This week marketing extraordinaire Seth Godin launched a new service that caused a little stir in the blog world. In return Lisa Baron of Oustpoken media accused Seth of “Brandjacking”. In the end Godin changed the policy on his newest venture and demonstrated firsthand the power and purpose of blogging; to listen.
However in Godins’ article he makes a statement that really hit home with me.
Over the last few months, we’ve seen big brands (like Amazon and Maytag) get caught in a twitterstorm. An idea (one that’s negative to the brand) starts and spreads, and absent a response, it just spirals. Of course, Amazon can’t respond on their home page (they’re busy running a store) and they don’t have an active corporate blog that I could find, so where? How?
Are you kidding me? It’s almost 2010 and you don’t have a blog? Really!? This is ridiculous. If you are a brand, let alone a major INTERNET brand, you must have a blog. It is not an option anymore. If you don’t have a blog your not listening. All of this social media stuff is not going anywhere, it is not a trend, it is simply another channel to be able to engage your customers. A blog is one of the tools you can use to do this. Here are 5 reasons you must have a blog.
1) Listen- Blogs provide you the forum to be able to hear what your customers and the public are saying. Just look at how Godin changed his service in 48hrs due to feedback from his blog post.
2)Contribute – Blogs allow you to be able to add some value to your particular industry. Becoming part of the community and giving more than just the latest offer or new product offering.
3) Help – Blogs allow you to freely offer people help with your product, whether it be information, support, feedback, etc.
4) Conversation – Blogs allow your brand to be human. You can engage in two way conversations with your customers and add some personality and feelings to your brand.
5) Transparency – Blogs allow your brand to be honest, up front and take back control on negative situations. Have a problem that causes a big storm like this? Blog about the resolution. We all make mistakes, acknowledging them in public again adds a sense of humanity to your brand.
