Businesses turning to blogs to leverage employee intelligence, introduce products and drive interaction.
Why has the media nicknamed the Internet the new "Social Web?" The Internet's inherent structure supporting communication, personalization and expression, along with the demand for reducing its worldly width, are driving product development within the social sphere. "People-powered" trends gaining strength through the channel include social networks, blogs, wikis, flash mobs, instant messaging plug-ins and more.
"Social interaction is here to stay since 'people empowerment' will always be strong," says Adrian Scott, CEO and founder of Ryze. His social networking site's heaviest use comes from professionals in the advertising, marketing, coaching and consulting businesses, since reputation and networking are important contributors to these industries' success.
Socializing online, however, is not limited to specific verticals. Professionals at a variety of levels and in dozens of different industries are touting the online channel's communication benefits as effective for their businesses. In fact, related online niche providers, such as eVite and Monster, want a piece of the pie. Can the first-to-market, pure-networking players defend their market share against these larger online service companies launching social community products of their own?
Ryze's Scott believes CRM is the best defense: "We just have to stay focused on appeasing our existing customer base."
Just as social networking emerged in venture capital hype in 2003, blogging (and its related hobbies) is this year's fastest growing segment within the online social spectrum. Blogs, short for Weblogs, are online journals that provide opinions in reverse chronological order, ranging from personal ramblings and product reviews to social commentary.
The low cost of entry and the trend toward individual expression in today's society are propelling the blog's growing popularity. According to a Perseus Development survey, there are 4.12 million blogs on the Internet, 91 percent of which were created by people between the ages of 13 and 29.
Bloggers say they prefer the hobby for enjoyment, writing, reaching out to the world, work and coping. It seems to be addictive: A study conducted last year by eMarketer found that 2 percent of the general population has their own Weblogs, and of those who consider themselves bloggers, 44 percent have more than one blog.
Blogging gets a high-profile plug
The growth of blogs and readers has attracted greater attention from businesses as a means to communicate more effectively and directly with their employees, partners and customers. They are used externally to generate revenue and internally to enhance efficiencies. They have been proven to get customers excited about products, to help companies react faster to changes or demands, to support a continuing dialog between organizations and customers, as well as to encourage internal communication, innovation and camaraderie.
The most recent vocal advocate of social communities is none other than the king of software, Bill Gates. Speaking at the Microsoft CEO Summit in May, Gates said, "Another big phenomenon is building communities around Web sites, around products. Virtually every company ought to have on their Web sites the ability for their customers, their suppliers, various people, to interact and their employees to see the dialogue taking place there and jump in and talk to them and help them."
Gates extolled the productivity benefits that can be derived from user-empowering technologies such as blogging, RSS, collaboration software and online communities that are integrated into Web sites. In particular, he told corporate executives that Weblogs and the way they are distributed can be used as business communication tools.
The fact that the world's largest software company sees the potential of blogging as both a possible threat and a new business opportunity certainly validates the future impact of the social community category.
Professional blogs get personal
Employee blogs have the intangible effect of giving a face and personality to otherwise faceless corporations and allowing them to be in touch with the community. Since most internal communication and idea-sharing between and across employee teams and departments tends to be unstructured, blogs and social communication tools can help streamline team communication more efficiently than email does. They also leverage an organization's "thought capital," or collective intelligence, which is usually underutilized in today's environment.
A Google commentary posted two weeks ago regarding its informal blog launch sheds light on this -- the product's purpose, unique benefits and challenges: "In the grand tradition of Google launches, this blog is an experiment. Consider it Googleblog (beta). We're not going to make it entirely first person, because the logical people to write Google blog posts don't always have time to do that. We're not going to make it entirely anonymous because people here have things to say directly to you. And it would be boring as lint if all posts got processed to meet 'corporate style.' So we'll try different things and see where the pain points are. That's the beauty of a blog -- you can change direction real time to make it work better."
Blogging takes off in new directions
Blogads, a network of bloggers who accept advertising, is a new phenomenon that claims to reach the opinion makers that traditional media can't: fanatics, pundits and journalists. Blog readers are known for having traits in common, such as passion and initiative, that are often absent in today's public spaces. A recent survey conducted by Blogads revealed that blog readers prefer them for: "news I can't find elsewhere," "better perspective" and "faster," followed by "more honesty" and "transparent biases."
"I'm excited by Blogads. Not only is it a chance for the independent businessman to support the independent writer, but blog enthusiasts constitute the best market out there for selling digital goods. Particularly on weeks when their favorite authors take vacation," says Blogads client David Moynihan of Blackmask Online.
Another trend within the blogging category is photoblogging, whereby bloggers regularly update their sites with photos. A community of phone-bloggers, Phlog.net already has almost 3,000 people contributing photos to its pages and adding personal comments to others' photos.
Recognizing this movement as especially popular among youth, Nokia gave camera phones to Millenials in hopes that they would spread product interaction. The manufacturer has a Series 60 photoblogging application in development called PhotoBlog, in which a user selects an image taken from his camera phone, gives it a title and description, then posts it to his very own blog.
Word-of-mouth product placement works
Word-of-mouth marketing within social communities is being recognized more frequently as an integral component of integrated campaigns. Many proponents believe that the future of advertising will be text-based and that the mobile component of blogs will continue to offer revolutionary new applications.
DEI Worldwide is one such agency taking advantage of the power of word-of-mouth advertising by placing clients' consumer products within relevant context on social networks. For instance, it helped Kellogg reach out to "American Idol" fans to create buzz for its pre-sell of tickets to the Pop-Tarts brand-sponsored 2003 "American Idol" summer concert tour.
Within online communities where "American Idol" fans, 'tweens, teens and parents were already exchanging ideas, thoughts and insider tips, DEI engaged them in friendly conversations about the pre-sale, encouraged them to visit http://www.poptarts.com/ to purchase tickets and gathered candid market feedback from the people in Kellogg's target market. In just five days, overall awareness of the pre-sale increased from 5 percent to 19 percent and 37 percent of the people DEI interacted with purchased pre-sale tickets through the Pop-Tarts site.
With product placement so commonplace, how can consumers decipher marketing messages from genuine, unbiased content?
"Social communities are rich networks. The challenge is to keep them authentic," says Heath Row, editorial and community director of Fast Company, a magazine whose traffic has increased 25 percent since launching a blog. A growing percentage of bloggers are posting explanations of their relationships with businesses, which in turn boosts their site's credibility and encourages readers and other bloggers to value honesty. In the end, they will be more successful than those who try to play consumers for the fool.
Can ranting and raving really sell product?
Customers love to talk about brands, experiences and products, but marketers often feel frustrated that they can't control what they say. However, marketers can ensure a more successful "social" campaign by controlling what type of product is discussed and with which type of target demo.
Steve Knox of the Tremor Division of Procter & Gamble says that there is a key difference between 'trendsetters' and 'trendspreaders.' Trendspreaders will only advocate your brand if it is easy for them to talk about. Products that are embarrassing to talk about, such as Viagra and Depends, don't lend themselves well to word-of-mouth marketing except for online where people can remain anonymous. "Influentials," defined as a segment of consumers who embrace new concepts, products and styles, buzz about brands without having to be asked to. Opinion sharing is prevalent and encouraged among these young users.
"Volume from blogging is not necessarily immediate, but over time it does produce," says Mena Trott, president and co-founder of Six Apart. "The engaged and lasting impression is truly what makes a difference in sales."
DEI Worldwide's CEO David Reis agrees, "Traditional advertising has a broad scope, but it has been proven that volume doesn't necessarily sell certain types of products, especially some segments of consumer packaged goods."
While trusted voices are a marketer's gateway to financial opportunity, businesses must remember that consumers will always be drawn to content with integrity. (That being said, I divulge: I do not hold any equity positions in the companies previously mentioned).