Building Your Brand With Blogs

Byron (host): Brand is dead... long live brand.

Blogging your brand is important in a world where customers are able to use a variety of brands. By blogging about a nitch very well you can build an authentic relationship with customers.

H: Once she opened up commenting systems on her site... Her site is hybrid: work and personal. A representation of the full person.

She blogged about a movie with a cult following. Comments and trackbacks drove content to her site for something that her site is not even about. She then became the number three site for that movie. The same is true with racing frogs where she is number two.

People will come to your site for a variety of reasons. Once they are there get them hooked.

The fallacy of transparency is not necessarily authentic. What transparency means is an authentic relationship between the clients and the business. Transparency does not mean real. Authenticity is something different and that is what strengthens the brand.

What works for personal blogs shows a way to building actual community around content. We have to figure out how to apply the tools for personal expression to business.

S: He creates authenticity by creating going around the MS campus interviewing people about what they are doing. The video blog totally changes the way that people see MS.

Think about how you find something. You search the web for keywords as you look for information. Those keywords are intended to reveal who you are and what to expect. When you search you see that names of blogs that don't tell you anything.

Pick your title tag well because that's what people will see. "Joe's Plumbers in Seattle" will own the nitch more than "Joe's Blog." Be up front about what you are doing and you will define what you are doing well.

Also, semantic markup helps drive traffic to the site by offering content that Google can comprehend. His site for his business blog has an arbitrary name but it comes up anyway.

Interesting traffic comes from other bloggers. There are tricks to improve this. When somebody comments on your site comment back if it is interesting. Make it a conversation. Listen and respond.

F: There are few ways to do this. He has a corporate blog to talk about products. 10,000 web readers and 5,000 RSS readers via FeedBurner. The Basecamp blog is devoted to the product and represents a different community.

Build the audience first and then figure things out from that audience and use that to make your decisions.

Talk about your techniques. Talk about your work and you will get interesting feedback and spread interest in what you are doing.

Blogs then represent a tool for education and for promotion at the same time.

Whenever he has downtime he posts a notice. Good and bad conversations about the product are inevitable. Get it out there and participate instead of playing defense.

C: Yes your business should have a blog but should your blog have a business. Coudal is built around the brand. He builds, markets, distributes, and uses his products.

If you can get people to come you will know what to make for them. If you will use the product you will know what to make.

S: When you build an expertise and an audience it is hard to get fired.

H: From the whole panel you see that this is not about branding: it is about conversation.

F: If someone is talking about you it is prudent to respond. This is about people.

C: Ok the ABBA movie. A partner made a movie about driving to Iowa listening to Dancing Queen over and over. It didn't sell anything but it made the site look authentic and cool: which it is!

Jewelboxing started because they needed to send a DVD to London. They couldn't find a good case so they started a business. Now Jewelboxing is Coudal's biggest client. It is great to own your client!

Host: What not to do?

S: MSN Found failed miserably. The brand of search engine depends on a feeling of realness and freshness. MSN Found presented a lack of authenticity. It worked with the Halo 2 blog because it is a game.

F: People have a high bullshit detector. If you are small act it. Don't put up a front. Be authentic because people will notice. [a great exchange where he accidentally insults the MS sitting next to him. Laughs ensue]

Host: Blogosphere politics comes up as a question... [that didn't go anywhere]

QUESTIONS

?: Complaints about content?

Host: Hate phone call and angry dad phone call.

S: You have tons of readers without knowing it. Pubsub opens up the web. Do not assume you are not read.

H: Hybrid blogging is difficult because when you put up something personal people who want the other content will complain. When you write about the other thing people complain because they want the personal. It is a tough balance but if it is authentic stick with what is true to your vision of what you are doing.

You can also split it off into different feeds and give people what they want to see.

F: If a client is offended by what you say then you don't want them to be a client. You have to find clients that you want to work with. If he drops the F bomb then they probably aren't the right client.

There is a ton of content about other stuff and that breed either interest or deterrence. He drops lots of bombs and if people don't want to read that then they should go somewhere else.

?: Blogging for business fallout? Marqui is a communications management system that experimented with paying bloggers to write about anything that had to do with whatever if there was a link to the product.

H: She was in the first round to try this. The site normally doesn't have ads and the only reason it was OK is because there was not filter on content, only sponsorship. It became a problem because the expectation became a pressure against authenticity. The personal and professional model felt like it was being challenged but that depends on the author's goals for the particular site.

Look at the arguments around the model and decide for yourself.

Host: Lot's of blogging about blog handwringing. Bloggers are not all citizen journalists. If you are then maintain your integrity, if you aren't then the rules become fuzzy. See Blog Ethicist for lot's of talk about this issue.

?: Another Marqui blogger. What was important about that was that they didn't require any particular content. The blog was considered journalistic and this still worked because it was true to the intent.

Host: The one thing to give credit for in this situation was to approach the blogosphere and try to engage in a new way.

?: How much of blog is information gathering from the audience, what is podcasting in 10 words or less?

F: People always scream at me about the 10 words or less so I say it anyway! Before basecamp there were weeks of feature previews and that generated good feedback about the product before it even existed.

People will scream if you listen and don't do what they say. You don't have obey them, just acknowledge them.

?: Industry blog that always has to be positive. That doesn't feel like it works right. Is it possible to be positive and authentic?

C: There are enough ways to blog as there are people who want blogs. People put out annual reports full of bullshit. A blog is only text that gets updated. It matters how it is used and seen.

F: If you are ashamed to show it that is a red flag.

?: Companies feel like they need a blog but are afraid of them.

[distracted... sorry]

?: Blogging about how lame work is requires firing.

S: When you blog publicly as a company, just like any public activity, be smart.

C: People get fired for being stupid not for blogging.

?: Moderation.

H: Don't have comments if you can't take the time to moderate it.

(I asked this question and I will follow-up later)

?: Sarbanes-Oxley?

C: If you can't speak in a way that makes the tool valuable don't do it.

H: There are reasons not the blog and legal concern is a real one.

?: Personal brand blogging.

S: A great blog is passionate and authoritative. If I want to hire somebody a blog will show authority, passion, and the full person in interesting ways. Post frequently, be authoritative and link elsewhere.

F: Writing quality and openness are also evident. You can convey character via a personal blog. Use F bombs.