Intelligent Design: CRM on the WWW by Randa Clay

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The State of the Blogosphere

Technorati has released its 2008 State of the Blogosphere report and it's an interesting read, particularly if you're not yet convinced of the place that blogging has in the corporate world (read it here).  Blogs are becoming a pervasive, mainstream phenomenon and increasingly we will see that customers are going to expect this type of communication from the companies they do business with.  Here are some selected statistics from the report and some quotes from some of the thought leaders in the area:

• 346 million WW read blogs | 60.3 US
• 77% of active Internet users read blogs
• Company information or gossip and everyday retail experiences are fodder for the majority of bloggers.Companies are already reaching out to bloggers. One-third of bloggers have been approached to be brand advocates.

“I’ve loved watching how some of the Big Dog corporate bloggers adopt the characteristics that make the best personal blogs so effective: personality, passion, smarts, usefulness, humor. Blogging and other forms of social media are changing corporate-think and driving a revolution in how companies do business.” Debbie Weil, Blogger and author of The Corporate Blogging Book

"A blog also shows the personal side of a company leader.  People like and appreciate the human side of corporate America.  It’s not always about business and when a company leader opens up a bit, readers respect that." Jacob Morgan,Marketing and SEO Strategist

“Blogs represent the best chance for companies to inform the conversation.” Richard Edelman, President and CEO, Edelman

05:49 pm | 0 recommendations | 3 comments

Case Study: General Motors Blogs

Last week I looked at some of the reasons your business needs a blog, and this week I'd like to take a look at one example of a company that is utilizing it's blogs very well: General Motors.  GM's blogs are accessible from their main corporate site, and while they have multiple blog sites, I'm just going to take a look at one of them. The "Fast Lane" blog is written by GM management, and covers news and information about all their vehicles. GM blogs are powered by WordPress, which is the predominate blogging system available.

Design: the look of the site is slick and represents GM's brand well.  The header rotates through GM's vehicles on each reload, which is a nice touch.

Navigation: To get around the blog, you can view posts by month and they have recent posts in their 6 categories in the footer.  It would great to have an index of authors in the sidebar as well, since it is a multi-author blog. The link to the blog's feed is way down in the sidebar, and I'm sure they'd get more subscribers by moving it up to the top or even the header and providing a subscribe by email option.

Content: interesting articles from various members of GM management.  They have obviously made blogging a priority, and giving readers the opportunity to hear directly from GM management regularly gives a sense of accessibility.  Their posting frequency is about 6-7 posts per month.

Discussion: there is a quite a bit of lively discussion on the blog.  Readers have to log in to comment and per their posted Blogging Policy, they will not delete comments unless they are spam, off-topic, or defamatory.  This is an important point to remember when managing a company blog. People are going to have both positive and negative things to say.  I believe it is important to respond to the comments, even if it's just "thanks for your input", in order to let those who comment know they are being "heard".

Social Media: At the end of each article is a link to Digg, and they post the latest tweets from the GM twitter account. There is a Flickr feed at the bottom of the blog as well.

Conclusions: GM makes great use of their blogs and social media to connect with customers and brand enthusiasts.  The comments seem a bit like a one-way conversation, as there is little response from the post authors to the commenters.  The use of social media applications like company Twitter and Flickr accounts are perfect for giving customers multiple ways to interact with the business.  Overall, it's a good example to follow in building brand interest and customer loyalty through a corporate blog.

What corporate blogs do you read? 

08:10 am | 0 recommendations | 7 comments

5 Reasons Your Business Needs a Blog

My name is Randa Clay, and I am a designer and marketing consultant with my main focus being design and development for WordPress. Beyond graphic design, my background includes work recommending, coordinating, executing and analyzing marketing initiatives for large brands, such as The Limited, Victoria’s Secret, Goody’s, Express and more. This is my first post on the Fast Company site, and look forward to discussing ways to improve customer relationship management through a well-designed website and blog.

1. Build relationships


You know they're buying your products and services, and you might have some demographics/firmographics, but who are they really? Your blog readers are likely to be your best customers, and knowing them better will help you to find more like them. A company blog offers opportunities to dialogue with your customers unique way through the comment area in each post. While marketing programs can generally only send one-way messages, a blog keeps the lines of communication open both ways.

2. Build your reputation


People like to do business with people and companies they feel they know. You have your "Mission, Vision and Values" up on your wall in your offices, but do your customers know what you stand for and what you're trying to accomplish? Do they know what's important to you as a company? You can post about charities you're involved with, share customer success stories, demonstrate solutions you offer and problems you've solved, all with the end in mind of building your reputation and brand image.

3. Build customer loyalty

The more customers know you, the more loyal they become. As you feature different solutions you offer, they are encouraged to do even more business with you. Featuring some of your best customers will solidify their relationship with you and make your top tier even more loyal. Most blogs will offer a subscription option through RSS and email, which means you will have opportunities to interact with subscribers every time a post is published.

4. Build authority


Before I had a blog to go along with my design business site, all visitors saw when they visited were marketing messages and a portfolio. I got almost no business through my website. By starting a blog to go along with the content I already had on the site, I was able to build authority through blog posts and responses to comments, and began to get the bulk of my business through my site. The difference was not in the quality of my work, but rather the opportunity for potential customers to get to know me, and learn about my skill set, the solutions I had provided for customers, problems solved, etc.

5. Build traffic


Blogs are perfect for search engine optimization. Search engine spiders like fresh content to feed on, and while a company website might be rather static with little need for content changes, a regularly updated blog provides fresh, keyword-rich content that search engines love. This will cause your site to rank higher when potential customers search for your products and services and drive more traffic to your entire site.

In the coming weeks we'll take a look at some business blogs that are well-designed and implemented, as well as some that need some improvement, in order to more clearly define what makes a business blog successful.