Formal Blogs and Informal Blogs (or social media): What Look, Message and Style Fits You?

GE Aviation blog, slick design, corporate message, fits the image

The image of user contributed content, especially blogs (i.e. Blogger, Wordpress, TypePad, Tumblr) and social media sites (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube) as informal and not useful in slick corporate marketing is not exactly true. For the most part, this is just an image. Some would say outdated and simply not useful. Looking carefully on how different organizations use blog formats, reveals a more complex landscape. Blogs started out as an alternative (and easy to use) publication platform. Quickly, they became the alternative opposition-voice in many areas, especially politics, technology, finance, and medicine. Blogs such as The Huffington Post, Giga Om, Engaget, TechCrunch, The Motley Fool, and WebMD became popular sites quickly. With their edgy writing and sometimes “big brother - conspiracy busting” style, it seemed like the internet would become a realm of popular writing with democratic leanings. Yet this idea, did not reflect the whole potential of digital media in government, corporate, media (written, audio, and video), and creative fields. While the out of favor and non-mainstream writers were enjoying complete freedom to say their piece, the more traditional media and corporate world took a wait and see attitude towards internet publishing. The traditional media channels simply did not need the internet as much as the other voices. They were also waiting for more reliable and better designed (i.e. look and feel) capability. That landscape has changed radically. Today we see the most slick and corporate marketing communicators using the blog format in creative ways, without the outsider leanings. The same is true for social media sites, where mainstream marketing is taking hold in a big way.

User Contributed Content: Great for Marketers and Publishers

Focusing on a subject and letting users contribute: a great formula for marketers (c) 2011

Does every company need a dynamic digital communication channel? Is a blog, wiki, Facebook page, or Twitter stream crucial for business success? For many businesses, the marketing manager's answer is “definitely, absolutely”. Yet, it seems like for many other businesses, it's not that certain. Before you jump into a knee jerk reaction, and blurt out an quick answer, look around and examine your position. Two indicators are useful in answering these questions. The first is a survey of executives, marketers, and business professionals. Ask people you know and dig a little deeper than just a yes or no answers. See if you can get a marketing manager to explain how they use digital communication channels. The second method to determine the potential of digital communication is a survey of company web sites, blogs, and other digital channels. In any product or service category, we find companies which use and benefit from digital communication. We also find companies with superior products and services which lag behind the use of digital communication. In some cases, we can actually estimate [guess] the affect of more invested digital communication, or true professional execution. Fortunately, some work is clearly useful as examples. In many examples we can see good ideas and good use of digital communication.