Multiple Choice Part Two: Why we did a blog

April 28, 2005 | Blogging, Customers, Marketing, PR

My client Software Secure has a small but very satisfied client base of educators and educational technology specialists at schools and universities across North America that have adopted campus-wide laptop programs or made a significant investment in ed-tech, often in a CMS like WebCT or Blackboard.

The company wanted to find a way to give voice to these happy customers – let them share their experiences with others, and in the process, get the word out about Software Secure. More brand awareness combined with a great product equals more customers, more revenue.

In the “old days,” our marketing strategy probably would have been to develop case studies for the Web, collateral and PR, and try to obtain speaking engagements for our client evangelists.

Well, we will still do all that, but as we were doing our marketing research, we discovered that there weren’t many online resources that focus specifically on developing a secure learning and testing environment. There were lots of big general sites, with lots and lots of information. Sometimes too much information.

We also found lots of blogs by educators — from superintendents of schools to professors to instructional technology managers – that were already creating vibrant conversations in the educational community.

Since we knew that our customers had great stories to tell, which could start a great online conversation about the issues of online learning and testing, we decided to fill this information gap with a collaborative weblog written by our customers and other educational experts. 

The people who really know the scoop are the ones on the front lines. Their experiences and stories are far more valuable, and interesting, to other educators than anything we could write. And preaching to the choir here on the Roadmap, but we chose the form of a blog because it offers two-way communication, which makes it a meeting place for educators tackling security issues, versus a static resource page.

Educators speaking directly to educators. About issues faced by educators when integrating technology in the learning and testing environment – technology evaluations, practical advice on holding faculty workshops, information about new tools that might be useful etc. etc. Not just information about Software Secure.

And so you have Multiple Choice:

Multiple Choice brings together educators who are leading the way in building secure online learning and testing environments at schools and universities across North America

Our sponsor is Software Secure, developer of technology that secures the computing environment from cheating and digital distractions.

The sponsorship is clear, the bloggers will be posting directly to the blog (no company review) and they can write about whatever they like within the topic of secure online testing and learning. I certainly hope they will mention the company once in a while but even if the educators NEVER DO, it will be fine.

The company will post from time to time, mostly news roundups and company news, and just by being there, more people will learn about Software Secure and its products.

Once I get the word out, that is. Which is the stage we are at now. Our contributors will all be starting next week, all the infrastructure stuff is done (for now), so there’s nothing left but to get the word out about Multiple Choice.

Like in this post J  I do hope my Roadmaps readers will check it out and let me know what they think. And of course, please do tell your friends and family in the educational community all about it!

Introducing Multiple Choice, a collaborative weblog

Blogging, Customers, Marketing

Part One

As I have mentioned here a few times, I believe that collaborative weblogs are an excellent choice for a corporate blog. Multiple voices means no one person has to post everyday; it is much easier to manage the workload, and there is the vibrancy of conversation among the posts as well as in the comments.

I am an even bigger proponent of collaborative weblogs that speak the voice of the customer, not just the company. For the past two months, I have been working on a collaborative weblog to be written by a company’s customers as well as company reps. We are now in what you might call a public beta – the blog is live and there are posts, but we won’t be officially launching until early May.

But, we are slowly getting the word out, so it seemed the time was ripe to tell my Roadmaps readers all about it.

The client is Software Secure, a software company that develops security software for computer-based and online testing. In a nutshell, its products prevent students from cheating on exams. The weblog is called Multiple Choice and it will be written by our customers and other educational experts. We have three clients signed up to blog and are continuing to recruit regular contributors. If you know any educators or educational technology experts who might be interested in blogging with us, please let me know (sgetgood@getgood.com) They do not have to be a Software Secure client. We want articulate people who are actively engaged in the issues. It is a volunteer position. We want folks who want to help their peers.

I am very excited about the potential of creating spaces for customers to speak directly with each other as well as with the company about topics that are at the intersection of their mutual interests. Resources such as this perform a valuable service for the community while also serving the company’s interests. It is “doing good by doing good,” and what could be better than that?

I welcome feedback from Roadmaps readers about the Multiple Choice blog, but I would ask that you leave feedback about the blog as a marketing tool, here on Marketing Roadmaps or in private e-mail to me at sgetgood@getgood.com

If you do stop by Multiple Choice, of course feel free to leave comments on any of the posts, but I would appreciate it if my Roadmaps readers would respect that this is a client project. Comments about secure online testing, education, learning technology, Software Secure, are all fair game for Multiple Choice, a blog about secure online testing and learning. Marketing feedback belongs here on the Roadmap. Thanks!

Next: I will post some of the background thinking that went into the decision to do a blog.

What’s a blog?

April 27, 2005 | Blogging, Fake/Fictional Blogs

Shel Holtz posted a plea to the blogosphere to Stop defining blogs:

"I’m getting tired of people insisting that blogs are one thing but definitely cannot be another."

Me too Shel. 

There’s room for more than one approach. I think that to insist that there is only one right way is well, clueless.

I also take offense at the idea expressed by some bloggers that those of us who allow for more than one right way to blog, to engage, to go to market, should get off the Train. That we are wrong.

That attitude strikes me as simply replacing one bad model, the much maligned old-style corporate marketing fortress, with another equally intransigent one:

"You can see the politics of ‘being right’ throughout most organizations. People win arguments- and thus secure their position in the hierarchy- through the cutting remark, through megatonnage of evidence, through agreeing with industry consultants, and through the smug refusal to ever admit being wrong."

- from The Cluetrain Manifesto

Hmmm. 

Flogging a dead horse & BusinessWeek

April 26, 2005 | Blogging, Fake/Fictional Blogs, Marketing

So, did you hear? BusinessWeek just did a cover story on blogging

By and large, it was a good article, and definitely a nice overview for someone who had heard a bit about this "blogging thing."

At the risk of being accused of "flogging" a dead horse, I really only took exception to one thing — the somewhat misleading definition of fake blogs:

"FAKE BLOGS, SOMETIMES CALLED FLOGS
Fake blogs created by corporate marketing departments to promote a service, product, or brand. The flog’s writer often uses a fake name. Derided by bloggers, fake blogs are an increasing trend. McDonald’s created a flog to accompany its Super Bowl ad about the mock discovery of a french fry shaped like Lincoln, while Captain Morgan created a fake blog in March for its Rum drinks."

This definition perpetuates the problem that Neville Hobson identified last week — inconsistent definitions of what we are talking about when we say fake blog, character blog, fictional blog.

It also perpetuates a negative stereotype of corporate marketing departments, almost making it sound as though all blogs created by marketing would be fake blogs. Not at all true. We have already seen some good examples of corporate blogs - among them GM FastLane and Stonyfield Farms, both covered in the BusinessWeek article. Not to mention: an individual could just as easily create a fake blog, as a Roadmaps reader pointed out last week.

So how should we define these different types of blogs — fake, character, fictional etc. Neville’s definitions are a good start. Here they are (from the same post linked above):

"A character blog means a blog which appears to be written by a fictional person. An example might be a blog that’s authored by a toy - Barbie, let’s say. Or by a brand - Captain Morgan’s Rum may be a good example.

A fake blog is one that appears to be like a character blog yet the conversation is fake in that comments (for example) are not what they appear to be nor written by genuine people. An example might be the McDonald’s Lincoln Fries blog."

And here are my additions:

The main characteristics of a fake blog are:

• the author creates a persona, although not necessarily under a fake name;
• there is an attempt to deceive. Either or both of the following apply: the persona and/or the sponsorship by a company is not disclosed;
• fictitious comments;
• Examples: aforementioned LincolnFry; a blog surreptitiously sponsored or funded by a company — paid opinions without disclosure.

The main characteristics of a character blog:

• a fictional character "writes" the blog and interacts with visitors;
• the fictional persona is disclosed, as is any company sponsorship;
• comments are left by the audience, interacting with the character(s);
• Examples: Barbie, Captain Morgan, Moosetopia

And here is my third category: the fictional blog. These really don’t exist much yet, but I believe they will. A fictional blog will use the form of the blog, but have more of the characteristics of a roleplay game or novel:

• fictional characters write the blog and interact with each other in the main blog. This creates a story for the readers;
• there may be a message board for the audience to interact with each other, but they probably won’t be interacting with the characters;
• the fictional nature is clear as is any company sponsorship of the experience.

For me, to apply the label "fake" requires an intent to deceive. Whether the person is "real" or not doesn’t matter, if the details are disclosed.

Enough flogging.

Another good article on RSS for newbies

April 22, 2005 | Blogging, Web Marketing

This time from SiliconValleyWatcher:

Of course, you know what RSS is … so here’s an article for your clueless boss, by Nick Aster

Character blogs, collaborative blogs

April 19, 2005 | Blogging, Fake/Fictional Blogs, Marketing, PR

A good friend of mine refers to the type of conversation we are having about character blogs as "inside baseball." It’s the kind of conversation where those inside it are very engaged and those outside of it can’t follow it, don’t want to follow it, and if they do manage to figure it out, think it is pretty silly. That said, I just can’t seem to let it go, so "batter up."

Rok Hrastnik posted an essay about character blogs, and used as an example the Buffyverse. In his example, he cites different types of blogs that the creators of the two television shows that comprise the Buffyverse [Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel] could create to entertain the fans of these two dearly-departed shows.

The reason I think character blogs have potential is that pretty much all the examples he cites have already sprung up, albeit in unauthorized fashion, in the online fandom already.

Fan fiction. WHEDONesque, a fan blog where Whedon posts from time to time. Spoiler sites. Bulletin boards. Role plays in which people take on the characters and create a collaborative story (often using livejournal). There is an obvious hunger to interact with these shows and these characters as well as the real people behind them. And the interactions among the fans are pretty real — friendships and flamewars alike.

Rok’s example resonated with me because I am a fan of the Buffyverse. If Joss Whedon, the creator of the two shows, decided to build a character blog as the next installment in the story, and brought his talents, his great writers and perhaps even some of the actors to occasionally give voice or visual to the new story, I would subscribe. I’d even pay I would not be alone, not by a longshot. Are you listening, Joss?

This would be a character blog for which I AM the audience, and only then would I judge its content. As I have said before, we have to separate the form, the character blog, from the content.

BTW trust me, I know "Spike" is just a character. I still really love the lifesize cardboard figure of him that my mom gave me for Christmas. To my husband’s chagrin, it is still in the living room.

Neville Hobson also posted on character blogs today: Just because you could doesn’t mean you should. He’s got a nice definition of the difference between character and fake blogs, and also provides a bit of a recap of yesterday’s Hobson and Holtz Report discussion on the topic.

Okay, enough about character blogs. Intellectually, I think they deserve a shot, and that’s why I have been so vocal on the topic.

Personally, however, I think the blog form that holds the most promise for companies is the collaborative weblog. As I mentioned a while ago, I am working on one for a client. We are just about to start promoting it, so I should be able to post more details by the end of the week. To whet your appetite, here’s a preview.

We went with a blog for two key reasons: it fit with the overall marketing strategy and it gives voice to our customers.

The company is in the education market, which is particularly fertile ground for collaborative and online communications. The company has happy, loyal, articulate customers and we wanted to find a way to include them in our marketing efforts. We believe that their experiences, both with our products and in general, would be far more useful to our prospects than any brochure we could develop. In the past, we might have posted a bunch of case studies on our website. The collaborative weblog offers a much richer communications environment.

Initially, our bloggers will be drawn from our customer base; hopefully, over time, other educators will join us, first on the blog and then as customers.

Our goal is to create a rich community resource about topics that are at the intersection of the company’s and the customers’ interests. We will post company information from time to time, but the intent is for the bulk of the content to be community created. The combination of the blog content and our sponsorship of it should drive interest in our products without "lame marketing posts." In other words, we do good by doing good.

More later this week.

Character blogs

April 18, 2005 | Blogging, Fake/Fictional Blogs

I thought I was done with character blogs for a while. Oh well.

Yesterday Steve Rubel posted on the subject: he’s against, and I’d say the commenters to his post are mixed. I was going to comment on his blog, but then it got too long so here we are back on mine.

IMO there is a place for good character, or fictional, blogs, just like we make place in our lives to read fiction and non-fiction. I have no strong opinion about any of the ones currently being discussed everywhere because I am not the intended audience so whether I like them or not is irrelevant.

As others have pointed out and I have blogged here, if people are reading and enjoying a character blog, it serves its purpose. Personally, I can’t dismiss the form of a character blog just because we haven’t seen the great one that makes it all clear. As did one of the commenters to Rubel’s post, I also see enough parallels with fan fic and roleplay games, which are extremely popular, to believe that fictional blogs are highly viable alternatives.

The other thing I wonder about is how the folks who are so vehemently opposed to character blogs feel about anonymous blogs…. I wrote about this yesterday. It is entirely possible for an anonymous blogger to adopt a persona that is quite different from his/her real-life personality. It is still true: on the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog.

When that anonymous blogger adopts a different persona, how is that different than a character blog? I can really think of only one significant way — the character blog may be fictional but it is honest. The person e-mailing Spencer Katt or commenting on Spencer’s blog knows Spencer is a character. On the other hand, the anonymous blog with a persona doesn’t admit it. To me, that is far more fake.

Now, not all anonymous blogs adopt a persona that is different from the writer’s real-life personality, so it is unfair to dismiss the form of an anonymous blog just because some anonymous blogs have turned out to be fakes. The character blog is the same — we should not confuse the form with the content.

I really like what Shel Holtz said in a post about The blog versus journalism debate. I urge you to read his whole post but for the purposes of today’s argument … err discussion… below is the part about character blogs:

"The rest of the piece is worth reading, but as the argument against character blogs continues with Steve Rubel’s dismissal of the tactic, I keep coming back to Craig’s notion of confusing the medium with the message. There’s a blogosphere with genuine voices of real people talking about things that matter, and that’s a great and powerful thing. There are also lightweight CMS tools called blogs that can be used for all kinds of other purposes. If Barbie starts blogging to little girls, it doesn’t diminish the power or value of the blogosphere, and little girls might just eat it up.

Whether we’re talking about news blogs vs. personal journals or “real” blogs vs. character blogs, let’s not forget that blogs are just a medium that can and will be put to multple uses (or what I have defined as “multiple evolutionary paths"). It’s the quality of the message that matters."

I agree 100%. Thank you for putting it so well.

Persona Redux

April 17, 2005 | Blogging, Fake/Fictional Blogs, Marketing

Okay. I have a few more things I want to say about fictional blogs and personas, and then I am going to get back to some real work. Or maybe go out and sit in the sun, since Spring has finally sprung.

Personally, I have absolutely no interest in doing a fictional blog. I think it would be very hard to maintain the quality and consistency of voice that would be required. I’m just not that good a writer. BUT I can imagine that an excellent writer, one who could get really into character, could pull it off, and create a fun experience for his or her readers.

There are tons of examples of role play games on the Internet (the grandchildren of Dungeons and Dragons) where people do something very similar. Each writer takes on a role and they collectively write the story. Not hard to imagine that the same people who enjoy this activity might get into having a conversation with a fictional character, even a "for-profit" one.

The writers of anonymous blogs can also create new personas for themselves. There is nothing wrong with anonymous blogging, but when the persona is created, versus your "real" self (and online, what is that anyway, but I digress…) it is pretty much the same thing as the blog by a fictional character like Spencer Katt. The difference of couse is that often you won’t know that the anonymous blogger IS a persona. In fact, Jozef Imrich who commented on my previous post on this topic included a link to an article about just such a situation in the legal profession.

For me, the key is transparency: if you are open and honest about the nature of your activity, you should be free to try out all sorts of new ideas. Some will work. Some will fail. Some people will hate ‘em. Others love ‘em.

Something isn’t "lame" just because you don’t like it. Something is "lame" if the people for whom it was intended, the desired audience for the thing, think it is lame. My 5-year old son loves a lot of TV programs that I personally think are pretty silly but he loves them (and the products advertised thereon). Home run for Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go, among others.

There is room for more than one opinion, more than one approach, and in the end, it will be the customers who decide what works and what doesn’t. No amount of posting and cross posting is going to change that.

Personas and fictional blogs

April 15, 2005 | Blogging, Fake/Fictional Blogs

Earlier today in an e-mail exchange with a fellow marketing blogger, we agreed that much of the sturm and drang around fictional blogs (see yesterday’s post for my definition thereof) reminded us both very much of the brouhaha that occured when the World Wide Web went "commercial" in the 90s. Purists were aghast at the pristine Internet being used for commercial purposes. Well, we know what happened with that

One of the main beefs that purists have about fictional blogs is that the author of the blog is not a real person, which they argue perverts the authenticity of the blog experience. I don’t agree. As I commented on Paul Chaney’s blog yesterday and he blogged today: what matters is the intended audience. As long as they know they are reading a fiction and interacting with a character, if the blog is well done, creative, entertaining, and the intended audience enjoys it, who are we to criticize. If you aren’t the audience, it just doesn’t matter what you think about it.

So I started thinking about other fictional personas that I have interacted with in my 20-odd years in the business (word choice intentional). And I came up with a fairly well known tech persona that is a fictional character with whom people have interacted with in the pages of PC Week (now e-Week) for many many years: rumour columnist Spencer F. Katt

Spencer has his own e-mail address, and a fairly rich back story that has been created over a number of years. Everybody knows that the column is written by someone or someones at the magazine, but that hasn’t prevented people from engaging with the character.

So I ask the question: if the folks at e-Week decided to change the delivery format of Spencer’s column to a blog, would that be any different than any of the current examples of fictional characters with blogs that are being pilloried: the Moose, T. Alexander and Captain Morgan.

Nope.

And in my book, it would be just fine as long as the intended audience enjoys it, and the company is honest about the fictional nature of the blog.

UPDATE: Tris Hussey dug a bit deeper and discovered that Spencer is indeed blogging (and flogging his column in every post I might add). So, given that we haven’t had any backlash against the Katt, whose blog appears to have started in March, either the people reading it don’t realize he isn’t really a 20+ year old cat or it’s okay for a blog to be written by a fictional character as long as you like him.

Since I think most people realize Spencer is fictional, I’ll go with option 2. Which proves the point. If the intended audience enjoys it, a blog by a fictional character is just fine. If the audience hates it, it will die the death it deserves. Therefore, incumbent on marketers to create good, fun enjoyable blogs, whether written by real or fictional folk. 

Roadmaps Round-up

Blogging, Business Management, Customers, Integrated Sales & Marketing, Marketing, PR, Web Marketing

Just a bunch of good stuff. Have a great weekend!

Fusion Brand: Great post on Brand vs. Customer Architecture: Which is More Effective?

How to Blog for Fun and Profit has a short post about a Cnet comparison  of Typepad and Blogger 

Quite some time ago, Steve Rubel (and others) blogged about InfoWorld’s special report on blogs and wikis. I have been intending to include it in a link round-up for weeks, so here is the link to Steve’s post. 

Another great resource post that I have been sitting on is from NevOn: Tips for successful media relations  This post Introduced me to David Tebbut’s Teblog.

Yahoo is offering free 5-page websites to small US businesses, to be hosted in Yahoo! Local. Thanks to Nick W at Threadwatch for the info.