PR

When is a blog a “fake blog?”

February 9, 2005 by Susan Getgood

Lots of conversation today about fake blogs, which got me thinking, just what is a "fake blog?"

The McDonalds fake french fry (FFF, also stands for fake fast food) blog is a creation from McDonald’s ad people, but it was supposed to be poking fun at the "whole food that looks like dead people phenomenon." So is it really "fake?" Or should we criticize it not for being fake, but simply for being lame.

Pepsi Girl blog wasn’t covertly sponsored by Pepsi, so not "fake" in that sense. According to the latest info from AdRants, Pepsi apparently had nothing to do with it, but it was developed as a joke. So it wasn’t authentic, or "real" as we have come to expect of blogs. But does that make it fake?

Here’s a round-up of the fake blog opinions I read today:

Jim Logan ; Matthew Oliphant/BusinessLogs (you’ll find the links to the mentioned blogs in this post); BL Ochman’s original post on the Pepsi Girl blog ; InsideBlogging ; Dan Gillmor ; courtesy Dan, I found Kevin Dugan’s Strategic Public Relations blog and his review of the FFF blog as well as a later post Fake Blogs Should Sponsor Real Blogs ; Andy Lark

So what’s a fake blog?

On one hand, I agree with Andy Lark — these were jokes, and perhaps we should lighten up a bit, like ’em/love ’em/hate ’em, have a laugh and get back to something more interesting than a styrofoam french fry that is supposed to look like Abe Lincoln.

On the other hand…. we need to figure out how to tell a blog that has the reporting or opinions of a true live person (whether we think they are a wing nut or not) from a blog that is an invented piece of fiction (funny or sad, effective or lame, it doesn’t matter). Why? Because we rely on blogs to be the voices of real people, people like us with whom we will agree some of the time, and disagree others. People we can respect and trust.

So I’ll make a suggestion… if you want to write a fictional blog, go ahead. Just tell the readers somewhere … like in the "about this blog" link … That’s what we do with books, right. We tell the reader whether they are reading Fiction or Non-fiction 🙂

Now, the big brand marketers are definitely going to continue to try and manipulate blogs. By creating fake/covert ones, or by trying to pull the wool over our eyes about the "buzz" something has (example: the recent Ogilvy-Mather stunt for client American Express. For details, BL Ochman summarizes it here.) And it will probably get more subtle, even as we get better at sniffing out fakes. They just won’t be able to help themselves. In the end, they probably won’t do much damage to their brands.

But, of course, they won’t do them any real good either, and that’s the point that they miss: done right, real blogs can actually help build the brand.

Of more concern to me is the smaller firms who follow in the fake blogger’s footsteps. Their brands likely won’t be strong enough to survive a serious mis-step in the blogosphere. They have to get it right the first time.

Which is why I was so pleased by the news out of NY PR firm CooperKatz today. As covered in MarketingVox: Congratulations Steve Rubel: CooperKatz Makes Blog PR Practice Out of Exec’s Blog.

Steve’s own post at Micro Persuasion provides more detail. CooperKatz’s approach, and public commitment to "doing it right" is a much better example for companies trying to figure out the blogosphere than some of the other examples we’ve been reading about this week.

Do you want fries with that?

It’s not EITHER direct marketing OR blogs. It’s AND! — Developing marketing strategy with AND

February 1, 2005 by Susan Getgood

First item of business: As always, I have links to other articles that discuss the topic at hand at the end of the post.

Now to the promised discussion: "AND" Marketing Strategy.

As I said in my earlier post today, there is, and will continue to be, a lot of debate about the role of blogs and bloggers … in the media, in marketing strategy, inside corporations, in crisis communications etc. etc. etc. And there are a lot of great thinkers and writers in the discussions (check the links below and the ones in my earlier post today for some recent posts).

But thinking practically for a minute, what should a marketer DO? How do you build a marketing strategy that appropriately includes the newest tools and techniques. Not simply because they are the latest, greatest thing, but because they are the best choice for the situation at hand. Here’s my advice.

First, if you haven’t already, read The Cluetrain Manifesto. Not because it has all the answers, because it doesn’t. Not because everything in it is "right," because you probably won’t, and shouldn’t, agree with everything the authors say. Read Cluetrain because it asks the RIGHT QUESTIONS. It is then up to us to find our right answers. Besides, bottom line, you have to read Cluetrain because many, if not most, of your marketing peers have or will, so you need the common language. And it is a fun easy read. Just think about it: a book with a co-author who has an alter-ego named Rage-Boy is just not going to be boring!

Next, read some blogs. This is easy because if you are reading this, you are already doing it. Start with topics that interest you, professionally and personally. Then start monitoring blogs that mention your company or products, or at least cover your industry even if your firm is below the radar. But don’t do anything yet (unless of course someone starts a blog that rants about your company or products, and then you’ll need crisis communications. In which case my post here will direct you to some resources!)

Do NOT start a blog just because you think you have to, because everyone else is, because it is the hot new thing. Instead, sit down with your marketing plan. Review your objectives, and the current results against those objectives. Take the hard look at all the marketing tools you are using, against the expected and achieved results. Look at upcoming needs and be objective about the strategy you have outlined to meet them. Perhaps you have a product launch and you always do product launches in a certain way. Is it the most effective way, given the new tools at your disposal? Could a blog be more effective? Think about your product or service. Is direct response the only way to generate leads, or could building an expert reputation with your target audience effectively supplement your marketing strategy?

Your strategy and tactics arsenal probably includes the following:

Direct mail (snail, e-mail)
Advertising (print/online; brand/direct response)
Tradeshows, seminars and Webcasts
Public Relations (product and corp comm; speakers program)
Website
Collateral (printed, electronic) – brochures, white papers etc.

Does a blog really fit in this list for your business?

Before you answer the question, I suggest you organize your tactics along three main categories depending on their PRIMARY role in the marketing strategy. (And yes, there is overlap, but I am going to mostly ignore that for the moment.) This may give you an immediately clear picture of where a blog fits. Or confirm that it just doesn’t, at least not now.

Here are the categories, and how I classify things (NB: YMMV)

Lead Generation: direct mail, direct reponse advertising (print or online), tradeshows, seminars and Webcasts

Awareness/Reputation: brand advertising (print or online), public relations, some Webcasts/tradeshows

Sales Facilitation: Website, collateral. Some people may disagree with me on this one, and call these two items Awareness, but I truly believe the primary role of a Website is not to reproduce a brochure or act as a billboard for news releases. I think Websites, and to a lesser extent, all collateral, should be about providing the prospect with additional information that moves her further along the sales cycle.

Intuitively, most marketers will sense that blogs can play a strong role in awareness and reputation, but struggle with the ROI. So what’s the answer?

I don’t know, only you do.

The answer will be different for every business, and there will always be an exception that blows the generalized rules away.

However: here’s a set of guidelines that I think will be mostly true. But PLEASE don’t just take my word for it — do the analysis of your plan and test it against these guidelines.

A blog shouldn’t replace your direct response marketing. If you only have budget for direct mail, and it is working, and getting you the leads and sales you need, don’t mess with success.
A blog strategy is absolutely necessary for your PR and product marketing teams. At a minimum they should be reading, and where appropriate, responding to, blogs that mention your company and products. And not just the negative. A public thank-you to someone who says something nice about your product goes a long way.
A blog, perhaps written by a product manager or support rep, is a far better resource site for your Website than a static listing of Weblinks. It will give your Website some life, which most, alas, are sadly lacking, and help move prospects along the sales continuum as well as help build your experts’ reputations.
If you are in an industry that has a strong community, a blog may work as a lead generation vehicle. Likewise, if you are a local business that engages with your community through a blog, I absolutely believe it drives business. For most B2B marketers, however, see item one: blogs don’t replace direct mail. Ditto, for B2C marketers — they don’t replace advertising. Think about it: GM now has a C-level blog, but they aren’t pulling their TV ads, are they?
If you can do it right, a corporate blog is a terrific reputation and awareness tool. If you can’t, don’t do it. Here’s an early post I wrote on the topic. You can find discussions about corporate blogging almost daily, including at the sites I link below and in my blogroll.

If you decide to include a blog in your marketing strategy, take your time and do it right. Talk to customers, find out what they’d like to read. Talk to employees, you may find a candidate to be your blog writer that you’d never thought of, but who is passionate about the company. See item two — read other blogs in your field, try to find a space that is un/underserved by what is already out there (but don’t worry too much about this). Read the many blogs that are very specifically blogs to help people/companies get blogging. Here are a few:

Finally, remember to have some fun!

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More PR, Marketing and Blogging links/references

February 1, 2005 by Susan Getgood

Ok, gentle readers, I do have a more substantive post on the way about the ongoing debates at Bob Bly’s weblog about direct marketing versus weblogs, and the similarly polemicized blogging versus journalism debate that is happening in various forums (for more check out Dan Gillmor and PressThink/Jay Rosen. They both have good posts that link to all the other conversations about the topic, more than I want to list here.)

For those of you that know me or have read some of my other stuff, you’ll know that I don’t consider it an either/or discussion at all. As Doc Searls points out in a response to the Bob Bly thread linked above, either/or is a false choice. The answer is AND.

Marketing is about conversations AND purchases. Bloggers AND the traditional media both have a role to place in the mediascape.

So preview of my post … coming soon … It is going to cover what the AND means for marketers, and one way of considering how we should develop marketing strategy with AND in mind.

In the meantime, though, I have a few links that I didn’t want to miss posting so here goes.

A nice article on MarketingProfs about corporate blogging. This is a nice simple intro to use for colleagues, clients or bosses that don’t get what this blogging thing is all about.

Hottest Branding Trends by Nick Wreden at FusionBrand. In particular, see number 5: Blogs, wikis and RSS

Ten Tips for Better Blogging from the folks at InsideBlogging.

Nice post from VC Jeff Nolan, Shaping a Message Through Blogs. Covers many of the same PR and blogging topics that have captured my interest. In fact he comments that:

there’s a fixation with blogs versus the media. The media business is just that, it’s a business that is going to have to evolve in order to compete effectively in the future with electronic media. It’s not an ideology and it’s not going away..

A couple of posts from Jim Logan’s JSLogan – Making the Most of Your Business blog: Here’s a Great Example of Integrating a Blog into Your Web Presence and If used, blogs should integrate into your web strategy. In one of the posts, he talks about a thread at the CorporateBloggingBlog on which I had also commented. I agree with him, CorporateBlogging is a very thought provoking blog, and well worth a visit.

That clears up the blog links that I had saved from the past few days. Probably just in time for a whole bunch more to surface. But next up is the post about marketing strategy.

PR and Marketing links, somewhat random but mostly related

January 26, 2005 by Susan Getgood

There is a lot of conversation going on this week on the topic of blogging, PR and ROI. Here are some posts that I liked today.

Ross Mayfield on Feeding a Crisis, commenting on the Steve Rubel post I mentioned earlier.

From Communication Revolutions, two posts: Blog ROI and Blogs and Corporate Marketing. The Blogs and Corporate Marketing post links to a post from "Chief Blogging Officer" Christopher Locke.

A book about RSS that I learned about from T. L. Pakii Pierce’s How to Blog for Fun and Profit blog. The book is called: Unleash the Marketing & Publishing Power of RSS. Links: Pierce’s review of the book The website for the book

Finally, completely unrelated to marketing, but important for the future of our country and the education of our children, an item from Assorted Stuff: Getting by on the Cheap. Read it and think about where our tax dollars REALLY should be spent.

Update: More on blogs and crisis comms from Renee Blodgett at Down the Avenue.

PR and blogs in a crisis

January 26, 2005 by Susan Getgood

Nice post by Steve Rubel at MicroPersuasion: "Blog Crisis Communications Planning 101"

Contains links to a summary of a Blog Business Summit preso on crisis comms as well as five tips for how companies should work with bloggers/use blogging in a crisis that emerges FROM the blogosphere.

I pretty much agree with all his advice, however, would add the following:

First, I think his suggestions are applicable in any crisis regardless of whether it originates in the blogosphere or not. One of the main goals in any crisis comms effort is to get the public on your side. Blogs are becoming one of the most efficient ways to speak DIRECTLY to the audience. Assuming the company speaks in an honest voice, it may be able to get more done through blogs than the mainstream media. A recent example that comes to mind is Bigha, the makers of laser pointers (read more in this post). Of course if it doesn’t speak truthfully, bloggers WILL make it worse than the mainstream media ever could.

Second, I think all of his tips for speaking in a crisis will work better for you if you are ALREADY BLOGGING in some fashion. It all comes down to trust, and if your firm is already out there in some fashion, the blogosphere will already know you. As a result, they will be more likely to trust you in a crisis. In the short time I have been blogging I have noticed this on more than one occasion.

A notable example of how blogs help company rep is Robert Scoble and the other 1300 Microsoft bloggers who have probably done more to repair Microsoft’s rep than any traditional corp comms effort (like butterflies in Central Park …).

This doesn’t necessarily mean you have to have a corporate blog. You could simply have a support or product management blog that is active and respected by your audience. If you ever need to activate the crisis blog Rubel recommends, your audience will be referred to it from people in your firm they already know and trust, transferring that trust to the folks dealing with the crisis.

Just don’t blow it by being dishonest.

Update: More links to Blog Business Summit info from Jennifer Rice at Brand Mantra, including to another summary of the session I referenced above. They are going to post all the presentations on their site, and I intend to go through quite a few of them. You also can find the link to the Summit site in my Marketing links.