Unfinished play for corporate blog
A couple of weeks ago, on Habré, I ran through the post “ Your company (does not) need sociality, ” the author of which walked hard on corporate blogs, corporate twitter and other corporate groups in social networks. The summary of the post is something like this: the east is a delicate matter. Before you start a corporate blog, ask yourself the question - why do you need it? And if the answer is not obvious to you, immediately drop the case.
Worldwide statistics confirm the author’s skepticism - a year ago, the Wall Street Journal published the results of a study entitled "Most corporate blogs are errors caused by a lack of imagination." In numbers: 56% publish press releases and outdated news, 70% focus on topics of their own business, 74% practically do not comment. As a result, 53% of companies believe that blogging had no effect on their marketing (I give a link to the repost, because the WSJ page went down before the habra effect).
And if you dig in the direction of high-tech companies? They would seem, and cards in hand! Unfortunately, the situation here is no better: a rare bird will fly to the middle of the top. This means that marketers did find the answer to the question “why” ... And they could not answer the question “how”. Or did not bother with this issue at all. For the past year and a half, I have been closely involved in the corporate blog of a very well-known company. Guess what? :) I can assure you that the answer to the “how” question is not as simple as it seems. The story continues under habrakat.
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Long ago, in 2006, in one of the divisions of Intel, namely in the Software & Services Group (SSG), it was decided to launch a blog dedicated to software. (At the risk of sounding a bore, just in case, I’ll tell you: in addition to iron, Intel releases some tools for software developers, including compilers, all sorts of libraries and profilers. So all this software is done in SSG). The answer to the question “why” was obvious - to break the image of a 100% hardware company and start talking about Intel as a software manufacturer. And about a year later, a Russian-language counterpart was launched, the promotion of which I do. Here it is: www.intel.ru/software/blogs
Why do I need this? No, really - why Intel needs this is more or less clear. But why do I personally need to throw my own team of engineers and throw in marketing? You will laugh. Do you know the term “product marketing engineer”? Yes, yes, these are such nice guys who drive VIP customers and write product requirements with their words. And programmers then fulfill these requirements. Surprised, but perform. Unless of course the requirements suddenly change in the middle of the development cycle, which also happens. Robert Block gave a very good definition of product marketers - “surrogate users”. So, my naive plans included giving each engineer a blog and a drum around his neck, so that he could ask potential users what feature they needed. Without a surrogate. Already laughing? Okay, let's go further.
What to write about was seemingly understandable, there are many products. There was an open question - to whom to write? The first thing that comes to mind is, of course, technical support engineers. They can tell enough successful stories and have serious work experience. There remains a little problem: support engineers are very busy people. In addition, they are accustomed to communicate in terms of "problem-solution", and can not always "ignite" the public.
Another closest category is marketing specialists. These can write ... Press releases. And we don’t need such hockey. Who is left? That's right, the most common software engineers. And it was with them that the biggest catch was waiting for me. I found out…
I must note that all these concerns are not unfounded. Can you imagine how much time a typical programmer needs to post on one screen? Especially if this is his first post? Two days, no less. And then something like this can begin (by the way, good practice of live English).
There was one more category of people who put the question squarely: if I write a blog, how many people will read it? The eternal problem: nobody writes - nobody reads. Nobody reads - no one writes. Fairly, no one wants to write for the sake of the process ...
Talk about the success of the blog Intel Software Network early. But here are a few steps that helped to get this almost hopeless business off the ground. If someone has experience in the promotion of corporate blogs - share! I, in turn, is ready to share my.
What came of all this can be found here .
Good luck to all!
Worldwide statistics confirm the author’s skepticism - a year ago, the Wall Street Journal published the results of a study entitled "Most corporate blogs are errors caused by a lack of imagination." In numbers: 56% publish press releases and outdated news, 70% focus on topics of their own business, 74% practically do not comment. As a result, 53% of companies believe that blogging had no effect on their marketing (I give a link to the repost, because the WSJ page went down before the habra effect).
And if you dig in the direction of high-tech companies? They would seem, and cards in hand! Unfortunately, the situation here is no better: a rare bird will fly to the middle of the top. This means that marketers did find the answer to the question “why” ... And they could not answer the question “how”. Or did not bother with this issue at all. For the past year and a half, I have been closely involved in the corporate blog of a very well-known company. Guess what? :) I can assure you that the answer to the “how” question is not as simple as it seems. The story continues under habrakat.
')
Background - a corporate blog as a means of dealing with surrogate users.
Long ago, in 2006, in one of the divisions of Intel, namely in the Software & Services Group (SSG), it was decided to launch a blog dedicated to software. (At the risk of sounding a bore, just in case, I’ll tell you: in addition to iron, Intel releases some tools for software developers, including compilers, all sorts of libraries and profilers. So all this software is done in SSG). The answer to the question “why” was obvious - to break the image of a 100% hardware company and start talking about Intel as a software manufacturer. And about a year later, a Russian-language counterpart was launched, the promotion of which I do. Here it is: www.intel.ru/software/blogs
Why do I need this? No, really - why Intel needs this is more or less clear. But why do I personally need to throw my own team of engineers and throw in marketing? You will laugh. Do you know the term “product marketing engineer”? Yes, yes, these are such nice guys who drive VIP customers and write product requirements with their words. And programmers then fulfill these requirements. Surprised, but perform. Unless of course the requirements suddenly change in the middle of the development cycle, which also happens. Robert Block gave a very good definition of product marketers - “surrogate users”. So, my naive plans included giving each engineer a blog and a drum around his neck, so that he could ask potential users what feature they needed. Without a surrogate. Already laughing? Okay, let's go further.
Author!
What to write about was seemingly understandable, there are many products. There was an open question - to whom to write? The first thing that comes to mind is, of course, technical support engineers. They can tell enough successful stories and have serious work experience. There remains a little problem: support engineers are very busy people. In addition, they are accustomed to communicate in terms of "problem-solution", and can not always "ignite" the public.
Another closest category is marketing specialists. These can write ... Press releases. And we don’t need such hockey. Who is left? That's right, the most common software engineers. And it was with them that the biggest catch was waiting for me. I found out…
10 reasons why a developer will not write in a corporate blog:
- I have a release, I have no time
- I don't know what to write about
- I am not a writer, I know C ++, but I don’t really work in Russian
- real cool programmers don't read blogs or write. MSDN taxis.
- I already have a LiveJournal (blogspot, my website), why do I need a corporate blog?
- what if I write something wrong, and the bosses will punish me?
- if you write about what you do not punish, readers will laugh
- my boss thinks blogs are not serious
- Suppose I write, and then who will respond to the comments?
I must note that all these concerns are not unfounded. Can you imagine how much time a typical programmer needs to post on one screen? Especially if this is his first post? Two days, no less. And then something like this can begin (by the way, good practice of live English).
Hope dies last, or “Give Us The Money, Lebowski!”
There was one more category of people who put the question squarely: if I write a blog, how many people will read it? The eternal problem: nobody writes - nobody reads. Nobody reads - no one writes. Fairly, no one wants to write for the sake of the process ...
Tips & Tricks - what it costs to start a corporate blog.
Talk about the success of the blog Intel Software Network early. But here are a few steps that helped to get this almost hopeless business off the ground. If someone has experience in the promotion of corporate blogs - share! I, in turn, is ready to share my.
- tune in to slow, gradual growth. It is available to tell your superiors that it’s unrealistic to get a return in 2-3 months.
- work individually with each of the authors, up to the joint writing of the first few posts
- look for people who have experience LJ and creative inclinations
- attract young people as the most socially active
- launch some kind of reward program (for example, award diplomas to distinguished authors at general meetings)
- regularly attend meetings of big bosses and methodically suggest the idea that a blog is a very useful thing for their product
- collaborate with an experienced blogger or journalist. It will help solve the problem of "chicken and eggs".
- limit pro-marketing posts to a minimum. This discourages readers.
- publish internal "How to" and "FAQ"
- Well, of course, always, always respond to comments. Even if they are not very pleasant.
What came of all this can be found here .
Good luck to all!
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/64563/
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