Business blogs can be the most direct path between you and your customer BUT most of your customers don’t even bother reading blogs.
Business blogs can create opportunities for you to have a conversation with potential customers BUT most won’t bother commenting, much less create a meaningful conversation.
Business blogs can show the human side of your business BUT it might backfire and make you look trite and even stupid.
Business blogs allows you to distribute information real-time BUT you don’t have enough original insights to keep up the momentum.
Business blogs can be an exceptionally cost effective and measurable marketing channel BUT also exceptionally tedious to maintain.
Marketing your business is vital to earning customers BUT it does not also have to cost an arm and a leg.
The truth is changing the convention isn’t always feasible BUT the question is, why not?
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Hey Myron,
Interesting thoughts. What you say is very true - there is always the other side of every coin. We just need to weigh which side is heavier.
I think the crux of this is that in business blogging, firms are creating a marketing channel, not leveraging on an existing proven media.
To accomplish the same effect in conventional marketing, it would be like Clinique creating their own magazine and setting up their own distribution points, as opposed to advertising in and established magazine like Her World.
If they were to undertake this, can they predict what is going to happen? Probably the best bet is to duplicate the marketing strategy of another firm that has done so successfully.
So the same goes for business blogging. There are general guidelines which you can follow after studying the established firms - transparency, conversational language etc, but in actual implementation, it is not possible to guarantee what the result will be, because every company’s market is unique.
So what you said is true - its tedious to maintain, we may look stupid, and we might not have enough original insights, BUT what if it works?
Do you have any case studies or examples of blogging being deployed successfully on a business level in Singapore on the basis that it generates a decent amount of buzz or conversion.
It seems hard pressed trying to find examples other than the doctor and food blogger over at ieatishootipost.sg.
Hey Myron,
Unfortunately, the better business blogs in Singapore are still very limited to either (1) technology related firms (lots of them) and (2) leisure and fun related businesses (like http://pitstopcafe.blogspot.com/) … and its true that non of them have the kind of buzz experienced by Marriot, or General Motors.
There are many corporate blogs with a lot of potential, but to put in bluntly - I feel that many of these “corporate bloggers” still don’t get the point about blog marketing.
Essentially, most of them still do not grasp the point that they need to participate in the blogosphere. Most of these blogs are treated as an alternative non-tech way to publish content and updates on the Internet, as opposed as using it as a social platform to connect with clients, and like minded individuals.
Yes - that takes a lot more effort, and it also yields better results. Going to a networking party and talking to the participants, exchanging namecards, following up with a call etc. takes effort, but it yield better results than leaving a corporate brochure on the table and expecting people to read it and call you.
It takes effort for you to post a comment on my blog, and I really applaud you for taking that effort even though you’ve barely started this blog a month ago… and with that effort you’ve found a loyal reader.
But what will this relationship have on the bottom line? Frankly, I don’t know - no one can tell until one of us decides to enlist each other’s help to promote a marketing campaign or something like that… But certainly, this connection is a possibility of your access to my contacts, and vice versa.
I guess this is what many “corporate bloggers” are skeptical about. Especially in a culture like Singapore’s - we want to know that every 1 cent that we spend brings in 2 cents. We are somewhat “ROI fanatics”. This is a good way of thinking and it helps us stay afloat financially, and it is also quite a narrow minded form of thinking to run a business. Isn’t that so?
Heh. I wrote too much.
Continuing the Discussion