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Biz Blog Essentials Final Thoughts

Posted on
March 17, 2006

OK, so maybe my last post about the Essentials of Business Blogging came off as a bit harsh. It certainly wasn’t meant to be. I think there was some great content shared, and I got the feeling that most people in the room were happy with what they’d learned.

I still feel like there’s a major problem with the direction this seminar took from a high level. As I mentioned, the seminar to me had the feel of giving a 14 year old a new car and telling him to take a road trip… not yet having had any drivers training.

While the session successfully mentioned some of the pitfals of business blogging, what they didn’t do was anything related to the discussion of how business blogging fits into an overall strategy, an overall direction. Anyone who’s seen a homeless man yelling at you about Jesus as you pass by, simply having a conversation isn’t necessarily an inherent “good thing”.

Business blogging is important, significant only if it fits into a larger strategy by the company to form a real relationship with their consumers/customers. Simply yapping at them in a one-way, directed way is simply using new tools for old school tactics.

So I guess my final thoughts on the matter are this - if you already have a clear idea of the why, then head to their next seminar to find out the how.


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    Jake: Again, your criticisms are greatly appreciated, as they help us to clarify our editorial and to make a better seminar next time.


    But I have to say - respectfully of course - that your comment about giving a 14 year old a car without telling him how to use it comes across as incredibly condescending.



    Our attendees are responsible adults who - unlike a fourteen year old behind the wheel - have life experience and mature judgment. To insinuate that business leaders don't know how to blog is to say that blogging is some kind of elite cult that you can only join after you've been properly initiated. It's that very misperception that drove us to start these seminars in the first place. Blogging is an activity that is instinctively human, people already know how to do it by nature - they just need to understand the technology and what it's used for.



    Like Anil said, there is no doctrine of blogging, no absolute right way or absolute wrong way to do it.



    Despite our lack of agreement about the seminar, I absolutely value your comments. You've certainly made some excellent points - some of which make me wonder whether we marketed this seminar too broadly. We certainly hope that you'll continue this discussion, as your point of view is critical to us.
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    Hi Jake,
    I think I see what you're getting at now. And yes I agree with you that business communicators have a long tradition of sugar-coating things.

    And yes, conversations between businesses and consumers do have the potential for eruption - like the Raging Cow blog. But even when conversations go awry, businesses can make moves to appease the blogosphere.

    Take the story of GourmetStation. They used a character blog that was criticized as inauthentic, and when they recognized that the blogosphere was up in arms about it, they engaged their detractors head on and drove to closure. GourmetStation's blog wasn't an uncategorical disaster, despite the less than perfect blogosphere judgment that went into its creation because its creators made the decision to come out and defend it rather than stonewalling.

    To bring it back to the seminar, I'll ask you the same question here that I did in my other comment. What session would you have added to the seminar to give attendees more of the "why?"



    Thanks,

    Teresa







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