Dry Creek Garden Co., a Reno-based nursery specializing in native Northern Nevada flora, started blogging on its company Web site in June at the prompting of its webmaster. The blog’s daily postings, each with a photo, “primarily convey garden experiences,” said Nancy Strickland, the manager. Sample blog headlines are “Time to Harvest the Peas and Greens” and “The Day the Sun Stands Still.”
Like this garden center, Nevada businesses are employing ways to communicate with wide audiences, sometimes interactively, online. These methods include blogging and hosting webinars.
Blogging
Marnie Settle, president of Summit Creative, a Las Vegas-based marketing, branding and design firm, blogs on her company’s Web site and on her personal site, both of which are linked to one another. In her company blog she provides marketing tips, ideas and information. Topics have included eco-friendly packaging and company freebies.
“I like it because it’s timely and allows anyone to publish their thoughts or opinions.,” she said.
A blog, the contraction of “weblog,” is a type of web site usually maintained by one or more people, with routine entries displayed in reverse chronological order. Entries feature commentary, information, event notices, advice and other material such as photos, graphics or video. Blogging is the process of maintaining or adding content to a blog.
“It’s a communication tool to connect and have conversations with stakeholders. That’s how it’s different from other marketing tools,” said Judy Strauss, associate professor of marketing at the University of Nevada, Reno, and co-author of Radically Transparent, a book about monitoring and managing reputations online. “It’s about giving and sharing, not just about writing. You give, make it valuable and get back information.”
Why A Blog?
In addition to relaying information, companies blog to outside audiences to seek the public’s ideas; test new company concepts, products or plans; and show they’re technology savvy, Strauss said. Blogging to an internal audience is a way to inform employees about company news and/or promotions. Some businesses have a skeleton informational blog ready, which quickly can be deployed externally in the case of a crisis and then updated with information, statements, video and more.
“Blogging is a great tool for getting your company message and visibility out there to the public,” added Max Aceituno, CEO of MaximoMedia. “If your blog is interesting and updated, not only will it help promote the company, but it will help drive traffic to ongoing promotions, marketing ventures and ultimately to the company website,” he said.
For Twelve Horses, an online marketing and messaging company headquartered in Reno, corporate blogging communicates its brand, products, services, successes, insights and experiences, said David LaPlante, chief executive officer. It acknowledges other outstanding companies and individuals doing remarkable work. Most importantly, LaPlante said, blogging allows the company “to be part of the community, have a voice and join the conversation.” Twelve Horses has 12 staff members, including LaPlante, who post to the corporate blog and 20 who blog on personal sites.
Pros and Cons
Blogging helps build individual and company brands—their identity, story, mission and goals, Settle said. Blog content can get people thinking positively about and provide feedback on a brand.
“A two-way, sustained conversation via blogging is a cost-effective, persistent feedback mechanism of whether your brand resonates or not,” LaPlante said.
A critical component of a company or individual’s brand is trust, he added. Through blogging people can express their own and/or their company’s personality and build credibility, which allows readers of the blog to get to know them, decide whether or not they like them and develop trust for them.
Because anyone can respond to a business’ blog, it fosters company transparency and authenticity, Settle said. Web users may comment, positively or negatively, on a certain product or service, for example, and the company then can respond. Dishonesty is found out quickly in the blogosphere. For instance, if a person is blogging as though they’re the company CEO, it most likely will be discovered and revealed.
“What’s occurring in this marketplace by way of the social media is covers are being pulled off, rugs are being pulled back, skeletons are coming out,” LaPlante said.
When companies blog on their own site, they host the conversation so they know who’s talking about them and what they’re saying, and then can answer to comments, Strauss said.
“The more transparent, open and authentic you are on the blog, the more your followers and customers will trust you,” she added.
The main disadvantage to blogging is the time it takes to regularly think of and write new, creative posts, Strauss said. Blogs ideally should be updated a couple of times a week, once at the least, experts say.
“The point is to get a following and get people to come and make it a conversation, so more often is better, but that doesn’t pay off for everybody. You have to have something to say,” Strauss said.
Companies need to decide, she added, if blogging is the best communication mode for them. Other social media avenues—Facebook, Twitter and others—may better suit their goals and priorities.
Invest the Time
Only blog if you’re sure you can meet the blogging community’s expectations, LaPlante said. For instance, if your brand is controversial, be prepared to deal with the controversy online. Be sure you can maintain blogging’s quick pace. Otherwise, a company may seem uncaring and unresponsive.
“If you don’t have the time and resources available to do it right, I would suggest waiting to create and maintain a blog until you do,” says Aceituno
“This world is much more like an improv environment where it’s less important what you think than how you respond to what the audience thinks,” LaPlante added.
Before starting a company blog, determine its purpose, goal, tone, audience and distinctive offering, and ensure these match the image for your brand, Strauss advised. When setting up the blog, consider methods to optimize your ranking on Google search engine results.
Have one or more people dedicated to writing and posting content to the blog, Settle suggested. If nobody in-house can do it, hire an outside person who’s technologically knowledgeable and experienced to train or do it for you.
When looking for an in-house blogger, find one or more individuals in your company who are motivated, enjoy social networking, care and “live and breathe the brand,” LaPlante recommended.
The blogger should determine where their personal and company brands intersect and use that as a guide for many of their blog topics, LaPlante suggested. Don’t be afraid to share personal information and details.
“Like in life, business and the real world, the online world rewards interestingness,” he added. “Interesting people and people who live content-rich lives fare a little better.”
Change your view of competitors and how you interact with them, Strauss encouraged. Link to and share with them, then likely they’ll link to you.
If you’re hesitant about any aspect of blogging, try it only internally first, Strauss suggested. Once you feel comfortable with it, make it accessible to all Web users.
The Technology
Blog technology is inexpensive, flexible and easier to use than traditional, hard-coded web sites, said Dave Archer, chief executive officer of Nevada’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology (NCET), a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping Nevadans start and grow businesses, and connecting them to resources. Blog publishing tools, such as WordPress and Blogger, are free. Setup can be a bit challenging, he said, but once a blog is established, it’s easy to navigate and use.
“Literally I can put something new on the Web site in two to three minutes,” said Archer, who maintains more than one blog for NCET and updates them several times a day. “The more often we can send updates, the more valuable we are.”
Additional free applications, such as Windows Live Writer, used in conjunction with a publishing tool, make it easier to compose blog posts, Archer added.
A trend toward blog-powered web sites is taking place, Settle said. Blog technology allows people to easily create a Web site and change content on their home page. Also, because it involves more text and fewer graphics, and is designed for easy viewing and reading, blog-powered sites are more user friendly on smartphones.
“I think more companies should move to the blog-based web site,” Archer said. “If people really understood blog technology, more and more people would shift to it because of its ease of use and affordable.”
Blogging is here to stay, and the number of companies blogging is expected to grow. An estimated 96.6 million U.S. internet users will read a blog at least once per month in 2009, according to data from eMarketer, an internet market research company. That number is projected to jump to 128.2 million (58 percent of all U.S. users) by 2013.
“Companies not blogging could potentially lose out on some marketing opportunities,” Settle said.
Webinars
Webinars are seminars or conferences held on the internet. They can be one way with a speaker talking to an audience and limited interaction, or they can be collaborative with speaker-audience interface.
Typically, webinar attendees call a designated phone number to hear the presentation and log on to a specific Web site to simultaneously view the presented information. In some cases, webinars are conducted entirely over the internet.
To conduct a webinar, an online conferencing/meeting service is needed. Several exist (WebEx, GoToMeeting and Acrobat Connect Pro are some), each with different features. Companies can pay the service per use or subscribe for unlimited use for about $50 monthly.
Using The Tool
Alice Heiman, the president and chief sales officer of Alice Heiman LLC, a Reno-based firm that helps companies increase their sales, puts on at least one webinar each month, archiving them afterwards on her company web site for people to view subsequently. Typically 60 to 90 minutes long, her webinars all relate to sales and include topics such as networking, closing a deal and working a trade show. She prefers interactive versus one-way webinars—audiences for those generally are 15 people or less.
Heiman uses webinars, she said, to provide her sales content at a low cost to people she can’t reach because they aren’t local or can’t afford her one-on-one services.
Used externally, webinars are a way companies can educate, sell, demonstrate a product, provide a sampling of their service (such as research snippets) and train customers on using their product.
Webinars have applications within companies, too, such as holding meetings. Twelve Horses has used them for in-house training on topics such as e-mail marketing and web site design, LaPlante said. Webinars also have allowed the company to involve telecommuting employees in its corporate culture.
Online seminars and conferences eliminate travel and the associated time and costs involved. Other advantages are speed, efficiency and economy of scale, LaPlante said. Presenters can deliver, and audience members can participate in webinars from anywhere.
“Webinars are a way to engage people in disparate geographic locations and time zones through a scalable, much more cost effective means,” LaPlante said.
Companies can charge for their online seminars. The typical fee is about $79 for a 75-minute or $99 for a 90-minute webinar, Heiman said.
A drawback to webinars is the lack of in-person interaction and the related ability to gauge the audience’s reactions via body language and eye contact and adjust the presentation accordingly, LaPlante said.
Finding the right tools
Decide on your purpose for performing webinars. Then find other webinars with a similar goal and participate in those for ideas, Heiman said.
When choosing a web service, opt for a 10-day, free trial to determine if it will meet your needs, she added. Don’t purchase until you find the one that works best for you.
Always practice your webinar before delivering it in real time, LaPlante recommended. One way to do so is to hold internal company meetings as webinars.
Use “shorter, fast-paced, hard-hitting, interesting, story-based content” and more photos than text to keep people’s attention, he added.
The future of webinars is unclear. Webinars delivered to outside audiences are a fading trend, Settle said, soon to be replaced by video and real-time information because users want to tune in at their convenience rather than on a given date and time. LaPlante, however, believes Webinars are a permanent tool but will evolve.
“As the business world continues to connect and conduct its business online, video enhancement will make those meetings far more interactive and stimulating,” he said.
Social Networking Tools
Facebook (www.facebook.com): a free, social networking website in which users can join networks organized by city, workplace, school or region to connect and interact with others. Users also can update their personal profiles, and add friends and send them messages. A February 2009 Compete.com study ranked Facebook as the most used social network by worldwide monthly active users.
Twitter (www.twitter.com): a free, social networking and micro-blogging service that enables users to send and read others’ updates or “tweets,” text posts of up to 140 characters. Tweets are displayed on the author’s profile page and delivered to “followers” who’ve subscribed to them. Users can send and receive tweets via the Twitter site or other applications, such as cell phones. In February, Compete.com ranked Twitter as the third most used social network (after MySpace).
LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com): a business-oriented, social networking site used primarily for professional networking. Registered users can maintain a profile and a list of contact details of people they know and trust in business (connections). Connections can be used to get introduced to someone you’d like to meet through a trusted contact, and to find jobs, people and business opportunities recommended by someone. Employers can list jobs and search for potential candidates. Job seekers can find contacts to introduce them to hiring managers.
