Blogger: Aliza Sherman Risdahl

posted: October 29, 2006 9:14 PM

1.1.3 Blogger: Aliza Sherman Risdahl
Student Interviewer: Krista Grosser
Blog: http://babyfruit.typepad.com/mediagirl/

Aliza has an extensive background on the web having published some early websites targeting women in 1995.   Aliza also has a great deal of experience in the world of Internet marketing, as she was an early pioneer in the Internet revolution.  In 1990 she was a moderator for a commercial online service.   She was the first woman to start an Internet Company in New York City. Aliza's first personal website was "very diary oriented, very personal." She later moved to blogging in the early part of the 21st century.

Speaking on the effort it takes to create a successful blog, Aliza believes it takes time and dedication to be an effective corporate blogger, but a company should not expect to be successful if they were already not successful with their online efforts.  Blogs are very different from websites.  A company has to make the time to blog.  With a blog, you have to keep on message, therefore as a company you have to make sure you have a message.

Aliza believes that companies should go through "a good strategic process to determine why they are deciding to blog."  A blog can help a company build a more personal relationship with customers.  She thought the GM Fastlane blog was a great example of a blog from a company that's updated quickly, especially since General Motors is not generally seen as the "hippest" company in the world.

She also thought that it’s important to have "guidelines and polices in place" before starting a blog. With such preparation, the corporate bloggers know the parameters of what can and cannot be written.

Aliza thought companies edit content on corporate blogs that are being written by employees and that most companies moderate commenting.  She also made the point that in the past, on message boards, if a company deleted or edited posts, courts had considered the company a "publisher" and the company became responsible for comments left by other people.   Aliza suggested the same rule could apply to blogs: the more control you exert over a blog, the more responsibility you take for all the content.

Success will be different for each company, and according to Aliza, success with blogging will depend upon a company's goals.  To be successful Aliza recommended companies monitor their competition and understand what’s happening in their industry's blogging community.  She thought that most top rated blogs are technology related. To be successful, blogs need to have "fresh and continuously updated content."

Aliza went on to say, that a company can “give a much more intimate feeling about their corporation when they have a corporate blog but not if they blog in a corporate voice.  And I think that’s a mistake that some corporations make.  They feel 'we must have one united voice' but they need to have personality. I mean that is always sort of the bane of corporations in the minds of the consumers is that they’re these big, stoic, impersonal entities.  So they’ve got to be comfortable with really being real.”

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» Appendix 1.0 Corporate Blogger Interview Summaries from Blogging Success Study
Each student interviewed two corporate bloggers in a recorded session.  Each student transcribed one interview for course credit; the remaining interviews were transcribed by Megan Dickinson of Backbone Media, Inc.   Rather than provide ... [Read More]

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