Big in Japan

‘Loosely’ Joined is the Key

Another interesting installment of a good discussion over at Shel Israel’s Naked Conversations blog.  (Note:  we’re finishing up a read of Naked Conversations — the crackerjack business blogging book by Israel and Robert Scoble.  Much to talk about there.)  Shel has been having a conversation since the BlogOn conference about whether or not blogging integrates with other marketing tactics.  Shel says ‘no’ here, and here, and here. 

If blogging integrates, it does so with a company’s constituencies, not with the remainder of marketing tools. Marketing should use blogs because blogs communicate well in two directions. They don’t work well when the intent is to push out messages in one direction.  They don’t work well for companies that still don’t want to listen to customers.

This does not mean that company bloggers should not collaborate and/or cooperate with marketing and PR.

 
Others, like Evelyn Rodriguez, Steve Rubel, Dave Taylor and Todd Watson think absolutely that marketing outreach can include blogging.  The issue here is the way in which Shel is thinking of (capital I) Integrated Marketing.  If, as he suggests, that integration means generating a tight set of messages and pushing that same ‘campaign’ out through various channels (a la the Lincoln Fry blog), then, sure, that’s a dubious use of a blog.  Not really an attempt to generate dialogue, but simply a cheap posting tool in the hopes of creating the next ‘viral’ hoo ha.

If, instead, a blog or set of blogs is loosely joined (paging David Weinberger, you’re needed, David Weinberger) to other marketing programs, there is a huge chance for the blog to inform and shape those efforts in a more organic, powerful way.  Open sourcing the marketing.  Rather than getting corpspeak in my blog, what if we get blog dialogue into our marketing?   I don’t think you have to go whole hog (as Tara Hunt has done) and say ‘the marketing program is to blog‘.  (But if the buyout rumors are correct it seems to have worked for Riya.) 

Posted by admin | November 17, 2005 - 10:38am8 Comments
Category: Uncategorized | Tags: Corporate Blogging, Micromarketing, Social Media