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posted: November 2, 2006 10:22 PM

NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY AND BACKBONE MEDIA BLOGGING SUCCESS STUDY

2.0 SUMMARIES OF BLOGGER STATEMENTS IN RELATION TO BLOG SUCCESS QUESTIONS

2.1 HOW DOES THE SET UP OF A BLOG CONTRIBUTE TO A BLOG’S SUCCESS?

Strategic Planning
Blogger Selection
Reading Other Blogs
Practice With An Internal Blog Before Going External

2.2 WHAT IS IT ABOUT HOW YOU CONDUCT BLOGGING THAT MAKES THE BLOG A SUCCESS?

Blogger_Engagement
Content & Comment Moderation
Building a Blogging Community
Monitoring Your Blogging Community
Feedback from Your Customers
Writing Often for Success

2.3 WHAT IS IT ABOUT THE CONTENT ON A BLOG THAT MAKES A BLOG SUCCESSFUL?

Compelling Content Comes from Unique Experiences
Industry Content Provides Great Relevancy for Audiences
Sometimes The Most Random Content Generates The Most Interest
Put Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Marketing at the Center of Your Blogging Content Strategy

3.0 RECURRING FACTORS THAT HELP WITH THE SUCCESS OF A CORPORATE BLOG

3.1 CULTURE

3.2 TRANSPARENCY

3.3 TIME

3.4 DIALOGUE

3.5 ENTERTAINING WRITING STYLE AND PERSONALIZATION

3.6 DECIDING IF YOUR COMPANY SHOULD BLOG

APPENDIX 1.0 CORPORATE BLOGGER INTERVIEW SUMMARIES

1.1 THE BLOGGERS

1.1.1 Company: Adobe
1.1.2 Company: Adweek
1.1.3 Blogger: Aliza Sherman Risdahl
1.1.4 Company: BzzAgent
1.1.5 Company: Conference Calls Unlimited
1.1.6 Company: Daily Eats
1.1.7 Company: Emerson Process Management
1.1.8 Company: Gourmet Station
1.1.9 Company: Indium Corporation
1.1.10 Company: Landfair Furniture
1.1.11 Company: Marqui
1.1.12 Company: Masi Bicycles
1.1.13 Company: Microsoft - Heather Hamilton
1.1.14 Company: Mississippi Hospital Association
1.1.15 Company: MSInteractive
1.1.16 Company: Paperback Bazaar
1.1.17 Blogger: Jeremy Pepper
1.1.18 Company: Stone Creek Coffee
1.1.19 Company: Stonyfield Farm
1.1.20 Company: SuccessFactors

APPENDIX 2.0 INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

APPENDIX 3.0 AUTHORS & BIOS

3.1 LEAD AUTHORS
3.2 STUDENT INTERVIEWERS AND TRANSCRIBERS
3.3 BACKBONE MEDIA, INC. TRANSCRIPTION & EDITING
3.4 NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY EDITING
3.5 LEAD AUTHOR BIOS

APPENDIX 4.0 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

APPENDIX 5.0 GLOSSARY

BLOG / BLOGGING
BLOG AGGREGATOR
BLOGGER/BLOGSPOT
BLOGOSPHERE
COMMENTS / COMMENTING
PODCASTING
RSS FEED
SEO / ORGANIC SEO
TECHNORATI.COM
TRACKBACKS

THANK YOU FOR PARTICIPATING

1.0 Executive Summary

posted: November 2, 2006 10:07 AM

The Blogging Success Study was conducted by Dr. Walter Carl; the students in his Advanced Organizational Communications class (Spring 2006) at Northeastern University and John Cass and his colleagues at Backbone Media, Inc. The objective of this research was to determine the reasons, conditions and factors that make a blog successful, and to create a list of criteria to help companies assess whether and how they should engage in blogging.

In order to identify the elements of a successful blog, the research team interviewed twenty corporate bloggers from companies of varied size and industry, and asked each blogger a series of standardized questions. (See Appendix 2.0) Only bloggers who had been blogging for over one year and considered their blogging efforts successful were eligible to participate. While the selection of participants was, therefore, somewhat subjective and limiting (without the resources to determine the most successful bloggers on the Web), the research team was able to identify common elements among the subject group and distinguish a number of factors for blogging success. These elements are discussed at length in sections two and three of this paper. Herein you will also find case studies detailing how the twenty corporate blogs achieved success. New and veteran bloggers alike will find the case studies and anecdotes enlightening, as they reveal a variety of different paths to success. Thus, we have included summaries of all twenty blogger interviews within the study’s appendix.

Interview results were transcribed and summarized in twenty separate case studies. Each was then studied and analyzed with three questions in mind:

How does the set up of a blog contribute to a blog’s success?
What is it about how you blog that makes the blog a success?
What is it about the content on a blog that makes the blog a success?

After careful review, the research team identified five factors for success. The majority of the twenty participant bloggers pointed to these factors as important to the success of their blog. We focus in on these factors in Section Three.

The five factors identified by the participants were:

A company should carefully consider all of these factors before making a decision to blog:

Culture: If a company has particular cultural traits worth revealing, or conversely, a bad reputation they want to repudiate, blogging could be an attractive option. A great example of the latter is Microsoft. Microsoft had a distinct problem—distrust on the part of many customers. The company was seen as being very big and unresponsive to customers. Microsoft used blogs to reveal that individual employees do care about customers, and they are willing to provide a lot of value by way of product and developer information. Blogging at Microsoft has worked well because Microsoft and Microsoft bloggers were able to show the public what Microsoft's culture was really like behind the big company image.

Transparency: Transparency is crucial to establishing credibility and trust with an audience. While you do not have to be completely open—it is okay to set boundaries—people want to see an honest picture of a company, and know there are not ulterior motives behind the posts bloggers write. Blog audiences respect a willingness to disclose all points of view on a subject. Thoughtful consideration of all viewpoints demonstrates an expertise, and it shows a willingness to engage in a dialogue rather than just pressing an agenda. Successful corporate blogs are those that establish their credibility well. The level of transparency depends on the industry and audience, but citing other sources of knowledge and perspectives will always bring more credibility to a blog.

Time: It takes a lot of time to set up, research and write a quality blog and engage the blogging community effectively. A company that wants a successful blog needs to identify a person who has the time or free up that person’s time, or needs to leverage its resources so the responsibility is shared among a group of bloggers.

Dialogue: A company’s ability and willingness to engage in a greater dialogue with the blogging community is an important determinant in the success of their blog. The Stonyfield Farm blog is a perfect example of a corporate blog used to engage an audience through discussing topics not just related to their products but also, related to organic farming, healthy lifestyle and other germane subject matter. Despite the fact that these topics are not directly related to the yogurt they sell, Stonyfield demonstrates an expertise in areas of importance to their customer base.

Entertaining Writing Style and Personalization: The writing style and how much a blogger is prepared to reveal about their life, experience and opinions in a blog post bring a human side to a blog. This helps a company build personal connections with their audience. Entertaining content, especially content that contains humor, will also bridge the gap between writer and reader. Personal connections and entertaining content help turn casual readers into return customers.

We believe that the study has identified many factors that will make a blog a success. We provide a more in-depth analysis of these and other factors in sections two and three of this paper. The reader can use this list of factors to determine the readiness of their own company to start blogging and as a roadmap to plan a strategy that will bring them the most success in current and future blogging endeavors.

Appendix 1.0 Corporate Blogger Interview Summaries

posted: November 2, 2006 2:00 AM

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 the complete interview here, we have summarized each interview from the original transcriptions.

See All blogger interviews here.

1.1.1 Company: Adobe
1.1.2 Company: Adweek
1.1.3 Blogger: Aliza Sherman Risdahl
1.1.4 Company: BzzAgent
1.1.5 Company: Conference Calls Unlimited
1.1.6 Company: Daily Eats
1.1.7 Company: Emerson Process Management
1.1.8 Company: Gourmet Station
1.1.9 Company: Indium Corporation
1.1.10 Company: Landfair Furniture
1.1.11 Company: Marqui
1.1.12 Company: Masi Bicycles
1.1.13 Company: Microsoft - Heather Hamilton
1.1.14 Company: Mississippi Hospital Association
1.1.15 Company: MSInteractive
1.1.16 Company: Paperback Bazaar
1.1.17 Blogger: Jeremy Pepper
1.1.18 Company: Stone Creek Coffee
1.1.19 Company: Stonyfield Farm
1.1.20 Company: SuccessFactors

Adobe, Eric Anderson

posted: November 2, 2006 2:00 AM

1.1.1 Company: Adobe

Blogger: Eric Anderson
Student Interviewer: Amanda Nastari
Blog: http://weblogs.macromedia.com/eanderson/

Eric Anderson is the Product Manager for Adobe’s Flex product. Adobe Flex is an application development solution for building rich Internet applications. Eric formerly worked for Macromedia when it merged with Adobe and he worked for Allaire Corp when it merged with Macromedia. Macromedia was an early corporate blogging company inspired by Jeremy Allaire.

Eric started work with Allaire Corporation six years ago. He started blogging to get information out to his customer community quickly. The blog is primarily a way to get technical information out to customers and gather feedback. Eric said that blogging was a way to get "tidbits of information what weren't full blown papers out to the community."

Macromedia allowed its employees to write about their products and a blog aggregator was developed to allow like-minded bloggers to aggregate their blogs together. This Macromedia blog aggregator was before sites like technorati.com and other RSS feed aggregators were around. The Macromedia aggregator had content from both Macromedia and other bloggers who wrote Macromedia related blog posts outside of the company.

Eric said that the culture at Adobe is much more controlled by legal than the culture at Macromedia. However, Eric said that there was a desire to be more open at Adobe over time. Adobe has hundreds of blogs and the company pays for its employee blogs. There is no editorial control process for blogging at the company.

Eric told us that his blog helped encourage 30-50 people blogging about Flex, his product. The blog has become a place for the community to go to for information about Flex. When Eric attends a conference, he finds it very rare that customers have not already read his blog. The blog gives Eric "immediate technical credibility" with his audience.

Eric thought that, "publishing content that people need " is very important when building a successful blog. Eric was skeptical of comments generated on blogs, as he has no way to validate the identity of the person who commented. Eric has found it to be difficult to get honest feedback on such major products as Flash and Flex. Eric said the posts that generate the most traffic are those posts that discuss Adobe's competitors and competing technologies or posts about a product’s future direction.

Eric stated that his style of blog writing has progressed over time. He used to write about new releases and content he had not written but he got tired of referencing this type of material. Eric currently writes about technical information not covered anywhere else. He sees the blog as a very useful tool for communicating technical information with his audience. He sees his blog as a place that established his credibility as a technical writer with his community. Eric said that technical content rather than personal content was the type of content that generated the most comments and traffic to his blog.

Adweek, Cathy Taylor

posted: October 29, 2006 9:19 PM

1.1.2 Company: Adweek

Blogger: Cathy Taylor
Student Interviewer: Melissa Buckley
Blog: http://adweek.blogs.com/adfreak/

Cathy Taylor is a journalist who works for Adweek. She initiated the Adfreak blog at Adweek and helps run the blog with her colleagues.

Cathy recognized the impact of political blogs on the country’s political discussion during the 2004 presidential election, and also noticed several blogs whose content on advertising competed with Adweek. She recommended Adweek start a blog to compete with the advertising related blogs. Cathy said that Adweek noticed the benefits of the blog being the conduit for all content related to advertising. Cathy said this insight developed over time.

Due to the time constraints of blogging, the Adweek management decided the whole editorial staff would be able to contribute to the blog. However, all content would pass through two gatekeepers, Cathy and Tim Nudd. The two journalists serve as editors for the blog. The editors ensure Adweek steers clear of posts that might cause legal problems, makes sure content is on target with what the AdFreak audience is looking for and provides copyediting for the blog posts.

Cathy said there's definitely a correlation between the number of posts and the number of people who come to the blog; more posts produces more traffic. When large influential blogs link to the blog the Adweek team also sees an increase in traffic.

Cathy said the person who runs the blog at a competitor, Adrants, comments on more blogs than the bloggers at Adfreak. Cathy thought that the Adfreak team would probably comment more if they had the time. She also discussed how she and her colleague send out links every once in a while and that she makes sure that the links she sends out are extremely relevant and important to the people she sends them to. She suggested bloggers had to be judicious in sending links about posts to other bloggers.

Cathy does comment on other blogs, but she has so little time, that it’s just occasionally, and typically she comments when it relates to her blog posts, or when someone else has criticized what she has written previously.

After reviewing two commercials one by Apple featuring the music star, Eminem, and the other by Lugz Footwear, Cathy was really taken aback by how similar the two commercials were and commented on the similarity on her blog. Eventually the New York Times and other major newspapers picked up the story. Lugz Footwear started sending cease and desist letters to Apple. All because a blog reader had sent a link to Adfreak asking the question, “do you guys think this looks really similar?”

Once Adfreak pointed out the similarity, everyone in the industry started to pay attention. Cathy even received a call from the ad agency who did the Lugz spot. And Cathy was introduced to the spot's creative director. There was a misconception that the production company for the Lugz Footwear spot had sent the link around the media community. Cathy took it upon herself to call media who had been contacted by Lugz' agency about the story, to let them know that was not the case. When she was working to set the story straight with other media, she changed her role from reporter to something else; perhaps PR person or a blogger. Cathy questioned her role in the affair, and asked herself, “What am I now? A PR person getting the story straight, a blogger or the reporter?” and went onto say, “The lines that used to be so stark are just not stark anymore.”

According to Cathy, the content on the blog focuses on ad creative and takes a big time commitment but is also a big listening device about customers and stories.

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.”

BzzAgent, Dave Balter

posted: October 29, 2006 9:04 PM

1.1.4 Company: BzzAgent

Blogger: Dave Balter
Student Interviewer: Laura Stevenson
Blog: http://blog.bzzagent.com and http://90days.bzzagent.com/

Dave Balter is CEO and Founder of BzzAgent. The company has developed a network of agents and media channel through which its clients can develop word of mouth marketing campaigns.

Dave started blogging because he thought it would be a different way of connecting with others and a tool for letting people “inside” the business. He went on to say, "Over the years we have posted advisor updates, investor information, presentations to clients, how we are deciding on company procedures, all sorts of stuff. What I’ve found is it’s had a very interesting impact, not just on the outside world, but on staff, on people that want to work here, potential employees and clients." Dave believes discussing the inner workings of BzzAgent is really powerful for clients and creates a discussion with customers. Many customers have commented on blog posts to Dave directly.

In addition to their regular blog, the BeeLog, Dave's company implemented a blog called 90 Days of BzzAgent, which ran from February through April of 2006. This blog described a period of 90 days where the company went through a financing round, and how the company evolved during that period. Dave thinks there will be time- or event-specific corporate blogs will be common in the future, especially for campaigns or events.

For the BeeLog, anyone at the company may blog, although Dave moderates all of the posts. Dave filters the content for issues like employee bashing, or revealing confidential information.

According to Dave, the traffic volume on the blog is not a major factor, but he has found that individuals will sometimes become customers by reading material on the blog.

Dave does not believe that blogs necessarily need to have a lot of comments, as he has experienced situations where a blog post will not generate a lot of comments but when he meets people in person, they will recall the post.

He also explained that the posts that generate the most traffic to the blog include content that would typically only be background information for a traditional communications department: "The things that surprise people, because they are actually live. Things like being able to review a presentation to a client, information about two people we are thinking about hiring, anything that is sort of going to give them the first instinct of, ‘I can’t believe they are live‘ and those are the ones that get the most traffic."

Dave went onto say, "I think a lot of the corporate blogs you have, say, ‘Can you put something together that talks about our new products?’ When it’s really about how are we communicating to the market in a way that’s never been possible before? I feel like a lot of them are out there under false premises as opposed to this is a new tool for the whole market place and the whole point is transparency so let’s let this change; what we’re willing to tell the world and see what happens."

Dave believes to successfully start a blog "it’s a dive-right-in philosophy. No matter what you think ahead of time people will not cease to amaze you, so it’s best to learn over time."

Since the interview date, BzzAgent decided to suspend the BeeLog, at least for the time being, because Dave felt the content of the posts began to stray away from the original focus of providing an inside glimpse of the inner workings of BzzAgent. BzzAgent will continue to explore the use of time- and event-specific corporate blogs like 90 Days of BzzAgent. In this vein, their latest blog is called the Bento Box and will run for 24 weeks, offering an inside glimpse of the company from the perspective of two outsiders: an author and an artist.

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."

Daily Eats, Tery Spataro

posted: October 29, 2006 8:39 PM

1.1.6 Company: Daily Eats

Blogger: Tery Spataro
Student Interviewer: Leah Hyland
Company: Mind Arrays
Blog: http://www.mindarrays.com/blog.html

Additional blogs: Daily Eats
Blog: http://www.dailyeats.com/

Tery Spataro is the founder of Mind Arrays marketing consulting, and creator and co-author of the food-related blog, Daily Eats blog.

Tery explained how she uses blogging to get out a message to her audience, “I use it for Mind Arrays to write about things that effect marketing, customer relations, focus on consumer products.” In recent posts she draws attention to a poorly thought out new commercial by web.com, which used tasteless humor, further demoralizing homeless people. I just thought we can’t go down this route as marketers; I really wanted to get people focused on that. I used a number of different ways of getting it out there.“ Tery’s posts contain opinion and a review of the industry for her readers. That opinion and review are what makes the blog a success.

Daily Eats is another blog Tery posts for. She uses Google's blogger because she thought she would gain higher readership and the assumption has paid off with extra traffic. Google is the most important search engine on the web with more people using Google than any other search engine. Google owns Blogger, a blog-authoring tool, and she believes Google might give Blogger a break in rankings.

She has asked a number of other bloggers to contribute to the Daily Eats blog. Asking people to contribute has been a successful tactic for building a highly visible blog.

Backing up an opinion with facts through research is a step Tery found important for bloggers to take in writing a post. Otherwise, Tery suggested blogging could easily be misunderstood for fact rather than opinion. Tery said, "But I think it would be good if someone said on their blog ‘this is just my opinion’.”

Addressing the success of Daily Eats blog, Tery said, "I use the stat logs to estimate how many visitors are turned into repeat visitors. I have also spent time on what pages are attracting the most visits and the amount of time for page views."

She said, "I think of a blog as a better form of a newsletter, that you easily post every day, and if you do it right you can have a fairly big readership. It achieves everything that you need, and it’s very quick. It’s not an email so it’s not clogging up mail. Different from newsletters, blog readers usually subscribe to a blog get the feeds when the blog updates."

Tery works to get other bloggers to comment on her blog, by commenting on other blogs.

She described an incident where another blog, YaGoof!, spammed Daily Eats blog, as a way of promoting the blog's sponsor. Rather than get angry, Tery took a conciliatory approach and worked with YaGoof! to get them information about appropriate blogging etiquette with regards to commenting on a blog. That olive branch approach really worked and now Tery has reviewed some of YaGoof's candy sponsors.

Some of the posts that received the most traffic and comments on Daily Eat's blog were about interesting combinations of food, for example, a Twinkie and sushi combination. Tery explained these posts were really unusual and funny.

For Mind Array's clients Tery develops a blogging strategy. A blogging strategy is similar to a PR strategy. Commenting on the reasons to blog by a company, Tery said, "Creating a sense of community, building direct relationships, and developing the right message is the right approach to developing a public blog for a company. Additionally using blogging as customer support to answer questions about your product are all good reasons to blog. Reasons not to blog include if you are going to talk only about yourself or do the hard sell for your products." Tery continued, "People really want to know what’s behind products; not just that it is manufactured and should be bought."

Emerson Process Management, Deborah Franke & Jim Cahill

posted: October 29, 2006 8:23 PM

1.1.7 Company: Emerson Process Management

Bloggers: Deborah Franke & Jim Cahill
Student Interviewer: Amanda Johnsen
Blog: http://www.emersonprocessxperts.com/

Jim Cahill is the Marketing Communications Manager for the Process Systems and Solutions business of Emerson Process Management. Deborah Franke is the eMarketing manager for the company. Emerson Process Management is a supplier of process-automation technology, products, and services.

Both Deb and Jim told the interviewer that Emerson started the company blog as a way to get their company message out. The company prides itself in fostering innovation and Deb and Jim wanted to push the envelope in reaching their audience compared to other suppliers in the industry. Discussing in detail the benefits of blogging, Deb said, "What you are trying to do in services marketing is to show your trust, commitment, and creativity in coming up with solutions. Those traits can be demonstrated in every blog post."

Initially Emerson set up an internal server to host blogs, where employees could get used to the idea of blogging and podcasting. The company added bloggers as people became interested in blogging. Once the company had set up their Movable Type blog, Deb and Jim worked with the HR and legal departments to set up a policy for the company, so everyone who wanted to, could blog.

For the external Emerson Process Experts blog, Deb and Jim keep it focused on making it easy as possible for customers in the process-manufacturing world to talk to experts at Emerson Process Management. Deb said, "The best way to get visibility to your expertise message, we believe, is to blog."

Describing how Emerson came to pick Jim as the blogger, Deb said, "The reason we went with Jim was an internal concern that our bloggers would not understand our brand and our messaging. When you start associating real people in a very large company like ours with huge brands like ours, there is just a lot of concern. So, Jim became the obvious choice. Jim has an engineering background and he has grown into a position where he is the hub of so many stories and he knows so many people across the company that we were able to get over many of the negative points with the decision makers. Jim is the brand manager for many of the popular brands, so the objections that ‘our blogger won’t understand the brand!’ went away."

Jim added, "We didn’t expect the people who did have the expertise to begin blogging and building up a number of posts. So, the strategy was that I would be a connector to the experts around the organization where I could tell their story individually and pop back on them in a few months based on what was going on there. From other people in the organization they looked at it as a pilot for the company, but we wanted to show people both internally and externally that this could be effective and kind of a building block to get more bloggers going overtime."

Both Deb and Jim said that blogging is giving the company some really different results on the web, such as more coverage to areas of the company that were not getting any publicity, higher search engine rankings, and a way to communicate with customers and the press that was not possible before without a blog. Jim notes how he receives emails, calls, and Skype VOIP calls from people all over the world trying to connect to various Emerson people and companies. Both Deb and Jim believe that blogging is a direct conversation where all the details of how the company operates are described.

Jim said that commenting on other blogs helps with the success of his blog because, "we are trying to build a conversation about the topic at hand and the more you add to the conversation, then over time others will begin in the conversation on your blog. As more people become more blog and RSS aware, we want them to participate."

Blogger outreach was an important issue for the Emerson blog. According to Deb, "you are participating because conversations are going on, the conversations just haven’t been as visible. I think people are adopting blogs to be heard and people can jump in and be part of the conversations. Word of mouth has always been around; it just hasn’t been on the web. It’s also about community. It’s about the place. It’s about the exchange that is happening. You’re not pushing a message at them whether you are commenting or posting. You are simply engaging with the community."

Deb finds that people who are connectors really help their industry. Deb thought that Robert Scoble and Steve Rubel are two people who do that successfully.

Both Deb and Jim said that the posts that have generated the most interest are where there is already some discussion and interest on the web. Jim said, “Steve Rubel pointed to our RSS starter kit in a post on his blog, and due to the readership on his blog of the tens of thousands, many people found us that would have never found it any other way. So there can be an immediate impact if someone reads it that has some kind of interest some way. They can be someone of a completely different World, but blogs have the ability to quickly amplify it and share it and other people can link into it and something can become very large very quickly.” The Emerson Process Experts blog had added something to the discussion through the blogger’s perspective on that issue.

When describing tools for interaction in the blogosphere, Deb said, "Trackbacks are one of the tools that help build the conversation and we liked that we would be joining in as part of the dialogue."

Discussing the issue of whether a company should blog or not, Jim said, "You do have to look at the culture. If you are an organization that wants to keep an iron hand on the flow of communication, this form of communication might not be for you. Or, it might be an organization that is very firm in the information they want to go out and when they want to go out. So, if you’re a business that can’t deal with the change of flow in information it may not be for you. But if you look at the companies out there, I would hope there is enough latitude between the two extremes to take the first step and try it internally on the company intranet."

Gourmet Station, Donna Lynes-Miller

posted: October 28, 2006 10:42 PM

1.1.8 Company: Gourmet Station

Blogger: Donna Lynes-Miller
Student Interviewer: Krystle Randall
Blog: www.gourmetstationblog.com

Donna Lynes-Miller is Founder and President of Gourmet Station, the premise of the website is that the company brings a fine dining experience to the customer. Gourmet Station sells fine meals and accessories on its website.

Donna described how everything on the blog has to be consistent with the brand. She moderates the comments and makes sure those comments are consistent with the brand. No profanity or unrelated comments are allowed on the blog. Donna explained that “everything has got to be very buttoned up, we have a very buttoned up brand, and we have a very upscale brand, very upscale, well educated customers. So anything that goes out there has to be consistent with that.” The blog also allows the company to discuss their content in a laid back tone. That content has produced higher rankings on search engines and helped to increase traffic to the blog by 10%.

Donna believes it to be important that the people who write on the blog are knowledgeable about food and wine. The blog's readers are looking for ideas around food, drink, and entertainment.

The blog has helped Donna's company add content to their website on the topics and products the company is focused on providing. Also, the blog has given Donna the ability to place content that they otherwise would not have been able to put on their website. Donna said it was important that a company covers all of the topics they wish to cover in their blog posts, and to categorize those topics by keyword.

The Gourmet Station blog has achieved a number two ranking on the keyword "gourmet dinners" in Yahoo! The blog has played a big part in helping the company to achieve that ranking. According to Donna, the blog has also helped establish the company's brand and provide more sales conversions by making a "passionate connection" with readers.

The topic that generates the most conversation and interaction from readers on the blog is romance. Donna said that made sense, as the search volumes for romance and dinner have a great connection.

Donna selects the content of the posts by season. Donna said the blog has 14 categories, and the company always has a recent post in each of the categories.

Donna recommends a company have a strategy before starting to blogging. Her company has two strategies: to fill their categories with content and to increase they’re ranking on search engines.

MSInteractive, David Paull

posted: October 28, 2006 9:50 PM

1.1.15 Company: MSInteractive

Blogger: David Paull
Student Interviewer: Amanda Johnsen
Blog: http://perceptionanalyzer.typepad.com/

David Paull is the vice president for MSInteractive, a company that develops and markets interactive audience participation products and services for focus groups and business events.

David Paull at MSInteractive described how he started a blog at his company and quickly realized that to be authentic he had to write about more than just his company's products and services. David writes about his clients’ markets and industry making sure that the blog provides useful information for his customers.

David stated that it took a few iterations before he found the right voice for his blog, before David was comfortable with his blog, he had to develop a voice that rang true for his audience. And he also tried out a couple of different blogging technologies. Success for David's blog was, "generating a dialogue with readers," or "getting feedback from people," plus getting calls from prospective customers.

David thought that to have real success with a blog, you have to "read a lot of other blogs and you have to engage in the discussions on other blogs." As David's readership grew on his blog, the more he read and commented on other blogs. David said, "I think it’s critical if you want to have successful blog, to comment on other people's blogs. I think you have to engage, in other blogs otherwise just getting the word out about your blog is very hard to do."

David clearly made the point that he gained a lot of additional traffic by commenting on other blogs, and having the bloggers and readers find out about his blog from those comments is very important. David also thought that the blog had really helped his company to achieve higher search engine rankings.

David thought that the most comments come from the posts that are the most topical or controversial. He said, "blogging is very participatory and it’s a community of people who want to participate. So people participate in things that either get their dander up or that they feel is controversial or they want to weigh in on or find areas where they can be similar to other people. And posts like what word do you most hate."

David thought that posts where people have an opinion on one side of the argument or the other would generate the most interest.

Paperback Bazaar, Greg Chick

posted: October 28, 2006 9:48 PM

1.1.16 Company: Paperback Bazaar

Blogger: Ralph Wayne
Student Interviewer: Greg Chick
Blog: No longer working.

Ralph started his blog because he looked at forums in the comic book industry and discovered that many forums did not get a lot of participation. He thought a blog would help promote his company without the need for much participation initially.

Discussing the issue of commenting Ralph described what generates the most comments on his blog, "We pick the content that will annoy people the most.” “One example is this week we were arguing about the new Batman comics, where everyone hates it but they keep buying it. It would be like arguing about the new King Kong movie if you were a movie store."

Ralph went on to say "If they are going to blog they need something interesting to blog about and something that will get conversation going. If you ask them how they feel about something, that’s not going to get a reaction from people. If you get down there and say you hate this comic book it is the worst thing ever written you will get some reply to that. You have to be entertaining. The web is either advertising or entertaining. You have to give them a reason to be there."

Blogger: Jeremy Pepper

posted: October 28, 2006 9:43 PM

1.1.17 Blogger: Jeremy Pepper

Student Interviewer: AnneMarie Martel
Blog: http://pop-pr.blogspot.com/

Jeremy Pepper is one of the earliest PR bloggers in the US market. He started his Pop PR blog when he started his own PR agency. Now working for a larger agency he continues to write his personal blog.

Jeremy thinks that any company can blog, but a company needs to have either the right person or the right corporate culture. Jeremy went on to describe how Robert Scoble of Microsoft has really changed the impression of the company among its customers. Jeremy said, "I can say without any issue that Robert Scoble has given Microsoft a friendly persona out there on the Internet. He’s given a face to the organization that’s different than Steve Balmer or Bill Gates. He’s made it warm and fuzzy. It’s no longer the evil empire. It’s just, “Oh this is the company Scoble works for!” It’s – It helps take off the taint that the company has had." Jeremy went on to say, "He (Scoble) doesn’t talk about Microsoft all that much, but he is known as a Microsoft blogger."

Discussing the issue of what makes his blog successful, Jeremy said, “I think what draws the attention to my blog is my honesty.” And went onto say, “People know that I’m not going to sugarcoat anything. That I’m going to be out there. I’m going to be honest. I’m going to say what I’m thinking.”

Jeremy stated that that bloggers have to conduct a conversation with their audience, and that it’s important to reply to people who comment on a blog, to comment on other blogs, but not to comment for the sake for commenting, only when it fits in with a conversation.

Jeremy discussed how he thought that bloggers in the PR community should focus their blogging efforts on helping the PR community to improve their community. Jeremy thought that to be successful in blogging takes a lot of time and a thick skin and some passion.

Stone Creek Coffee, Tom Pionek

posted: October 28, 2006 8:11 PM

1.1.18 Company: Stone Creek Coffee

Blogger: Tom Pionek
Student Interviewer: Krista Grosser
Blog: http://sccv3.stonecreekcoffee.com/blog.cfm

Tom Pionek works at Stone Creek Coffee, a coffee roaster and retailer of specialty coffees. He has over ten years of Internet database marketing experience. Tom helps run the Stone Creek Coffee blog. Stone Creek Coffee has nine retail stores in the Wisconsin area.

Tom told us that the ability to change content on the website more frequently was a big factor in setting up the blog. Nearly everyone at the roasting plant can blog although employees at the retail stores don’t blog, as those employees are more often than not very transitory, and so Stone Creek Coffee prefers to have those employees blog who will write over time.

Tom thought it was important for the people in his company to blog, "from the heart and not try to put a spin on something." The employees try very hard not to make the blog seem very corporate by talking about their everyday work experiences.

As a measure of success, Tom tracks if his blog receives good feedback. Tom said the blog has generated a lot of publicity for the company. Other non-company bloggers had a big impact on the company blog by commenting and linking to the blog. Those links have helped with higher rankings on Google search terms such as “wholesale coffee”.

Tom said that he is trying to use the blog as a content generator for printed materials and newsletters. He reuses the posts in such printed material for customers.

According to Tom, the content that generates the most comments are the posts about the coffee and the unique properties of their roasts. Most of the content is about the product, stores, and community projects. One of the posts that generated the most comments was when one of their store managers left the company. Many well wishers to the store manager left comments on the blog.

Tom recommended that a company decide who is going to blog and have a schedule of content.

Stonyfield Farm, Chris Halvorson

posted: October 28, 2006 7:57 PM

1.1.19 Company: Stonyfield Farm

Blogger: Chris Halvorson
Student Interviewer: Krystle Randall
Blog: http://www.stonyfield.com/weblog/

Chris Halvorson is famous in the blogosphere for being hired as a blogger for one of the first non-technology companies, Stonyfield Farm, a yogurt company.

Describing the inspiration for the Stonyfield blogs, Chris told the interviewer that the Howard Dean campaign in the Presidential election had a big effect on Gary Hirshberg, the CEO of Stonyfield Farm. After watching the benefits to the Dean campaign in the election, Gary wanted to use blogs as a way to connect with his customers.

Stonyfield’s blog is very well known in a number of blogging communities because of its early adoption of the corporate blogging. The company started with five blogs and reduced the number of blogs to two. We asked Chris why the company cut down on the number of blogs. Chris said, "We started out with five, I was the only staff person doing it and it did get to be a little too much to write and maintain five. We had five different topic areas and all along we considered it one big experiment. So, we put the five out there to see what works. We got rid of one because it never seemed to find an audience. It was sort of an insider’s view to the company, you know, I wrote about quirky little things we did as employees. We had a potluck today, in honor of St. Patrick’s Day, or whatever it was and it didn’t really seem to find an audience which is in retrospect, understandable."

Chris explained that the company had a blog focused on the environment but it shut down because there was not enough time to write content for the blog. Stonyfield decided that it would be better to let other voices in the blogosphere take the lead on this issue. Chris said that while it’s important to conduct organic farming and support alternative energy, it is not the main focus of the company.

Chris explained that Stonyfield did not review or fact check content before she published it. Chris thought that lack of restrictions on what could be posted led to a very human voice for the blog. Chris spends about two hours a day writing the two remaining blogs. Chris writes all the content, except for the Bovine Bugle. The content for that blog is written by one of Stonyfield's organic farmers.

Stonyfield did want some measurement of success for its blogs, and wanted to demonstrate that the blog was building relationships with blog readers. Chris told us that the measurement for success for the blog was when a reader commented or sent a note to the bloggers.

One of the biggest success factors identified for Stonyfield blogs was the Stonyfield Farm blog. Jonathan, Stonyfield’s organic farming blogger, writes about whatever is happening in his life on the farm, during the calving season or maple sugar season. As one of the first consumer product company’s to blog, Stonyfield caught everyone's attention in the early days of blogging, they were watched closely to see what the company would do and how it would blog.

Chris told the interviewer that the blog was successful even though Chris did not write about yogurt more than three or four times in two years.

Chris did not spend a lot of time linking to other bloggers. However, she did monitor the web for mentions of Stonyfield on other blogs. She would correct any factual errors stated on other blogs and link to relevant websites.

When the blog first started in April of 2004, Chris used to write about politics and religion and other non-business issues. Those posts received a lot of comments. The company started a blog about strong women because the majority of yogurt eaters are women. One of the most popular posts was who readers thought would make the best women presidential candidate.

One of the Stonyfield employees, a father of a new baby, wrote a post about how messy his house was because of the time he and his partner were spending time on looking after the new baby. The employee mentioned that his family used formula and this caused some readers to write that Stonyfield endorsed infant formula instead of breast-feeding, even though Stonyfield did not. The post on baby formula received over forty comments. So many comments were made that it was almost to the point of being unmanageable for the company. The Stonyfield blog did not have a comment policy, and Chris decided to create one stating that if all points of view have been stated in comments Chris would not allow any additional comments.

Chris moderates blog posts for the tone of the comments. She does not let the blogs ever get very "nasty," which is something she has seen on many blogs about parenting where people will criticize each other for making different choices. Chris would also not allow comments that are factually wrong, such as a comment stating, "babies need to watch television in the first month of life." Chris would do some of her own fact checking or post the comment with her own comment stating that the issues raised have not been proven.

Chris spends a lot of time reading the news about parenting. Chris tied the blog content into Stonyfield yogurt products because the company was one of the first companies to put DHA in their yogurt, a fatty acid helpful for the brain development of babies. Chris would not try to pitch the product but ask questions around the subject, such as asking if people know about the importance of their babies eating DHA, and if they or their babies eat food with DHA in it. Chris said she tries to "raise questions in people's minds" or be provocative, by asking the question what do you think of this issue or that, to generate comments.

Chris thought it was important for companies to understand how blogs can be applied in their own marketplace and learn how a blog can be useful to their company. Chris thinks companies should not be afraid of their customers’ responses and that a company will need to dedicate enough resources for a company to be able to blog.

SuccessFactors, Max Goldman

posted: October 28, 2006 7:45 PM

1.1.20 Company: SuccessFactors

Blogger: Max Goldman
Student Interviewer: Kennie Swanson
Blog: http://blogs.successfactors.com/workforce-performance/

Max Goldman is Product Marketing Manager and blogger for Success Factors. The company provides web-based integrated talent management software solutions to help organizations align, develop, motivate and retain their employees.

Max told us that the blog was started as a way to reach members of the HR community and he said "Really there's just a handful of people that are participating in the conversation and to the extent that’s possible I’ve reached out to those people."

Speaking on what skills and expertise one needs to make a good blogger, Max said, "The only consideration as to who should be a corporate blogger is good judgment." Max said a company has to walk the line between revealing private and public information.

According to Max, his company looks at unique numbers, page views, and the Technorati rank of the blog as measures of success for the blog. Max also attempts to participate in conversations about his industry in the blogosphere, Max sees blogging as one way to achieve their goals for traffic and ranking in the industry.

Max thought that persistence is very important in order to be a successful blogger, but you also need the patience to continue blogging, as a company will never know what will attract their audience’s attention and what will not. Max described how each communication with another blogger helps to build a stronger relationship that shifts perceptions about a company positively over time.

Max stays on topic about the HR industry in his blog and avoids posting personal issues because his audience would not be interested, although he has shifted from a reporting posture to an opinion posture with his blog.

According to Max, the fundamental underpinnings of the blogosphere are about conversation and dialogue. Anything you can do to enhance that dialogue will help both the conversation and the corporate blogger who is involved in the conversation.

Appendix 2.0 Interview Questions

posted: October 28, 2006 7:30 PM

John Cass and Dr. Walter Carl developed the interview questions initially. The questions were then provided to the student’s of Dr. Carl’s Advanced Organizational Communication class. The students discussed each question, made suggested edits, and added several questions based on their interests. Below are the questions the Dr. Carl’s student’s asked of the bloggers during the spring semester:

What are the factors that determined your company’s decision to blog?
Do you feel there is a “right” kind of person to blog in your industry? If not, why not? If so, what characteristics, role and experience make up the right kind of person?
Describe the sequence of events that have occurred in the development for your company's corporate blogging efforts.
What factors contributed to the eventual success of your blog? Describe how each factor helped to make your blog a success.
Was blogger outreach important for the success of your blog? If so explain how?
How did other bloggers in your industry contribute to the eventual success of your blog, if at all?
Describe the content that generates the most comments and traffic on your blog? Please describe the content in terms of industry related, personal, or off-topic. Please provide examples of posts that produced a lot of trackbacks, links and comments. Why do you think these posts were so successful in generating such audience interest?
A lot of people in the blogging community praise blogs for the level of transparency they offer. What do you think makes a blog transparent? Which of the following do you allow on your blog?

Comments?
Trackbacks?
Critical comments?

How do you determine the content of the posts on your blog? And were you developing the same sort of content when you first started blogging? If there was a change in content on your blog overtime, what was the pro

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