Chapter 4

The New Media University 101

Blogs, Podcasts, and Livecasts

As we advance our knowledge of new media, its implications and its opportunities, we realize just how lucky we are to live in the time of the next Web.

At this stage, we review the platforms and tools that define the terrain of the Social Web so that we may build the roads, highways, bridges, and constructs of communications, community development, and goodwill.

But before we jump in, I'd like to introduce a concept to you—one that will make more sense as you scale your socialized communications efforts.

Building and organizing a social media program can be incredibly powerful. As people become increasingly connected and form relationships rooted in passions, interests, and circumstances, distinct communities emerge and evolve—endlessly. And, over time, these communities expand, contract, and shift as they foster dialogue.

These channels distribute information to people when and how they choose to receive, process, share, and interact.

You, me, all of us, we become media.

While once out of reach for most businesses over the years, we now possess the ability to transform any brand of any size into an independent media publishing, broadcasting, and service organization.

The implications are profound. We have the capacity to now reach people far beyond our local television and radio broadcasts and even beyond those of the most prestigious national media empires.

The difference is that this reach is not prescribed; it must be earned.

Unlike traditional broadcast mechanisms, information flows both ways, whether we choose to ignore it or embrace it.

We contribute to our perception through absence and participation.

We contribute to our presence and our reputation.

We define our contributions and benevolence through our actions and words.

We are the architects who are drafting the blueprint for a new bridge between our stories and the people who benefit from them.

BLOGS

No matter what we think we know about blogs, there's always something new to learn. Let's start with some interesting points of observation and reality so that we can frame blogs in a proper setting.

Forrester Research published a report shockingly titled “Time to Rethink Your Corporate Blogging Ideas.”1 To the surprise of many, it placed corporate blogs at the bottom of the credibility list. According to the study, only 16 percent of online consumers who read corporate blogs admitted to trusting them. As such, blogs ranked lower in trustworthiness than every other form of content in Forrester's list of corporate marketing and media tools, even below broadcast and print media, direct mail, and email.

However, don't let this deter you from starting or further developing your blog. The primary reason for the unpopularity of a corporate blog is directly attributable to the wariness that consumers have acquired through years of being barraged by propaganda, publicity, and hype. Many companies unfortunately have used the blog as yet another vehicle to push promotion over value. It's not a place to publish press releases, nor is it intended to serve as a stepchild of service or marketing.

Blogs are completely ineffective and only contribute to consumers’ leeriness when used as a corporate platform for marketing, shilling, pitching, or broadcasting promotional messages.

The lack of seriousness and understanding toward blogs has unfortunately caused reverberating effects that are difficult to overcome. With that said, you are not burdened with the responsibility of transforming an entire industry, nor the perceptions associated with it. Your responsibility is to increase the collaboration between you and your peers, customers, and prospects. Your priority is increasing your value in the communities that affect your bottom line, and blogs are an important library for your digital legacy. The best corporate blogs are genuine and designed to help people, by becoming an industry resource through thought leadership, unquestionable passion, and solutions for the real-world pains of the marketplace.

The blog is your hub for demonstrating expertise, sharing vision, listening to and responding to customers, communicating progress, curating relevant market and trend information, and hosting dialogues to further the company's values and principles. It requires continuity, cadence, and a voice that readers can connect with.

What's the cause?

What's the intent?

How can we fill a void and, more importantly, how can we help solve problems?

What should readers take away from the blog?

Why should anyone link back to the blog?

Of all the blogs in the world, some of the most popular are, in fact, company blogs. Google, 37Signals, and Dell are among the most read and linked-to blogs in the blogosphere, and for good reason. They embody all of the points listed earlier. They live and breathe the human persona of the brand that they've created and have emerged as a frequented and must-stop destination for consumers seeking information, direction, discourse, and recognition.

It's important to point out that even to this day, executives and marketers question the efficiency and potential of blogs—even in the face of tangible evidence that proves its upside. Many believe that their time is better spent elsewhere and that finding contributors for insightful posts can become an unsustainable chore.

One solution resides in the outsourcing of post writing to outside experts who will gladly contribute unbiased, valuable, and interesting content for a price. Depending on the individual, posts can range from $25 to hundreds of dollars per article. But doing so links your blog to the network of each contributor, thus expanding its reach through value.

Marketers initially shied away from ghostwritten posts, whereas an uncredited, paid writer posts content under someone else's byline. Instead, communication and marketing professionals asked, or begged, for the participation of the influential voices of important individuals within the business, requesting them to blog as often as possible. While this is necessary in the art of blogging, it is not realistic to expect these focused business leaders to assume the role of blogger. It is rational, and effective, however, to encourage infrequent, yet scheduled, posts from them or to have their thoughts shared through an interview or Q&A. There's a reason why these people are leading the company, and their vision and experiences must receive attention in the most prominent platform for sharing that company voice and persona—the blog.

It's not only contract bloggers who represent a solution for filling the editorial calendar in between executive posts—other employees, stakeholders, and outside enthusiasts and customers are also willing to contribute. They just need direction, deadlines, and a framework. Many are more than capable of interviewing key executives, customers, partners, and influencers to feature their visions, experiences, and wisdom, without requiring them to write directly for the blog. We don't always need to hear from the spokesperson or the executive. Ford, for example, often introduces us to the people behind the story, allowing customers to make a human connection.

Everything must start with a plan, however.

Blogging for the sake of blogging, even with the best of intentions, is meaningless if the internal team cannot communicate an organized infrastructure. Essentially, someone must serve as an editor-in-chief for the blog or blog network. Someone must preside over the channel so it can better marshal the brand and ensure integrity. In the models in which multiple networks exist—for example, across product or business divisions—multiple editors must officiate the content for their dedicated channel, ultimately reporting to a chief editor. For those organizations in which tens, hundreds, or thousands of corporate-run or endorsed blogs exist, guidelines, best practices, standards, rewards, and consequences are not optional. They must exist and receive attention and governance. Otherwise, social chaos ensues, resulting in brand dilution and market confusion.

The challenges also lie outside the process of creating and publishing content. This is true for any form of social networking.

Nothing happens simply because you build a blog and publish a post. The delusions of grandeur or the misunderstanding of how people discover, respond to, and share information through blog sites leads to disappointment, and can cause the early termination of truly promising strategies.

Just because we host a grand opening doesn't necessarily assure us that we will host any guests. We have be in touch with our desired guests and invite them to the party.

There is an element of content promotion and marketing that is usually understated and neglected—mostly due to the lack of awareness or unfamiliarity with the processes. It crosses over, however, into ignorance when programs are disparaged or killed prematurely.

The truth is that everything related to content production, from blogs to podcasts to tweets, requires the active promotion of that content outside of your domain. Again, using the bridging metaphor, you must hand-deliver related information to those seeking it through unobtrusive, empathetic, and cooperative means.

With every link outward, every tweet back, every email, and every comment in other forums, we point people back to our work, not simply because we published something, but in view of the notion that we mindfully contributed value and insight to the greater conversation and were prepared to respond.

Yes, comments on other blogs are a form of both participation and unmarketing. Be sure to pay attention to relevant posts around the blogosphere and contribute relevant comments on both your blog and elsewhere. Some of the best conversations take place in the comments section, as people react to what you wrote, as well as the feedback from their peers.

The right comments boost visibility and contribute to a resume of experience, goodwill, and prowess.

Services such as BackType offer a window into comments across the entire blogosphere. It's a search engine for keywords and names, specifically in the comments sections of blogs. In contrast, blog search engines scour only the posts, but do not dive into the strings of conversations that transpire in the comments sections. BackType and new comment- and reputation-tracking systems that are integrated into blog platforms such as Disqus or IntenseDebate can say more about you than you imagine. These services align the comments that are strewn across the hundreds of thousands of (legitimate) blogs and give us clarity into each commenter.

As you blog, lead, or contribute to the blogging initiatives, make sure to link to all channels of influence each and every time they share something of significance—even if it's an older entry. This will send trackbacks to any outside blog post that may have inspired your post(s) and thus build tunnels between the blogs, allowing new readers to discover your content.

Extend your knowledge and acumen outside of your domain and into the online provinces that host and promote discussions that orbit your entity. Quite simply said, go where your customers are and not where they aren’t. Give them something to read. Give them something to share. Give them reasons to respond.

Create a blogroll and link out to influential voices on the Web, whether they're reporters, bloggers, customers, analysts, or just excellent resources for inspiration and intelligence. Promote outside voices often.

BLOG EXAMPLE: SOUTHWEST AIRLINES AND DELL

Southwest Airline's blog (www.blogsouthwest.com), playfully named “Nuts about Southwest,” keeps in line with the company's “Fun-LUVing” attitude. The site informs, with posts dedicated to the latest service changes or updates on its bid for Frontier Airlines. It entertains, such as by covering the wedding of two Southwest frequent flyers who prominently displayed Southwest peanuts packages at each table. And most importantly, the site aims to build a personal relationship between Southwest employees and customers. The blog extends beyond standard text posts to include multimedia. The page incorporates images; links to the Southwest Flickr group, an employee video blog; and also encourages user participation through ratings, polls, comments, and photo and video sharing.

In another example, Dell launched its blog, Direct2Dell, in July 2006, to engage customers, open up the lines of communication, and repair its reputation after dealing with a tarnished image and a firestorm of criticisms across the blogosphere. And the strategy is working. In Jeff Jarvis's BusinessWeek article in 2007,2 it was reported that negative blog posts about Dell dropped from 49 percent to 22 percent.

Dell has participated openly and honestly—even posting photos of one of its exploded laptops on the blog. And the company launched IdeaStorm.com to solicit customer's suggestions, comments, and complaints. There's even been evidence that community feedback has driven product development at Dell (see http://is.gd/1YCUe).

PODCASTS

Podcasts are a powerful and portable way to reach people who prefer audio as a means of education, intellectual stimulation, or entertainment.

Podcasts are do-it-yourself (DIY)-easy and can provide a world of value to customers, peers, and influencers. Not only are podcasts portable, they're embeddable and shareable in websites and blog posts, are promotable just about anywhere to anyone looking for insight, and are distributed by Apple iTunes, which provides access to millions of potential users worldwide. The tools for recording, editing, and publishing podcasts are increasingly affordable and readily available from computer-based audio tools to handheld recording gadgets—making it practically a no-brainer to at least experiment with this medium.

Podcast content can focus on a variety of programming and can include shows dedicated to company milestones, industry trends and challenges, executive interviews, customer success stories, how-to instructions, and anything else in between.

PODCAST EXAMPLES: FIDELITY INVESTMENTS

Financial services provider Fidelity Investments offers its clients and the general public free podcasts at Fidelity Podcasts. Current and interested investors can listen to interviews with Fidelity mutual fund portfolio managers as they share investment strategies, expectations, and market analysis. No doubt this value-adding information keeps Fidelity in the spotlight for investors and helps establish their authority (see http://is.gd/1YBUF).

WIKIS

Wikis, a name that comes from the Hawaiian phrase wiki wiki, meaning really fast, are among the most efficient tools for tapping the wisdom of the crowds wherever ideas, information, directions and instructions, product or experiential feedback, brainstorming, process or event management, and myriad other applications are requested. In fact, one of the most successful and influential websites in existence is a wiki. You probably know it better as Wikipedia.

Wikis are designed to allow site visitors to add, edit, update, and amend information through any Web browser. They invite and promote collaboration among employees, as well as consumers and influencers.

Wikis are important to facilitate collaboration in a friendlier, more socially focused content creation and management system. It's not just about teams and document management or collaboration around a particular topic. Wikis can provide a vibrant forum for inviting content and suggestions from customers and partners to further ideas and dialogue in an ongoing, trackable, scalable, and measurable fashion.

Wiki software can run on any Web server, to host custom wiki pages as a stand-alone destination or as an extension to your website. Third-party wiki platforms are also widely available if you choose to host a wiki outside of your domain. URLs can still be customized and simply point to a different location.

Wikipedia entries regarding your company and market are highly influential to visitors who visit those pages. The Google page-rank function is incredibly strong in Wikipedia, and in most cases the leading result for any search in Google will direct you to the corresponding page in Wikipedia.

I've worked with several influential and famous people who did not appreciate the user-generated content associated with their Wikipedia entries and tried, numerously and unsuccessfully, to edit them directly or through the help of employees and outside experts. Their edits always reverted back to the previous version. Wikipedia operates on an earned trust and credibility system where accredited editors outrank everyday users. Find an expert to help you before you inadvertently lock up the page, which occurs when there are too many attempts to change it.

WIKI EXAMPLE: ORACLE

Oracle launched its official public Oracle wiki back in 2007. Designed for both employees and nonemployees (the main page bears the message “Oracle employees, this is not an internal site!”), the wiki is a place where members of the Oracle community can collaborate and share content on Oracle-related subjects—including installation guides, technical tips, and project documentation.

The Oracle wiki presents an interesting example for those companies grappling with the loss of control in the very public and transparent world of social media. While the wiki FAQs state that the site belongs to the community, Oracle (like Microsoft and others) has chosen to play the role of active moderator. The company has been criticized for removing negative statements about its products (which they claimed violated the terms of use). Of course, unlike the truly community-driven Wikipedia, corporate wiki owners always have a choice of when and how to moderate content on their site. In Oracle's case, they may have wanted to prevent damaging material from reaching their competitors—yet in the process of being careful and calculated, they run the risk of public backlash against perceived censorship and loss of goodwill in the community (see http://wiki.oracle.com).

NOTES

1. Josh Bernoff, “Time to Rethink Your Corporate Blogging Ideas,” Forrester Research (December 2008), www.forrester.com/Marketing/ Campaign2/1,6538,1946,00.html.

2. Jeff Jarvis, “Dell Learns to Listen,” BusinessWeek (October 17, 2007), www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/oct2007/db20071017_ 277576.htm.