Humour

Chris Locke has it EXACTLY RIGHT in his post over at Chief Blogging Officer: bloggers as migrant knowledge workers You have to read the whole post, written in Locke’s unique (and fun) style, but here’s the bit that got my attention:

Instead, here’s an idea! What if companies first: paid attention to who’s writing about what, and what for, and how well; and second, picked someone who seemed to be talking to people who overlapped with some part of that company’s market?

Take an example. We can all laugh at cat sites. Ha, ha-ha. We are so above that. But look, some people really are that into cats. And at least one of these cat fanatics must write cogently enough to draw an audience of less articulate but no less enthusiastic cat fanciers. Right? Are you tracking? I know this is pretty complex stuff.

So wouldn’t it make sense for Purina Cat Chow or IAMS or one of those to underwrite such a skilled cat-o-blogger? Yes, it would. And would this person then turn into a shill for Purina or IAMS? Not if the corporate braincase had retained sufficient neural capacity to understand that such a move would alienate the very audience it wanted to impress with how blog-savvy it had become.

So what would our cat blogger change after becoming the beneficiary of such underwriting? Here’s what: NOTHING. No, she would continue just as before to chronicle the ineffable cuteness of kitties and the insufferable yet endearing aloofness of cats. And there in the upper left corner, say, of this fabulously catty blog’s pages it would say something like "Underwritten by Purina — Your Pet, Our Passion™" or somesuch.

EXACTLY!! And I’ll take it a step further. I think that under the right circumstances, a company can create an authentic blog at the intersection of its and its customers’ interests by developing the blog with its customers, and calling on its committed and articulate customers to be the blog’s writers.

What are the right circumstances? The company has to be willing to work with its happy customers to develop the blog’s "Editorial Mission" as it were and then let ‘er rip. That doesn’t mean that the company can’t also participate as a writer or respond to comments. But it DOES mean that the writers can write whatever they want on the topic, no editing by the company, no backdoor lobbying to get a writer to change his mind if something is slightly negative about the company or a product. Everything in the light of day. Takes a strong stomach to commit to this, but the companies who do this right are going to kick ass.