Successful Blogs from the study

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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.

2.2 What Is It About How You Conduct Blogging That Makes The Blog A Success?

posted: November 2, 2006 3:01 AM

How a company conducts its corporate blogging effort is important for the development of a successful blog. In this section, we explore how the way a blogger writes or runs their blog will help make a corporate blog successful. Two additional factors, time and dialogue, are discussed in more detail in Section Three.

Blogger Engagement

Engaging others in your blogging community was seen by many bloggers interviewed for the study as an important success factor. Engagement with other bloggers includes conversing with other bloggers on your own blog and on other blogs. Bloggers engage the community by commenting or sending a trackback or pingback (see Glossary) to another author’s blog from a blog post of his/her own.

Dialogue through commenting back and forth in a public blog was seen by many of the bloggers as a way to engage other bloggers and blog readers. Many bloggers interviewed thought that the interaction that occurs through this public discussion was very important to the success of their blog. Commenting on other blogs and how you commented were both seen as being very important, and a step towards engaging other bloggers successfully.

Tom Pionek from Stone Creek Coffee thought that 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 like ‘wholesale coffee.’

Tim Jackson from Masi Bikes thought it was important to receive comments from fellow bloggers on his blog. Tim Jackson believes that "a key ingredient to being successful with a blog personally, is to network with other bloggers and to do the right thing and post comments and add links and do things like that because you build your strength and credibility within the community and you’re not just another, you know, soulless marketer with a blog site." He thought it was especially important to receive comments from influential bloggers within his industry. Seeking out influential blogs in your industry is very important. Tim said he would leave comments there to invite dialogue. Posts about the latest products, even competitors, generate the most comments from readers on the Masi Bikes blog.

Jim Cahill from the Emerson Process Management blog said that commenting on other people's 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 Deborah Franke, "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."

Chris Halvorson from Stonyfield stated that readers commenting and sending emails to bloggers was an important measure of success. Stonyfield management wanted to see that the blog was connecting with customers, and commenting was the clearest indication that relationships were being developed.

Cathy Taylor at Adweek described how one of their competitors, the person who runs the blog Adrants, comments on many blogs. Cathy thought that the Adfreak team would probably comment more if they had the time. Cathy said that the Adrants blogger gained a greater boost as a result of the extra comments.

According to Janet Johnson of Marqui, companies should conduct a lot of commenting and send a lot of trackbacks as connecting with other people in the blogosphere is very important to building relationships. Those relationships will help a company to achieve their goals. Janet said that the more you engage other bloggers, the more they will engage you.

Heather Hamilton from Microsoft thought that commenting on other blogs drives traffic back to her blog; while reading blogs about marketing helps her understand her marketplace. Heather said that she receives a lot of comments about her personal posts. Those personal posts also drive the most traffic.

Jeremy Pepper stated that bloggers have to conduct a conversation with their audience, and that it is important to reply to people who comment on a blog and to comment on other blogs. Nonetheless, he warns not to comment for the sake of commenting, only when it fits in with a conversation.

Content & Comment Moderation

Moderating content and comments has powerful implications for the success of a corporate blog, according to the bloggers we interviewed. Allowing comments to appear from blog readers was widely accepted as the right way to set up a corporate blog, although Eric Anderson at Adobe had some different opinions about the quality of comments from blog readers. Most bloggers did agree that commenting added to the success of a blog. Commenting on other blogs helps a blogger acquire links, drive traffic and develop relationships with other bloggers.

Some bloggers don’t moderate their comments; their comments are unrestricted or un-moderated. Rick Short from Indium Corporation leaves commenting open, even to the extent of allowing spam comments to remain on the blog. The reasoning behind this is transparency. Rick said, "You need to be believable and credible. Well, you know, we already are, but when you start acting in another way you sort of degrade your existing image. We’re very well known as a technology company, and as a very high integrity, sophisticated market resource. If I go to market with some filtered, manipulated set of information that takes us backwards. Our customers are smart enough to go through our comments, and see an ad for offshore gambling and realize that it’s just spam, and then overlook it. Or, if some guy starts ranting and raving about how he’s my competitor, he’s the man, my customers are smart enough to realize."

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.

One blogger, Donna Lynes-Miller from Gourmet Station, moderated comments on her blog for consistency with her company’s brand and image; Donna Lynes-Miller described how everything on the blog has to be consistent with the brand. Donna moderates the comments and makes sure those comments are consistent with the brand. To her, an important part of brand consistency is ensuring there is no profanity and there are no unrelated comments on the blog.

Chris Halvorson from Stonyfield explained that Stonyfield did not review or fact check content before publishing. Chris thought that lack of oversight 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.

Chris Halvorson does moderate comments to make sure the tone of the comment never gets very “nasty,” which are something she has seen on many Mommy blogs where some people will harshly criticize others for making different choices. Also, Chris would not allow comments that are factually wrong, such as a comment stating that, "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.

Originally, the Stonyfield blog did not have a comment policy. Chris decided to create one after receiving a lot of comments on a post where several of the comments were repetitive. If all points of view have been stated in comments, Chris decided not to allow any additional comments. Chris moderated any comments that described repetitive viewpoints.

There is an alternative view, however, as a number of the bloggers thought that comments were not important to the success of their blog. For example, Eric Anderson from Adobe was skeptical of comments generated on blogs, as he has no way to validate the identity of the person who commented. Eric said it’s very 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 and posts about a product’s future direction.

Dave Balter from BzzAgent did not think blogs necessarily had to have a lot of comments. He finds that while some posts generate few comments, readers he meets recall reading the post later.

According to Shawn Lea from the Mississippi Hospital Association, she does not spend very much time commenting on other blogs. Shawn thought she did not comment very much because her readership are members of the hospital association of Mississippi. Editor’s interpretation of this lack of commenting on other blogs by Shawn Lea, is that Shawn thought that her blog’s content is unique, and that she did not have to comment on any other blogs because she had a captive audience who were members of the association.

Building a Blogging Community

One way to develop a successful blog is to concentrate on helping the rest of your blogging community. By helping your community, a blogger can gain a lot of respect and develop a good reputation. The effort put into helping the community gives a blogger thought leadership in the community and instant recognition. Jeremy Pepper discussed how he thought that bloggers in the PR community should focus their efforts on improving the community itself.

An example of someone who helps his community is Constantin Basturea. Constantin maintains a number of helpful and useful websites and blogs that provide information for the PR blogging community. Constantin has a great deal of respect in the PR blogging community because of his tremendous support and participation.

Monitoring Your Blogging Community

Monitoring the web for instances of your company's brand and relevant subject matter can help you to build a successful blog. Bloggers used search engines, blog search engines and other online tools to monitor the blogosphere for their brand and industry terms.

Chris Halvorson from Stonyfield Farm did not spend a lot of time linking to other bloggers. However, she did monitor the web for keyword occurrences of Stonyfield on other blogs. Once found, she would correct any factual errors stated on other blogs and link to relevant websites. Correcting the factual errors in a comment section of another blog helps to clarify Chris and Stonyfield’s position on an issue and demonstrates that Stonyfield is paying attention.

Feedback from Your Customers

Asking for feedback from your customer was an important factor and technique identified in the Backbone Media Corporate blogging survey 2005, and will help with building better products and make your blog a success. The study of 75 bloggers produced six case studies; two of the case studies identified Macromedia and Microsoft as two companies where customer feedback was important. The two case studies described how listening to customer feedback contributed to building successful blogs. A good tip for any corporate blogger is to develop compelling content that leverages feedback from your audience rather than just focusing on your own ideas. Foster relationships with customers, bloggers and readers. Demonstrating that your company encourages and listens to customer feedback transforms casual readers and customers into enthusiastic evangelists.

Tim Jackson from Masi said that one of the most important benefits of the blog has been the ability to ask for feedback from readers. Tim said that the effort has helped to "shape the products that are coming out." It also gives pride of ownership with customers and retailers who read the blog—in a way that promotes a more personal connection with the Masi brand.

Writing Often for Success

Having the discipline to write often will help build the success of your blog. Our subjects found that increased frequency of posting could be correlated with increased readership. In addition, fresh content and incoming links can garner better search engine rankings. The frequency of writing for a blog can vary depending on the abilities of the blogger and the industry in which they are writing. An industry with a lot of bloggers and many changes will probably need more content frequency.

Cathy Taylor from Adweek said there is definitely a correlation between the number of posts and the number of people who come to the blog. The larger the volume of posts on a blog the more traffic is generated. Also, when large influential blogs link to the Adfreak blog, run by Cathy Taylor, the Adweek team sees an increase in traffic.

Max Goldman from SuccessFactors thought that persistence is very important to be a successful blogger, and you also need the patience to keep on blogging, as a company will never know what will attract their audience’s attention and what will not. You have to just keep on writing. Max described how each communication with another blogger helps to build a stronger relationship shifting perceptions about a company positively over time.

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.

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