Marketing Buzz
Having explored some of the difficulties with creating a blog, here are some of the good points as seen by www.clickz.com, talking about Business blogs.
"Enormous Marketing Potential
B-blogs are highly strategic, here-to-stay desktop tools that can strengthen relationships, share knowledge, increase collaboration, and improve branding. Think of the potential for your e-newsletter strategies:
Although I agree that a blog can extend your ability to reach customers, I have some difficulties with "massive conversation", and "become industry experts". The likelihood of massive conversations depends on your readership, and the controversy of the topic. If you are extending invitations to company "seminars", rather than publishing political or entertainment pieces, your content may not be the kind that generates "massive conversation".
It's also strange that company experts become industry experts by virtue of a blog. One would think that becoming an industry expert is due to having your knowledge recognized by other industry experts, rather than making a reputation as a blog writer for customers. Maybe the article simply meant that customers often look to popular writers for their technical information.
A more important point is made by www.jupiterreasearch.com
"For unsigned artists (as these guys seem to be) P-to-P (peer-to-peer) distribution has an even stronger appeal. It’s a quasi mass media marketing channel that can give them the exposure that makes A&R execs take notice. (Mark Mulligan, Why Some Bands Want you to Copy their Music, how the Internet can be used to make what were once small scale interactions into mass media interactions)"
This is the kind of content which may actually generate "massive" conversations. Record companies and publishers control access to their markets, asserting that they winnow out the best so that the audience has a reasonable expectation that what is published will be good.
Indeed, there are only a few excellent artists, and lots of mediocre ones. But by allowing a few company execs to be the final judge of what is good, customers lost variety. Being able to get content where people can hear it may let make the small artist reach his audience. Customers and artists win, and company execs may complain that they don't get to make the decisions anymore, but is it their market, or does it belong to the consumer?
The question is, can the "massive conversations" that occur in P-to-P blogs be generated in Business blogs talking to customers? People are more interested in the opinions of other people than they are in reading ads, company policy, and infomercials. Trying to extrapolate from the results of P-to-P blogs to the results of business blogs is comparing apples and oranges. One has to ask what drives the conversations. Assertions about "enormous marketing potential" should be taken with a grain of salt, and a judicious look at the content you intend to present.
"Enormous Marketing Potential
B-blogs are highly strategic, here-to-stay desktop tools that can strengthen relationships, share knowledge, increase collaboration, and improve branding. Think of the potential for your e-newsletter strategies:
- Articles within newsletters can be linked to a blog, extending life and creating a massive conversation.
- You can offer a bidirectional forum to customers to get true, personal opinions on your products and services.
- Company experts can start a blog and become industry experts, helping your company edge out competition and, through this interactive forum, draw customers into another exchange of information and thoughts."
Although I agree that a blog can extend your ability to reach customers, I have some difficulties with "massive conversation", and "become industry experts". The likelihood of massive conversations depends on your readership, and the controversy of the topic. If you are extending invitations to company "seminars", rather than publishing political or entertainment pieces, your content may not be the kind that generates "massive conversation".
It's also strange that company experts become industry experts by virtue of a blog. One would think that becoming an industry expert is due to having your knowledge recognized by other industry experts, rather than making a reputation as a blog writer for customers. Maybe the article simply meant that customers often look to popular writers for their technical information.
A more important point is made by www.jupiterreasearch.com
"For unsigned artists (as these guys seem to be) P-to-P (peer-to-peer) distribution has an even stronger appeal. It’s a quasi mass media marketing channel that can give them the exposure that makes A&R execs take notice. (Mark Mulligan, Why Some Bands Want you to Copy their Music, how the Internet can be used to make what were once small scale interactions into mass media interactions)"
This is the kind of content which may actually generate "massive" conversations. Record companies and publishers control access to their markets, asserting that they winnow out the best so that the audience has a reasonable expectation that what is published will be good.
Indeed, there are only a few excellent artists, and lots of mediocre ones. But by allowing a few company execs to be the final judge of what is good, customers lost variety. Being able to get content where people can hear it may let make the small artist reach his audience. Customers and artists win, and company execs may complain that they don't get to make the decisions anymore, but is it their market, or does it belong to the consumer?
The question is, can the "massive conversations" that occur in P-to-P blogs be generated in Business blogs talking to customers? People are more interested in the opinions of other people than they are in reading ads, company policy, and infomercials. Trying to extrapolate from the results of P-to-P blogs to the results of business blogs is comparing apples and oranges. One has to ask what drives the conversations. Assertions about "enormous marketing potential" should be taken with a grain of salt, and a judicious look at the content you intend to present.
posted by jbell at
5:01 PM
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