an issue. People ask me how I manage to do that. I ask them how they manage to get up on a Monday morning. Do I always feel excited by writing? No. Am I always brimming with ideas? No. I just tell my brain – in a very determined manner – that I must write my newsletter every week. And somehow, regardless of all sorts of problems, I manage to get it published.

Despite the huge increase in spam, I would estimate that 85% of my business results from subscribers to my newsletter. It’s like this: people come to my website; they might read a bit of content; they might think it’s good; and they might intend to come back – but most never do. Now, if I can get them to join a newsletter, well then I can regularly reach them.

Most of my clients spend an average of 12 months as subscribers to my newsletter first before they make an initial contact. That way, they get to know what I’m about and what my particular angle is. Often, what happens is that I get hired by people who are of a like mind to me. They’ve been saying the same things within their organizations and believe that, if they can bring in an outside voice, it will add momentum and credibility to their views.

My e-mail newsletter is a perfect way for me to find the right client. It is a very simple text-only newsletter, as you can see from the image opposite, but it helps me get to work with some of the world’s best organizations, allowing me to charge high fees and deliver real value.