Liz Strauss.com

Blogging Is about Relationships

In this series, we’re putting context around the issues of trust and control that concern companies as they consider blogging.

Marketing wants to start a blog. Product thinks they should do one. Sales says it’s their territory. How do I choose a company blogger?

Backing up from the question, keep in mind that any blog can have more than one blogger. Look for the people skills that you look for in any customer-facing role.

• An ability to communicate authentically and responsibly with transparent respect for the audience.
• An active listener who is truly interested in the views and ideas of customers.
• Curiosity about the market you’re in and the people who are in all facets of that market.
• A bias toward helpful action, that stays clear of hypeful selling.
• A beginner’s mind that allows the blogger to say “I don’t know, but I’ll find out.”
• A strong sense of relationships and community.

It’s a good blog that centers around readers and ideas, rather than writing and products. Though we want our message clear and well presented, blogging is more about conversation than disseminating product information.

Information is all over the Internet. It’s the people that make the difference.

Liz Strauss
Put people back in business with Liz.

How Do I Safely Let My Employees Blog?

I think if you’re in a business where talking to your customers is important, blogging is a great way to do that. — Matt Mullenweg, WordCampDallas 2008

At the end of March, I had the honor of being part of the exceptional business blogging panel moderated by John Pozadzides. John brought up fabulous and important questions that businesses raise daily about blogging. In this series, I’ll take those questions and step back to apply them to the larger company culture.

Playing devil’s advocate John said, “I’m scared to let my employees’ blog.”

What a power-packed sentence! A blog is a tool. In this case, it’s a relative unknown, but is the blog the problem?

Look to the people. Isn’t the issue one of trust and control? The employer is concerned about what employees might write on the blog.

We let employees talk to customers daily — answering email, answering phone call, answering questions at exhibits, and answering letters at the office. We trust what they write on behalf of our company. We once worried in the same way about the telephone and email. Still today any of those customer conversations could be shared internationally or in a court of law.

It comes down to hiring and training employees who make good decisions.

If we trust our ability to choose the right employees and to let them know the values that we hold for our company and our customers, the question of whether we should let them blog falls away as an issue.

A blog is a powerful, customer-facing tool. Like a computer, it’s as strong as the people we choose to use it.

Liz Strauss
Liz puts the people back in business.

The Three Questions

I decided to put three questions on the back of my new business card under the heading, Tell Me Your Story.

They are these:

What do you do?

Why should I care?

How will it make my life easier, more meaningful, more fun?

Anything that doesn’t answer those three questions for your key customers is irrelevant.

Is your story relevant? They get to pick.

Liz Strauss
Find out about working with Liz.

People Aren’t Concrete

Whether Henry Ford actually said, “You can paint it any color, so long as it’s black,” it underscores Ford’s success at building for a mass market. He brought together an acceptable standard of quality, price, and reliability to sell 15,000,000 Model T automobiles.

It might seem that all we need to do is find our own “Model-T” and get it to the mass market. Some companies are trying to do that. The ones that are succeed understand that no product can serve a mass market in the 21st century.

If you’re marketing a Model-T — a single version product — in this century, here’s how to do it.

• Identify a clearly defined key customer group who buy for reliability and low-price point value.
• Study the products that this group currently buys to see the features those products have in common. Look beyond the features to the benefits that each feature offers.
• Within the key customer group, meet with the car mavens — folks who offer friends detailed advice on car buying — and customer evangelists for the products that the key group is currently buying.
• Build a product that includes all of the features that key customers value and none of those that they have no use for.
• Offer it at a competitive price that requires no negotiation.
• Provide fast delivery and excellent service.
• Make the product modification friendly. Allow consumers to personalize it. Offer mod kits and merchandise that let’s folks feel part of a club for owning the product.
• Take care with any new versions that you don’t revise out the value that developed the customer base that you’re enjoying.
• Consider a limited and temporary brick and mortar presence and a huge online selling model. A consistent product with a simple sales story works well in an online situation.

A single version product that fits its customers perfectly still has a place in the 21st century market.

Liz Strauss
Find out about working with Liz.