Summary: An interview with Matthew Oliphant of Business Logs, mostly about blogs and business.
Why do so few businesses have blogs? Are they blind? Are they afraid? Are they ignorant? Do they lack good writers? Do they lack vision?
I think most people in a position to start a company blog had probably never heard the word before September 2004. So we sit now in that "early adopter" phase. As we progress though, I think it will be an issue of the latter two items you mentioned in your question. Having read quite a number of task scenarios and other deliverables that require a small amount of prose writing I can tell you that most people don't write very well. Writing is a skill. You couldn't get an MFA in Creative Writing or PHD in Technical Writing if anyone could just do it. The other aspect is lack of vision. Many companies will start a blog because their competition is doing it. My guess though is that many companies just won't know how blogging can benefit them. Which of course is a good segue to the next question.
How do blogs help businesses? What are some measurable outcomes? I think many people would like to know how the value of a blog can be sold to a manager or executive. Enlighten us!
I am of two minds on this issue. On the one mind, blogging is an easy way to open and manage a customer "touch point" or a way to coordinate work between internal project groups. Both of these examples are supported well by blogging. On the other mind, I say just try it and forget you ever heard of the acronym ROI. For many companies the technical aspects of starting a blog are cheap. The price goes up if you want to work with a consultant (hint hint) or you want a professionally designed site (hint hint), but for a straight up answer to the question, "How much money am I going to make or lose," the answer will depend. As I recently mentioned on our site, Stonyfield Farm's four blogs ROI is "...somewhat intangible, but we have faith that there is one." For them, the faith that it works is the ROI. The question I put to potential clients is this, "Do you want to be able to communicate directly with your customers and potential customers on a daily basis in a way that is easy to document and trend (qualitatively) over time?" Some companies may say no to this, but to be honest I am not sure why.
There are many ways to talk to people. Why are blogs so important? For example, how is a blog better than a FAQ, wiki, or article? Has anyone put together any sort of chart or overview which shows when a blog is the perfect content delivery mechanism or conversation tool?
At the most basic level, a blog is distinctive from a FAQ (or fah-que as a friend calls them), wiki, and article because (for the most part) it is never finished. FAQs, wikis, and articles eventually achieve a state of "doneness." A post on a blog may become a static item, but the blog overall tends to be a living document. Wikis can be used like this too, but their use as a living document tends to be in pursuit of an eventual end point. I looked for a chart for a few minutes online while writing this answer but I couldn't find anything. We don't have one drawn up. Perhaps we should build a classic If/Then table? :)
Most blogging tools and services are designed for individuals. Are there any really good blogging tools specifically designed for business owners? Are there any web sites, products, or services specifically aimed at companies that want to blog?
I would say that individuals will be drawn mostly to hosted services while businesses will install their own or purchased software to run the blog. Moveable Type is a product that has been well tested and given news of late about funding seems to have a decent shelf life. Wordpress is also a decent tool. On the hosted side there is Squarespace and Silkware, which are both aimed more at online publishing than necessarily personal writing (a fine distinction based on offered features). I think the true test for some larger companies will be an issue of scalability. This could be overcome by installing as many instances of the application as needed, but for companies with more than say 15,000 employees I think one installation of anything on the market right now will not be strong enough for the use and abuse it would take. So there could be an opportunity there. But as I said, you could also say, "Starting a blog for the project? Let's load this software on your server." And that would be that.
How important are blog features such as RSS feeds, comment systems, trackbacks? Should businesses care about any of these bells and whistles?
Where do you want the conversations about your product or service taking place? Do you want to be able to get feedback from real people? Do you want to know when someone writes about something you posted? If you answer yes, then you want comments and trackbacks. As far as RSS is concerned, I think there is enough demand to make it worthwhile to offer. Plus it's relatively easy to set up depending on what you want to do. (Read more about this at Business Logs.)
Are there good guidelines for companies that want to blog? What are the pitfalls? Are there rules that everyone should follow?
You can download our free Writing for the Web whitepaper... :) I think the only "rules" people should follow are: be honest, be as nice as possible, don't take "negative" feedback personally.
Is usability important for blogs, particularly business blogs? Do you see any consistent interface issues or design snafus? Regarding business blogs, what is the top usability issue?
My guess at the top usability issues is how blog owners choose to categorize their content. The categories they choose may not match those pesky mental models of the people who visit the site. Especially for sites that generate a lot of content. A blog is at once a chronicle and a conversation. While it can be less overwhelming coming in on "the middle of a blog" than say a forum, it could be hard for the visitor to get a good understanding of your site's offerings right away. But if your content is valuable to them, they'll usually find a way to catch up to their satisfaction. Now is it satisfaction or are they just giving up on catching up on past content? Probably a bit of both. Categories are a blogs navigation menu. As designers we always struggle with navigation models that meet that magical 80%. I suggest trying to make meaningful category names and make use of category descriptions. We use those on our archives page. We don't measure if it works, but it would be relatively easy to find out.
What do you expect will happen in 2005? Will business blogs become really, really important?
Business blogging will become more prevalent. Plain and simple. I think by the end of next year we will get to a point that, for some industries, a blog, or the latest post of a blog will be featured on the company's homepage. For any web-based company a blog is a natural progression. For product based companies, blogs could be useful for product launch/buzz building. I expect we will see more "timeboxed" blogs; blogs started solely to hype something, then shut down or well archived to make way for the next big thing. Of course the whole rise in podcasting (audio-based blogging) and vidcasting/vlogging (video blogging) will be interesting to watch. With those, especially with video, I wonder more about the issue of ROI in terms of hard bandwidth/HD space. Those files ain't small like a set of HTML files. I really like the idea of multi-media blogging, but for most companies I think the draw will be limited. I reserve the right to be wrong.
How does Business Logs help companies? Tell us about your philosophy. Tell about your offerings. Go ahead, give us the sales pitch!
While we can help with installing, modifying, designing, and managing a blog, I think our real "value added" is setting vision. A lot of times, to blog well, the company will have to change the way they look at customer dialog, or issues of transparency. Installing, modifying, designing, and managing are necessary things to do, but they are very tactical. Those activities have to be done in support of an overall communication strategy. Coming up with that strategy is where we help the most. To do it we need to get to know the company and that builds a relationship. That relationship will be the seed that the company will use to build the relationship with their customers, or support their employees communication needs. I hesitate to say we help companies "think outside of the box" because really what we want to do is expand the box. I think where we may differ from some traditional consultancies is that we try to define the current state of the box before we try to expand the boundaries. While we design, do usability, and help build blogs we are really more about communication management and organizational change management. We need to do that part first before we can do the design and build...just like most development methods.
Why do so few businesses have blogs? Are they blind? Are they afraid? Are they ignorant? Do they lack good writers? Do they lack vision?
I think most people in a position to start a company blog had probably never heard the word before September 2004. So we sit now in that "early adopter" phase. As we progress though, I think it will be an issue of the latter two items you mentioned in your question. Having read quite a number of task scenarios and other deliverables that require a small amount of prose writing I can tell you that most people don't write very well. Writing is a skill. You couldn't get an MFA in Creative Writing or PHD in Technical Writing if anyone could just do it. The other aspect is lack of vision. Many companies will start a blog because their competition is doing it. My guess though is that many companies just won't know how blogging can benefit them. Which of course is a good segue to the next question.
How do blogs help businesses? What are some measurable outcomes? I think many people would like to know how the value of a blog can be sold to a manager or executive. Enlighten us!
I am of two minds on this issue. On the one mind, blogging is an easy way to open and manage a customer "touch point" or a way to coordinate work between internal project groups. Both of these examples are supported well by blogging. On the other mind, I say just try it and forget you ever heard of the acronym ROI. For many companies the technical aspects of starting a blog are cheap. The price goes up if you want to work with a consultant (hint hint) or you want a professionally designed site (hint hint), but for a straight up answer to the question, "How much money am I going to make or lose," the answer will depend. As I recently mentioned on our site, Stonyfield Farm's four blogs ROI is "...somewhat intangible, but we have faith that there is one." For them, the faith that it works is the ROI. The question I put to potential clients is this, "Do you want to be able to communicate directly with your customers and potential customers on a daily basis in a way that is easy to document and trend (qualitatively) over time?" Some companies may say no to this, but to be honest I am not sure why.
There are many ways to talk to people. Why are blogs so important? For example, how is a blog better than a FAQ, wiki, or article? Has anyone put together any sort of chart or overview which shows when a blog is the perfect content delivery mechanism or conversation tool?
At the most basic level, a blog is distinctive from a FAQ (or fah-que as a friend calls them), wiki, and article because (for the most part) it is never finished. FAQs, wikis, and articles eventually achieve a state of "doneness." A post on a blog may become a static item, but the blog overall tends to be a living document. Wikis can be used like this too, but their use as a living document tends to be in pursuit of an eventual end point. I looked for a chart for a few minutes online while writing this answer but I couldn't find anything. We don't have one drawn up. Perhaps we should build a classic If/Then table? :)
Most blogging tools and services are designed for individuals. Are there any really good blogging tools specifically designed for business owners? Are there any web sites, products, or services specifically aimed at companies that want to blog?
I would say that individuals will be drawn mostly to hosted services while businesses will install their own or purchased software to run the blog. Moveable Type is a product that has been well tested and given news of late about funding seems to have a decent shelf life. Wordpress is also a decent tool. On the hosted side there is Squarespace and Silkware, which are both aimed more at online publishing than necessarily personal writing (a fine distinction based on offered features). I think the true test for some larger companies will be an issue of scalability. This could be overcome by installing as many instances of the application as needed, but for companies with more than say 15,000 employees I think one installation of anything on the market right now will not be strong enough for the use and abuse it would take. So there could be an opportunity there. But as I said, you could also say, "Starting a blog for the project? Let's load this software on your server." And that would be that.
How important are blog features such as RSS feeds, comment systems, trackbacks? Should businesses care about any of these bells and whistles?
Where do you want the conversations about your product or service taking place? Do you want to be able to get feedback from real people? Do you want to know when someone writes about something you posted? If you answer yes, then you want comments and trackbacks. As far as RSS is concerned, I think there is enough demand to make it worthwhile to offer. Plus it's relatively easy to set up depending on what you want to do. (Read more about this at Business Logs.)
Are there good guidelines for companies that want to blog? What are the pitfalls? Are there rules that everyone should follow?
You can download our free Writing for the Web whitepaper... :) I think the only "rules" people should follow are: be honest, be as nice as possible, don't take "negative" feedback personally.
Is usability important for blogs, particularly business blogs? Do you see any consistent interface issues or design snafus? Regarding business blogs, what is the top usability issue?
My guess at the top usability issues is how blog owners choose to categorize their content. The categories they choose may not match those pesky mental models of the people who visit the site. Especially for sites that generate a lot of content. A blog is at once a chronicle and a conversation. While it can be less overwhelming coming in on "the middle of a blog" than say a forum, it could be hard for the visitor to get a good understanding of your site's offerings right away. But if your content is valuable to them, they'll usually find a way to catch up to their satisfaction. Now is it satisfaction or are they just giving up on catching up on past content? Probably a bit of both. Categories are a blogs navigation menu. As designers we always struggle with navigation models that meet that magical 80%. I suggest trying to make meaningful category names and make use of category descriptions. We use those on our archives page. We don't measure if it works, but it would be relatively easy to find out.
What do you expect will happen in 2005? Will business blogs become really, really important?
Business blogging will become more prevalent. Plain and simple. I think by the end of next year we will get to a point that, for some industries, a blog, or the latest post of a blog will be featured on the company's homepage. For any web-based company a blog is a natural progression. For product based companies, blogs could be useful for product launch/buzz building. I expect we will see more "timeboxed" blogs; blogs started solely to hype something, then shut down or well archived to make way for the next big thing. Of course the whole rise in podcasting (audio-based blogging) and vidcasting/vlogging (video blogging) will be interesting to watch. With those, especially with video, I wonder more about the issue of ROI in terms of hard bandwidth/HD space. Those files ain't small like a set of HTML files. I really like the idea of multi-media blogging, but for most companies I think the draw will be limited. I reserve the right to be wrong.
How does Business Logs help companies? Tell us about your philosophy. Tell about your offerings. Go ahead, give us the sales pitch!
While we can help with installing, modifying, designing, and managing a blog, I think our real "value added" is setting vision. A lot of times, to blog well, the company will have to change the way they look at customer dialog, or issues of transparency. Installing, modifying, designing, and managing are necessary things to do, but they are very tactical. Those activities have to be done in support of an overall communication strategy. Coming up with that strategy is where we help the most. To do it we need to get to know the company and that builds a relationship. That relationship will be the seed that the company will use to build the relationship with their customers, or support their employees communication needs. I hesitate to say we help companies "think outside of the box" because really what we want to do is expand the box. I think where we may differ from some traditional consultancies is that we try to define the current state of the box before we try to expand the boundaries. While we design, do usability, and help build blogs we are really more about communication management and organizational change management. We need to do that part first before we can do the design and build...just like most development methods.
No comments:
Post a Comment