New Communication Technology Essay
Blogging for Business
The not- so- new internet trend of 'Blogging', (stemming from blog- a shortened version of Web log) has evolved from a little known, oddly named practice used predominantly as personal website diary's to a widespread somewhat flakey fad of sharing celebrity gossip and gushing about handbags, stilettos and whatever fashion trend is currently 'the new black', today in 2008 blogging has transformed into a rapidly spreading worldwide tool for business marketing and customer relations, this more serious use of the blogging technology look like the future of blogs and consumer interaction with the world wide web, as many businesses are catching onto the trend.
According to Robert Scoble and Shel Israel's Naked Conversations: How Blogs Are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers, "Weblogs, arrived on the scene in the late 1990's... By 2003, software tools made it possible for someone to create a blog with only basic Web skills. Since that time, the number of blogs has doubled about every five months, reaching 200 million in 2006." (Scoble & Israel, 2006) In 2003 the word blog was added to the Oxford English Dictionary defined as a "frequently updated website consisting of personal observations, excerpts from other sources, etc, typically run by a single person and usually with hyperlinks to other sites, an online journal or diary". With the creation of blog creation and hosting sites such as blogger and wordpress around 2003
the practice has become much more accessible and therefore popular among internet users. There is even an annual award process for the premier blogs out there, with 20o8 hosting the eighth annual Weblog awards, known as 'The Bloggies' (The 2008 bloggies).
Since blogging began it has progressed from basic dated journal entries to a complex 'blogosphere' consisting of hundreds of thousands of individual blogs about everything from weather, comedy, news and gossip to the London Underground and personal diaries about teenage love affairs. But more recently the use of blogs has extended into the business sector with both large companies and small firms experiencing with the trend in attempts to cash in on the fad and grow or improve their businesses.
In the forward of the 2006 book 'Blogging for Business- Everything you need to know and why you should care' by Shel Holts and Ted Demopoulos they state that "Blogs are not a fad. Consider the statistics. As of late October 2005, blog search engine Technorati was tracking over 20 million blogs. In his quarterly "state of the blogosphere" post, Technorati founder and CEO Dave Sirfry noted that 70000 blogs were created every day." (Holts & Demopoulous, 2006) Most blogs are not regularly maintained so a solid number of blogs operating today remains unknown.
The use of blogs for business purposes has taken off over recent years and become a dominant feature of the blogging community, www.trendpedia.com allows users to search and compare different blog topics and see illustrations, statistics and lists of blog posts in that area on a particular day. Another blog tracking site http://www.nielsenbuzzmetrics.com discusses the importance of blogs and consumer generated material in our new business market they say, "The Internet, far more than any other medium, has given consumers a voice, a publishing platform and a forum where their collective voices can be heard, shared and researched...consumers place far more trust in their fellow consumers than they do in traditional marketers and advertisers."
In the article 'Would You, Could You, Should You Blog?' Eva M. Lang
discusses why blogs have the upper hand in internet visibility compared to conventional websites. An example of this comparison is given from a New Orleans law firm,
"(who's) traditional Web site (www.gamde.com) is attractive and informative—and only 31 other sites link to it, according to Google. However, when ... (they) started the Ernie the Attorney blog (http://ernieattorney.typepad.com), it quickly became one of the most linked-to legal resources on the Web—7,920 other sites link to it." (Lang, 2005)
The article states that the key reasons are blogrolls and blog culture, the common practices of linking blogs together, the fact that blogs appear first in search engines, and also that they are generally more interesting and fun to read.
When Microsoft launched MSN spaces, a blog site,
it received less than impressive reviews from users complaining of censorship and the inability to express their opinions, at the time Robert Scobel was a lower end employee of the company but used his blog to field complaints and communicate to the users, in David Kirkpatrick's article "Why there's no escaping blogs" he describes the events,
"As the anti-Microsoft crowd cried censorship, the nearly 4,000 blogs linking to Scoble were able to see his running commentary on how Microsoft was reacting. "I get comments on my blog saying, 'I didn't like Microsoft before, but at least they're listening to us,'" says Scoble. "The blog is the best relationship generator you've ever seen." His famous boss agrees. "It's all about openness," says chairman Bill Gates of Microsoft's public blogs like Scobleizer. "People see them as a reflection of an open, communicative culture that isn't afraid to be self-critical." (Kirkpatrick, 2005)
Another company who has benefitted from the use of blogs to combat potential problems is Macromedia, they set up employee blogs as a way of communicating with customers and providing information and technology support. When they released a slow version of their software in 2003 fast customer responses of their is content allowed the business to help speed up the problem solving process, Macromedia's senior vice president Tom Hale said "It was a great early-warning system and helped us frame the situation it accrued a huge benefit to us." (Kirkpatrick, 2005)
A London based research company Sense Worldwide they use blogs as a network for their creative and innovative staff and as a method for reaching new people, "Sense's Jeremy Brown says the idea is 'not about looking cool, it's about what's useful'. Other more straightforward business research companies, such as the US-based Jupiter Research, are using weblogs in a more conventional way to promote company ideas and show off their knowledge." (McClellon, 2003)
It's not only the large companies who can use bogs to create a connection with their customer base, small players have had some of the most interesting blog experiences. In 2002 entrepreneur Shayne McQuade, invented a backpack with built in solar panels, after spending $15000 getting his company set up and outsourcing the key business functions he turned to the blogosphere to market his product, after it was mentioned on the Treehugger blog for green design the product was seen by Gizmodo's editor and orders went through the roof. "Ironically, McQuade--who had helped research Net Gain, a seminal book on how the Internet would change business--was unprepared. "Overnight what was supposed to be laying a little groundwork became my launch," he says. "This is the ultimate word-of-mouth marketing channel." (McClellon, 2003)
So what does the future hold for blogging? As with most fads and trends, particularly on the internet, who knows? But judging by the progress that has been made in the business blogging field over the last five years, it appears to be cementing itself firmly in the marketing plan of many technology savvy and creatively driven businesses and organisations. The blogs ability to instantaneously and cost effectively communicate with customers and employees alike is a very convenient practice for businesses, and is enhanced by the opportunity to gain feedback, suggestions and complaints and constantly improve their business practices and consequently reputation and success. And what's more? ... It eliminates the need for endless newsletters, memos, feedback forms, and general office information, saving the trees (and business funds)!! So as more and more business people experiment and learn about the appropriate practices (there are endless websites with advice for how to blog successfully for business) business blogging is expanding exponentially with increasing success and is set to change the way businesses market and communicate into the next decade.
-Courtney Dawson
Bibliography
Baker, S., & Green, H. (2005, May 2). Blogs will change your business. Business Week .
CGM overview. (n.d.). Retrieved May 25, 2008, from Nielsen BuzzMetrics: http://www.nielsenbuzzmetrics.com/
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Ives, B., & Watlington, A. (n.d.). Business Blogs: A Practical Guide.
Kirkpatrick, D. (2005, Janurary 10). Why theres no escaping the blog. Fortune Magazine.
Lang, E. M. (2005). Would you, could you, should you blog? Journal of Accountancy
, 6 (199), 36-42.
McClellon, J. (2003, Feburary 12). Blogging for dollars. theage.com.au.
Scoble, R., & Israel, S. (2006). Naked conversations:how blogs are changing the way businesses talk with customers. New York: Wiley.
The 2008 bloggies. (n.d.). Retrieved May 20, 2008, from The weblog awards.: http://2008.bloggies.com/
Trendpedia blog search. (n.d.). Retrieved May 22, 2008, from http://www.trendpedia.com.au
What's percolating in blogs now. (n.d.). Retrieved May 26, 2008, from Technorati: http://technorati.com/
