For PR execs hoping to build their brands by using the
blogosphere, let the buyer beware.
Last October, Mazda North America (Irvine, Calif.) posted
a "HalloweenM3" blog - containing only Mazda-made TV commercials -
that was blasted on various automotive- related blogs as having bad
form.
Mazda's Web posting, which was pulled offline after a few days,
was intended for younger, Internet-savvy consumers who are
increasingly difficult to reach via traditional media, yet several
bloggers posting notes on autoblog.com said the company had
steered itself in the wrong direction. "The profile indicates that
this guy is supposed to be my age (22), and yet he expresses
himself like a middle-teenager. This is cynical and offensive,"
wrote Michael Smith, for example. Another blogger said he would
have rather have seen the ads on an official Mazda site or on
TV.
Jeremy Barnes, product communications manager for Mazda North
America, says the posting was purely experimental and was supposed
to have a short shelf life. Still, Barnes says the negative
reactions to the blog provided Mazda with some valuable lessons
about online communications. "Absolutely did we learn things in
terms of how we work with Internet-based [marketing] agencies and
taking a careful look at the kind of information we post on the
Web," he says.
The Mazda episode points to the perils of marketing within the
blogosphere, which was unheard-of just two years ago and which now
is the electronic homestead for about 34 million blogs, or online
diaries, worldwide (see PR News, Feb. 16). Once considered
grist for Internet geeks, blogging has, in a very short period,
gone mainstream, altering the media landscape and the control of
corporate messaging.
Still, there's a lot of hype right now. "Blogging is this year's
Atkins diet," says Rick Murray, executive vice president/general
manager of Edelman Diversified Services, who along with
Cincinnati-based Intelliseek, which markets business
software, recently put together a white paper on the
blogosphere.
Although a shakeout is inevitable, but blogs are here to stay.
"They (blogs) are not going to replace Web sites, but will be just
one part of how companies grow their brands," Murray says.
Peter Debreceny, vice president of corporate relations at
Allstate Insurance Co. (and a VP at the Arthur W. Page
Society), adds that the media is now in full blog swoon.
"That's not to say [blogs] aren't important," he says. "It's
foolish for any PR person not to try and understand what's
happening to his company or clients, and a good PR executive is
ahead of new technologies, not behind them."
The white paper, "Trust MEdia: How Real People Are Finally Being
Heard," provides a sort of scratch sheet for PR execs and marketers
trying to make sense of the blogosphere.
It addresses, among other areas, the rules of engagement for the
blogosphere, the benefits and drawbacks of having a blog, and blog
segmentation. While budgeting for the blogosphere falls on a
company's market research department, PR execs are responsible
intellectually on how to take advantage of the medium.
Yet some observers say PR execs are well behind the curve. "The
world is changing, and I don't think communicators have woken up to
the fact about how much it's changing: what people watch, what they
read and when they read," says Andy Lark, a Los Gatos, Calif.-based
communications consultant and former head of communications and
marketing at Sun Microsystems who also runs his own blog,
http://andylark.blogs.com.
"The last 50 years of PR has been marked by transmitting
information, and the next 50 years of PR will be marked by the
ability among to engage in dialog and build communities."
Edelman's Murray says there are three steps to help PR execs
familiarize themselves with the blogosphere:
- Find out what people are saying about your company.
- Test your company's blog readiness in terms of how quickly it
can respond to either positive or negative messages on the
blogosphere. - In recruiting executives to create their own blogs, go for the
folks who ooze passion about the company's product and/or service
and avoid marketing types who may try and "shape" the message and
then get called on the carpet for it.
"Don't do a blog unless it fits within your overall
communications mix," Debreceny adds. "They can do more harm than
good if you don't abide by the unwritten rules of the medium."
The white paper on blogging is the first in a series on
word-of-mouth marketing. Next up: the nature of employee blogs and
how to more directly communicate with customers and other
stakeholders, including media reps. Wither the press release?
(To download a copy of the white paper, go to
http://www.edelman.com/image/insights/content/iswp_trustmedia_final.pdf.)
Contacts: Jeremy Barnes, 949.727.6844, [email protected]; Peter
Debreceny, 847.402.3111, [email protected]; Andy
Lark, 408.656.9446, [email protected]; Rick Murray,
312.240.2822, [email protected]
Blogs: A Glossary
Here's a brief lexicon of blog-related terms to help you
understand the blogosphere:
- Astroturfing: "Fake grassroots" that happens when an
agenda-driven organization, agency, think tank, government agency,
etc., pays people to say good things about it without revealing
they're getting paid. - Credentialed Blog: A Web log authored by a
"credentialed" member of the news media or analyst community. - Really Simple Syndication (RSS): The technology by which
blogs syndicate their posts throughout the Internet. - Vlog: Short for "video blog," a publishing platform for
the distribution of videos. - Wiki: An online page any viewer can edit.