Transcript Chapter 4 - SCC Porter

Principles of Internet
Marketing
Chapter 4
Blogging
Objectives
In this chapter you will learn about:
• Blogging and common elements of a blog site
• The growth of blogging
• Types of blogs and how they differ from each other
• The demographics of the blogging community and
why people blog
• The benefits and potential pitfalls of using blogging
as part of a marketing plan and the requirements
for a successful marketing blog
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What Is Blogging?
• Blogging is online equivalent to writing in physical
journal
– News
– Thoughts
– Daily events
• Important differences between blogs and journals
– Journals are private, while blogs are public
– Reader can leave their own comments on blogs
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What Is Blogging? (continued)
• Blogs are usually focused on particular theme that
ties together all entries
– Most current addition usually located at top of blog
• Encourage social networking because they invite
readers to participate in conversation
– Leave comments about blog posts
– Leave comments in response to other comments
• Most blogs are text based, but can include images,
videos, audio files, or downloadable presentations
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What Is Blogging? (continued)
• Most blog sites contain many of the similar
elements, including:
–
–
–
–
–
Blog title
One or more posts (editorial content)
Comments left from readers on each post
Access to archived entries
Blogroll
• List of links to other blog sites that the editor thinks the
reader would find to relevant
– Tags for each entry so that they can found easily
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What Is Blogging? (continued)
Figure 4-1: A typical
blog site with key
elements labeled
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The Growth of Blogs
• Term ‘blogosphere’ refers to immense network of
blogs on Web
• Blogs are becoming increasingly important source
for news
– Many blogs rank among top most visited sites for
news and information
• Growth and popularity of blogs continues to grow
– By December, 2007, 112,000,000 blogs existed
– 120,000 new blogs created every day
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The Growth of Blogs (continued)
Figure 4-2: Blog growth chart from March, 2003 to March 2007
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Types of Blogs
• Personal blogs
– Maintained by individuals
– Typically record events from their day-to-day lives
•
•
•
•
Adventures in dating
Current events
Family news
Travel and vacation updates
– Don’t usually expect to gather large audience
• Written for small community of people they know
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Types of Blogs (continued)
Figure 4-3: A personal blog set up to chronicle
the writers dating experiences
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Types of Blogs (continued)
• Media blogs
– Closely related to news and current events
– Similar to opt-ed columns in major newspapers
– Often run by journalists on mainstream media blog or
personal blog in order to give their own commentary
on current news
• Other media blogs are run by individuals who are not
professional journalists, but want to express their
opinions on current events
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Types of Blogs (continued)
• Business blogs
– Run by companies or industry organizations
– Provide:
• Industry insight
• Advice
• Updates
– Establish company as industry thought leader or
expert
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Types of Blogs (continued)
• Blog search engines
– Help organize blogosphere
– Aren’t blogs themselves
– Tool to help categorize blog sites and posts they’re
looking for
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Types of Blogs (continued)
Figure 4-4: Technorati is a popular search engine that scours the
blogosphere for content
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Types of Blogs (continued)
• Microblogs
– Shorter, snappier posts
– Typically only a line or two
– Meant to provide a quick glimpse into what the
blogger is doing at that moment
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Types of Blogs (continued)
Figure 4-5: Twitter is a popular microblogging site
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Types of Blogs (continued)
• Flogs
– Fake blogs
– Set up as a marketing gimmick to help promote a
product or support an ad campaign
• Paid blogs
– Blogs that appear to be real, but are actually paid for
by a company
• Often without disclosing that content is paid
endorsement
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Types of Blogs (continued)
• Splogs
– Spam-based blogs that don’t post unique content, but
pull in headlines from other sites in order to drive
traffic and generate revenue through pay-per-click
advertising
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Who Blogs, Who Reads Them, How,
and Why
• Blogs have grown in popularity due to increased
hunger for information as well as opportunity for
self-expression
• 54% of all bloggers have never been published
elsewhere
– An indication that these people have willingness to
express themselves, but have not had the outlet
• Demographically, there is an even split of bloggers
between male and female, but bloggers skew
younger
• Numerous reasons why people blog
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Who Blogs, Who Reads Them, How,
and Why (continued)
Reason People Blog
Major Reason
Minor Reason
Not a Reason
Creative expression
52%
25%
23%
Document a nd share personal 50%
experiences
26%
24%
Stay i n touch with f riends and
family
37%
22%
40%
Share knowledge or skills wi th 34%
others
30%
35%
Motivate others to action
29%
32%
38%
Entertain people
28%
33%
39%
Store important information
28%
21%
52%
Inf luence the opinions of
others
27%
24%
49%
Network and meet new
people
16%
34%
50%
Generate direct income
7%
8%
85%
Table 4-1: Reasons why people blog
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Who Blogs, Who Reads Them, How,
and Why (continued)
• Bloggers are their own demographic, and their
behavior can vary substantially from other Internet
users
• 95% of all bloggers look for online for news
• 47% of all bloggers get their news from
blogosphere itself
• Blogging goes hand-in-hand with current events
– Bloggers more apt to post during times when
significant national and world events take place
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Who Blogs, Who Reads Them, How
and Why (continued)
Actions Taken
Bloggers
All Inter net Users
Get news from the Inte rnet
95%
73%
Share personal artwork, photos
stories or videos online
77%
26%
Go online fo r news and info on
politics
72%
58%
Go online several times a day f rom
home
64%
27%
Get news from e-mail newsletters
55%
29%
Get news from a blog
47%
9%
Table 4-2: Ways that blogger behavior differs from other Internet users
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Who Blogs, Who Reads Them, How,
and Why (continued)
Figure 4-7: Number of blog entries typically spikes during important news
and current events
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Blogging as a Marketing Strategy
• Benefits to marketers:
– Inexpensive and easy to get started
• Does not require highly coordinated effort
• Only real time commitment is the time it takes to
create content
• Blogs can be completely free through various online
sources
• Little to no programming knowledge necessary
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Blogging as a Marketing Strategy
(continued)
• Benefits to marketers (continued):
– Helps establish more human voice
• Most companies speak to audience through carefully
written, but hardly conversational, material
– Brochures and sell sheets
– Print, TV and radio advertising
• Gives opportunity to break from conventional
marketing language and speak more directly and
informally, humanizing brand
• Helps create stronger emotional connection with
consumers
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Blogging as a Marketing Strategy
(continued)
• Benefits to marketers (continued):
– Helps increase credibility
• Gives consumers a chance to speak their minds about
companies and their products through comments
• Allowing negative comments can improve credibility—
—especially if the company accepts critiques and
works to improve
– Consumers know that claims made in ads are
written by marketers, so consumer are skeptical
– Allowing negative comments increases trust level
• Corporate blogs inform rather than sell
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Blogging as a Marketing Strategy
(continued)
• Benefits to marketers (continued):
– Can support marketing campaigns
• Facilitate open and honest discussion about subject
matter at the heart of campaign
• Large-scale campaigns often have a significant Web
component at center
– Blogs further promote campaign
– Gauge consumer sentiment about campaign
• Fictional characters used in campaign can blog as
part of an ongoing marketing effort
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Blogging as a Marketing Strategy
(continued)
Figure 4-8: The Banker character in the game show Deal or No Deal
maintains his own blog in the same tone as his character on the show
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Blogging as a Marketing Strategy
(continued)
• Benefits to marketers (continued):
– Improve customer service
• Based on comments through blogs, companies have a
better, more immediate idea of negative consumer
perception
– Can use blogs to let consumers know that
changes are being made
• Cost-effective
– Can help companies expand their message and find
new audiences
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Blogging as a Marketing Strategy
(continued)
• Benefits for marketers to stay involved in
blogosphere:
– Sensing pulse of market
• A study of various blogs comments left will give
companies sense of what is popular and what isn’t
• Emerging trends
• How markets are adapting to industry changes
• How consumers feel about their products
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Blogging as a Marketing Strategy
(continued)
• Benefits for marketers to stay involved in
blogosphere: (continued)
– Increased visibility
• Savvy marketers will post comments on other
appropriate blogs to provide their company’s viewpoint
• Subtle but effective means of heightening awareness
• Marketers comments on other blogs should be
opinion-based and not blatant sales pitches
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Blogging as a Marketing Strategy
(continued)
• Benefits for marketers to stay involved in
blogosphere: (continued)
– Increased web and blog traffic
• Playing an active roll in the blogosphere can help
drive traffic back to the marketers site through
increased visibility
• Comments can often include links back to the
marketers site
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Blogging as a Marketing Strategy
(continued)
• Marketing blogging pitfalls:
– Lying
• People see blogs as an honest expression of opinions
and experience
– They may strongly disagree with stated opinions,
but they need to believe those opinions are honest
• Blatant lying (such as creating a fake blog that gives
positive reviews to the marketer’s products), will cause
consumers to lose their trust in those companies
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Blogging as a Marketing Strategy
(continued)
• Marketing blogging pitfalls (continued):
– Substandard execution
• Although blogs are meant to be more conversational,
marketers still need to ensure the quality of their
blogs.
• Substandard execution, including the following, can be
damaging:
– Publishing a blog that rarely or randomly updated
» Company blogs should be published regularly
– Poorly policing blog and not removing spam
– Presenting poorly developed content that runs
counter to the beliefs and promises of the
company
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Blogging as a Marketing Strategy
(continued)
• Marketing blogging pitfalls (continued):
– Longevity
• Deleting blog post does not necessarily mean blog
won’t exist anyplace
• Once it’s in blogosphere, entries may exist forever
• A controversial topic could come back to haunt a
company in the future
• Marketers should make sure that all posts they write
on their blog, or comments they leave on other blogs,
position their company in a positive light
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Blogging as a Marketing Strategy
(continued)
• Marketing blogging pitfalls (continued):
– Representation
• Whoever writes a corporate blog becomes voice for
company
• Any opinions expressed will be seen by readers as
official position of the brand
• Companies need to set official policies regarding how
employees blog about the company outside of work
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Blogging as a Marketing Strategy
(continued)
• To make a marketing blog successful:
– Update content regularly
• Blogging requires dedication
• New content need to be added on a regular basis
– Maintain a friendly but brand oriented voice
• Blogs should remain conversations, friendly, and
informal
– The more casual style can’t be at the expense of
competing with company image
• Tone of voice can’t run contrary to consumer
expectation of voice (Lexus vs. VW, for example)
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Blogging as a Marketing Strategy
(continued)
• To make a marketing blog successful: (continued)
– Keep content relevant
• Readers will come to corporate blogs because they
are interested in specific brands
• Blog posts need to be relevant to the reasons why
consumers are visiting
– Don’t ghost-write blog posts
• Blogs are meant to be more personal
• Stated author should be person doing the writing
• Ghost-written blogs could lead to reader mistrust
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Blogging as a Marketing Strategy
(continued)
• To make a marketing blog successful: (continued)
– Don’t sell
• Corporate blogs should be for information
• Allow visitors to see the company as a thought leader
• Overselling will cause a negative reader reaction
– Don’t be too quick to delete
• Blog should act as a public forum where readers can
comment on each post
• Don’t limit comments to positive feedback only by
deleting negative feedback
• Leaving negative comments increases integrity
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Summary
• Blogging is a method of maintaining an online
journal
• Blogs encourage social networking by inviting
people to read posts and contribute their own ideas
• Blogs have grown significantly
– Increasingly seen a primary source for information
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Summary (continued)
• Many types and reasons for blogs exist
– Personal
– Media (news)
– Marketing
• Blogs are evenly split in popularity between male
and female, but in terms of age are dominated by
younger users
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Summary (continued)
• Bloggers write for many reasons, including:
– Creative expression
– Journalistic endeavors
• Blogging can be an effective tool for marketers
–
–
–
–
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Customer service
Campaign support
Increasing traffic to primary site
Improving overall credibility
Gathering info on how consumers view their brands
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