Conference Calls Unlimited, Zane Safrit

posted: October 29, 2006 8:56 PM

1.1.5 Company: Conference Calls Unlimited

Blogger: Zane Safrit
Student Interviewer: Leah Hyland
Blog: http://zane.typepad.com/

Zane Safrit is the CEO of Conference Calls Unlimited, a conference call services company based in Iowa.

Zane explained that his company is an industry that is in the commodity business, and that traditional advertising works less and less. Zane realized that if his company worked hard at building a great relationship with his customers those relationships would translate into referrals and new business.

Zane had been inspired by Seth Godin's book, Purple Cow, and attending one of Seth’s workshops on blogging.  He decided that being dedicated to customer service for his customers would help get results.

He does not write very much about his company, partly because the services speak for themselves, but also Zane intends to only mention the company when there's something interesting at the company to write about. Zane thought that the process of writing a blog helps to clarify someone's writing and thinking, which in turn helps with better blog posts.

For Zane, the success of his blog was "the introduction with all of the business thinkers, influence makers, influentials, movers and shakers in amongst entrepreneurial and creative thinking business leader types." The blog gave him the chance to meet with many people who he would not have met with if he hadn’t started the blog.  And rather than investing in expensive advertising or promotion, all of the people he met online through blogging found him through links and search engines.

He thought that the biggest contribution to achieving success on his blog was writing everyday, and writing with "passion and honesty," where he was "willing to take a stand."  By taking a stand Zane was able to demonstrate his honesty and transparency, he demonstrated his character and that built his online blogging reputation. Linking to other websites and using the site to network with other people in the blogosphere also helped.

Zane went onto say that some blogs are read because of who is writing them rather than the content of the blogs.  The popularity is based on the person's reputation or achievement legacy.  Zane identified two companies that generate a lot of controversy when he writes about them on his blog: Wal-Mart and General Motors. He also said that outsourcing was another important topic for generating interest from his readers.

Zane said, “If you dare to try blogging you will gain a lot from the exercise in the form of expanded relationships with influentials, decision-makers, and growing personal connection with your audience, an easy means to differentiate your company and a proven resource to develop your creative problem solving skills.  This form of interaction with your audience will give you access to relationships that you would not be able to develop or sustain.”

Zane believes that "the best blogger is a person who’s the most honest, the most passionate, and the most committed." While Zane thought ghost bloggers were "borderline obscene" similar to having someone write "your own love letters."

Like this post: | | | | comments (0) | trackBacks (0)

TrackBack

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://mt.corpblogsite.com/mt2/mt-tb.cgi/1141

Post a comment

(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)