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February 19, 2006
Blogging 101 - CEOs in Blogland
By Kathleen Vandervelde in Blogging 101
Is it a good idea for top company executives to blog?
Writing for Information Week back in July, General Motors chief Bob Lutz praises blogging as "a hugely effective communications tool and a terrific way to conduct a grassroots, largely unfiltered conversation with GM fans and nonfans alike."
His FastLane Blog, online since January 2005, is "a way for GM to be culturally relevant," he says. To be effective, Lutz and the GM senior execs who contribute to the blog know they have to keep things real:
The key is to leave the corporate-speak behind and keep the tone conversational, open, and honest. Anyone who has read our blog sees the real deal, as produced by us and not polished by several layers of trained communications pros.
But Is It Worth Anything?
Of course the big question is always about return on investment. Is blogging worth anything, especially when you're talking in terms of the cost of the big guy's time and attention vs. even the slightest bottom-line gain?
I've come across a couple of success stories that might help sway even the most doubtful CFO.
GM's Lutz credits the blog -- a marketplace conversation -- with the development of the new Chevrolet Camaro concept car:
... the secret is finally confirmed: we introduced a Chevrolet Camaro concept car.
If I had a dime for every time I've read the word 'Camaro' in your comments on this blog in the past year, I could have financed the concept car out of my own pocket! And I would have! I like it that much.
If anything, it proves that we've been listening, to the rear-drive faithful, to the Camaro fanatics, and to those who say GM can't do anything exciting.
In another example, Go Daddy.com president and founder Bob Parsons is positively gleeful on his blog Hot Points following Super Bowl XL. After all the controversy surrounding Go Daddy's Super Bowl TV spot (It had to be reworked more than once after ABC initially rejected it.), the 30-second commercial drove record traffic to the Go Daddy site:
I'm proud to report that Go Daddy unquestionably had the very best ad in this year's Super Bowl and I've got the numbers to back it up.
In two days we've had an incremental 1.790 million visitors to GoDaddy.com!
On Super Bowl Sunday, visits to the Go Daddy website were up by 880,000 visitors more than normal. On the following day, Monday, visits continued to be strong and were also up by 910,000 visitors more than normal.
Parsons cites Akamai usage reports showing spikes after halftime and after the game represented visits to Go Daddy to the tune of 80% of that server's traffic. This after the commercial's first 13 submissions were rejected. And even then, the spot was panned by ad critics, who evidently didn't "quite get the fact that the purpose of these spots is to generate business," quips Parsons.
Is blogging -- CEO or otherwise -- worth it for any company? Results may not always be as easy to quantify as in the above examples. Gaping Void's Hugh McLeod explains that "blogging as a marketing tool is easier when you think of it as a chemical catalyst, not as a hammer and nail." He says that "by interfacing with the blogosphere, it fundamentally change[s] how [a company] look[s] at treating their ... customers and ... end-users."
But the final word comes from Lutz:
... So far, response has been outstanding ... To any senior executive on the fence about starting a corporate blog, I have a word of advice: Jump.
A freelance writer living in West Michigan, Kathleen Vandervelde's past lives include both corporate and agency employment. She keeps several blogs, two of which you could definitely let your mother read: Coit Avenue and Things I've Seen.
Blogging 101 publishes every Sunday and provides blogging tips, advice and tutorials for blog newbies and veterans alike.
Comments
you'd think that you'd have more to do
then sit here all the time
answering every post you see
with words said just for rhyme
THE CORPS ARE NOT JUST CREATING BLOGS:
The 'Hairy Eye' is watching YOU,
the Corp(s) are reading and listening,
AND they are WRITING too.
Posted by: Willy | February 20, 2006 8:32 PM