The task last week, as you all know, was to create a blog WHICH YOU’RE READING....... thanks for that! The task on the discussion board for the class was to find interesting company blogs and talk about them. Well let me tell you this was easier said than done as companies that you except to have blogs don’t or they’re so well hidden that you can’t be bothered with the hassle of finding them!
So, once you’ve gone to all that hassle of finding a company’s blog, imagine being completely let down by the fact that most of them are really boring. Are companies using blogging to promote themselves in innovative ways? It didn’t look like it to me. Are companies just prattling on about their latest products or services? Yes they seem to be and do you know what? People you deserve more!
Blogs are surely supposed to be witty, engaging and most of all interesting. Clearly I have lots to learn but practice makes perfect!
Is it just me or do people really want to read all about new products in a blog in the same boring old way they’ve always done? Do some companies really think all that’s needed to be innovative is a blog? The only thing that’s innovative about it is that they’re selling their products in a new environment
.... woo!
It’s called the internet
.... double woo!
Aren’t they moving with the times!
Statistics show that there are over 130 million blogs worldwide and 1% of them are corporate (Technorati). So, in theory, companies have a massive opportunity to create their own blogs to gain or retain customers.
Why would we even look at a company blog? Because we’re nosey! Because we know that many company products are very much the same as everyone else and we want a reason to purchase from this particular one. The social interaction that you get face-to-face in a traditional shop is missing with the move to ecommerce. Maybe we just want to feel as if we know this person that’s taking our hard earned wonga.
Say for example that you were looking to buy a new television. Would you go and read about it in the company blog? I know I wouldn’t. I’d go and find a discussion forum and find out what other people who had bought the television said.
If it’s between 2 different companies for the same television at the same price what really is the difference? We know that it’ll work, we checked the forums. We know what the specifications are by reading the description. We know it looks lovely and shiny and comes in a big box but there are things we don't know.
We don’t know who designed it? Who built it? Where was it built? Who packaged it? Who will deliver it or any other relevant question that you can think of but possibly most importantly what are the company like to deal with? What is their culture and values? We are so nosey that we want to know what's it like to work there? What do the people inside the organisation really think of their job and their company? What is their job? Who are they and what do they do? It’s all very well them saying that they “have the customer at the core of the business” if in reality they think you are a complete fool who is not worth them spending their time on.
We are all human beings and we like to feel that we know the people we are dealing with. Personally I’m much more likely to return to a shop where I liked the person who served me even if I didn’t like the product. It might not be their fault.
When I went to a local travel agent, I bought a holiday and it was crap! It didn’t stop me going back to the same travel agent because I knew and liked the girl who served me. It wasn’t her fault that it rained the entire week. That we were stuck in the back end of beyond or that the only language spoken was Italian when I’m only fluent in English! I blame myself entirely because I could have got the exact same deal over the internet but I preferred to deal with someone I knew so companies have to latch on to that and tailor their blogs to make them more human.
Blogging could be used as a psychological tool to get customers to like your company over your rivals. They should be aiming for social interaction with the customer when they can’t reach them face-to-face so they still feel like it’s someone they know. It’s so easy! So why then, are so many of them getting it so wrong?
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