To kick off discussion on the use of blogs for business and/or professional purposes, I would like to characterize Doc’s Blog on those terms. Although my initial intention was to use this blog for promoting discussion on the broad topic of innovation (my principal research interest as an academic), I soon realized how useful the blog journaling and discussion could be for my e-learning and IT consulting business as well.
There – I said it. Blogs are inherently promotional – and can even be shamelessly self-promotional (SSP). Through the intrinsic push and pull of feeds, tracebacks, and links that are the stuff of an empowering “syndication” technology, blogs get your ideas out “there” and bring other people and their ideas “here.”
While it’s true that many blogs are created purely for social reasons and just plain fun, just as many seem to have some professional or business purposes – whether or not those are prominently stated.
With their ease of use and syndication technology, blogs seem ideal for many business and professional purposes: from marketing, customer support, and training to online resumes and self-contained professional Web sites. That brings me to my questions at this point.
How do you see blogs being used for business?
In what business or professional context would/do you use blogs?
Are there some business or professional activities for which blogs are not appropriate?
I welcome your answers to these questions and your ideas on this broad topic area,
Doc
While I agree that blogs can be a useful tool for SSP and other business activities, the universal problem every web-based offering must contend with is exposure. How do we get people to visit our blog and once we’ve overcome that hurdle (if we can), how do we get them to stay awhile, possibly contribute and just as important, return for more in the future?
Creating a profile elsewhere (e.g. technorati.com) and using trackbacks and permalinks that can be searched and submitted to search engines helps, but is it enough to create the critical mass you need to have a “successful” blog – one that’s more than simply a personal journal?
And my last comment begs another question – what’s your definition of a “successful” blog?
Have a peek at bloglines.com and build a list of your favorite blogs. Then take good look to see what they all have in common that made you visit in the first place…and come back again and again.
That should help answer a few of the questions here, for sure.
Thanks Gene, for your thoughtful response – especially your generative questions and suggestions.
You are right, the bottom line in a business use of a blog is determining the measure of success and how are you achieving it (or not).
Investigating and determing those objectives (from a user perspective) early in its design and development can make for a sound information architecture.
It seems to me that ultimately achieving those goals in terms of readership or interactivity with innovations like a business blog also takes a lot of technical know-how, creativity, and good-will.
On another related note, I am thinking of one (business) use of a blog at this point as a channel for the kind of user research that is associated with the information architecture process (where user experience and insights are the guiding force in design), but much more informally.
What are your thoughts on the blog as an information gathering tool for improving the user experience on a Web site (or the blog itself)?
To your last question, I have always hated sites that solicit for your opinion in the form of an email. You never know if its received and generally you don’t get acknowledgements to your message. So I think that a blog is a much better way to solicit feedback. Because as a user you do receive acknowledgement to your input. Also, this reduces the duplication of feedback, because others can read the currently posted comments to see if their opinion has already been expressed. I think that if a host of an information gathering blog is going gather input, then at its conclusion, feedback should be given as to how the information was used to ulitmately improve the website. This would give the participants the sense of ownership and value for the improvements made.
As far as determining the success of a blog site, it is tough and fairly subjective. I think that within a business, a blog interaction could be very useful but it must have a specific goal/focus and clearly be understood when that goals has been achieved. So that a new subject could be introduced to keep the dialog in motion. Also, another mark of a successful blog is the level of interaction or dialog. If the dialog is slow and does not compell people to participate than the effort can be lost.
Thanks for your helpful reply, Sina. For the reasons you state, I agree about the potential advantage of a blog over email or even discussion board interaction for many business communications, especially those that solicit feedback.
There are differences in the “affordances” of each of these examples of asynchronous online communications, so it may be a matter of using them differentially, e.g., email for private 1-1 communications, a members-only discussion board for a wide range of business support issues, and a blog for more public discussion and timely announcements.
That is really another thread in this topic area: how do you see the differential use of online software applications like blogs, discussion boards, email, etc. in the context of various business objectives?
In my mind, one of these “matches” between online software and business objectives could be the use of blogs for a wide(r) public dialog in gathering user preferences (human factors, information architecture, etc.) for the (on-going) design of a business product or service like a Web site.
In regards to your last paragraph discussing “matches” between online software and business objectives, I think blogs are a very effective method of gaining valuable user insight to continually develop a product or service offered through an e-commerce channel. When I visit certain sights that contain blogs, I often read through them just to get an idea of how others responded to certain products and services. On a user end, it can be helpful in that it provides valuable feedback before you make a purchase thus influencing your purchase. On the business end, it can better focus business objectives to always meet the needs of the users. Information can be very powerful depending on how it is used and structured. In terms of blogs it can be powerful for both the end user and the business.
Great point, Romona! The collective consensus that develops when users can provide evaluations can be quite convincing for prospective e-commerce customers. And that power of consensus is met by the extreme ease of use and syndicating properties of a blog to disseminate that opinion.
I wonder how businesses deal with moderating or otherwise controling blogs when that consensus turns toward the negative?
This is my first exposure to Blogs. I have avoided them, because I did not understand them. It is apparent that Blogs have made the Internet truly interactive.
Doc – As Romona points out, reading through a blog can help convey what the site is about and can give important insight into its’ purpose. I think it is o.k. to have honest feedback that may be critical…isn’t the purpose of most blogs to solicit a realm of ideas and perspectives? Yet, businesses should expect a degree of professionalism from participants.
Your blog gives you (the owner and the person, therefore, accountable for what is published) the option to review comments before they are available to the general audience. Of course, this power to screen what goes on could be used so that only one view is shared (yours!). It is important to have e-integrity and stay true to your purpose.
Doc,
Blogs seem appropriate for discussion of business topics within a profession. The sharing of ideas is important to any business topic as long as trade secrets, etc are not revealed.
If a blog is prooffered as a forum for ideas, it is not an appropriate place for SSP. A discrete ad may be permissable, but constant pop-ups or pushes would not seem reasonable. This could be a major reason for professionals to not access the blog more than one time.
Let’s imagine a blog is set up to address business taxation issues. This is a good place for businessmen to discuss suggestions for change to the tax code. A link from this blog to http://www.walmart.com in order for the owner of the blog to try to gather money from sales would not be appropriate. A link to selling a tax tip pamphlet would be appropriate.
I believe tat blogs can be used for business interactions with prospective customers and even existing customers. Blogs provide prospective customers the ability to anonymously request information and ask questions without be burdened by sales visits, telephone calls, etc. For existing customers, blogs offer the ability to paste examples of problems into the blog for business review and response.
Just about any business can benefit from blogs. For example, I work in a petroleum refinery and believe blogs can be very handy for me and my counterparts to post questions and answers. By using blogs to find the answers to our questions, all of my counterparts will have the ability to review the questions and answers which will result in all of us learning and better understanding the hurdles that each encounters. We may possibly also learn answers to problems we have at our facilities based on another facililities questions.
Businesses and activities that require confidentiality should refrain from using blogs to post such information.
Thanks Kurt, Catt, Don, and Lynn for your comments.
As you can read in my welcome post in this blog, I shared your status (Kurt) until I learned more about blogging at an online conference from Jill Walker. Check out her blog for more ideas at http://jilltxt.net/
I agree in principle with Catt’s point on moderation, I believe that some control over content is a necessity – see details in my blog entry, the specter of moderation:
https://programhouse.com/wordpress/?p=5
Don’s point about drawing clear(er) lines of distinction between SSP and supporting ideas is well taken, but consider how reference to that company as an example, is itself (unintended) promotion. I think it is hard to eliminate some type of promotion from discussion – and for e-businesses it is a compelling reason to blog.
As for Lynn’s concern about confidentiality, consider that blog software such as WordPress can be supported on an internal and secure LAN (i.e., intranet) as well as it can work on the Internet.
Blogs are a new topic for me and posting to one is definately a new experience. Following the information out on this blog really allows me to understand what it is all about and what a blog can be used for. Hopefully this experience will lead me to participating in future blogs!
I must admit, Doc, this is my first time ever responding to a blog. Although I have read them many times, for the fun of it, these they can be used for businesses to promote their products and receive positive or negative feedback from potential customers. I believe that people are must more expressive when they can write something instead of speaking. I will now see how I can pay more attention to business blogs and learn more about products before purchasing. Thanks for this website!
Thanks Leah and Pamela for trying out this blog as your first blog interaction (posting comments) as well as your words of support. I hope you will return and share more comments on other topics here. If you try a blog (RSS feed) Web-based reading service like Google offers or reader client software (like Active Web Reader) – both are free – you can use the RSS feed links at the bottom of any of my blog pages to get the latest entries and comments posted here (without having to check this site).
I have no experience with blogs. I have heard of a blog before, but never really knew what the meaning of a blog was. I think they are useful in getting the publics ideas and suggestions for new and improved ways. Any product can be improved with more ideas from a diverse group of people. I would think a blog would be similar to a survey in some ways. I think more people would be apt to reply to a blog if it was of interest to them. If the topic is not interesting, it would be a waste of time, unless a creative way to draw viewers brought them to the blog.
Turn the blog into a game might be an example or offer rewards for best ideas, or even simple coupons for select reasons and rewards.
I replied to this blog to see how it worked. I think blogs could be useful for business purposes. People will reply with their likes and dislikes of a product enabling the manufacturer to perfect their product or service.
I think it would be distasteful to target children with blogs because they are not always held responsible for their actions and choices.
I would find it improper to have blogs that related to porn or other adult material type issues.
I don’t think it would be in anyone’s best interest to use a blog to banter over a court case.
Hi MickiAnn,
Thanks for trying out by posting a comment in reply to this blog entry on business use for blogs. Your ideas are food for thought and they give me some ideas for experimenting with blogs here. I especially like the idea of a blog entry with a game-like approach and the notion of blogs for business using coupons and rewards for incentives.
I read the latest entries. I like the game idea. I think you could use a traditional game, like chess or something, as a training tool, couldn’t you? Although I’m not savvy enough to figure out how to get the game in here.
Hi Edie,
I take MickiAnn’s suggestion for using a game-like approach as akin to a text-based adventure game for exploiting the text response nature of a blog.
For example, instead of posting a question or a suggestion for ideas (as I am doing so far), I could present a scenario for a business based problem for which visitors could post comments to move step by step toward a practical solution.
That problem or challenge might be finding an important piece of information buried within the Web site (about a business product or service). In doing so, whoever identifies its location could be the winner (and receive a reward). The”game” could draw attention to a business product or service that needed promotion.
That method would combine both features that MickiAnn suggested to make a blog more engaging. It also could be a way to get user feedback on a site that could improve the site (which would be an example of using blogs for user research – see my other blog category on blogs for user research).
Anyone have other ideas for incorporating a game-like approach with a business blog using the existing features of blog software?
When you talk about finding an important piece of info in the website, are you referring to this website? Your blog? you know what might be fun is if you found a relatively obscure website and posted clues and the first person who identified the website won “the game”. We would need to develop some interactive sharing of info though, to really utilize the blog aspect. Hmmm.
I don’t know if anything would prompt more response to aa blog unless it’s just a conversation that people are interested in. (Though I heard a hysterical review of the new Pirates movie by an audio Ninja blog.)
Yahoo has a question and answer site where people log in and answer questions posed by other people. There is some sort of contest in which the best answerer will win a prize. Some man, who spends about 8 hours a day answering questions and always gives reference and polite answers seems to be headed for a win. That’s motivation, I guess.
Cindy Shnaider
Thanks Edie and Cindylu for sharing your great ideas about using a game-like approach to promote customer interaction with a blog (and its related e-biz Web site).
And yes Edie, the “hidden” information might be within a blog or its related Web site (after all, they are both on the Web), but a link to a Web page can offer more diverse media (images, video, sound) than the more text-laden blog, so that’s why I extended the adventuring area of the game out beyond the blog.
I also love the idea of Q&A between blog entries and comments from Cindylu, especially if that is done in a game-like approach (with rewards for the right or best answer, etc.).
Okay! I get it now. Had to read this over and over again. In the Healthcare Industry we do utilize BLOGS and I would assume they can be generated in any webpage. I have a site that I go to and different orthopedic groups ask questions for help in certain situations within their practice. For example, they need feedback or information from other practices on digital x-ray machines and who they purchased it from. Am I correct in assuming this with BLOGS. It is a great networking tool to network with other ortho practices throughout the U.S. It is great for marketing, networking, as I stated earlier feedback from other other groups on certain issues. I see blogs being the way of the future as I am utilizing it myself, I believe every business will utililze it even the health care industry. Some healthcare facilities may hesitate being that they may be violating HIPAA if they discuss a patient. That is probably where it would be inappropriate to utilize a blog in the healthcare industry is obtaining feedback and information on patients, etc… I hope I am on track with this! Any feedback is welcome!
Thanks Lisa for providing an example of how blogs are used in the healthcare industry. It’s great to get comments on actual business use of blogs in addition to the musings we are having about ways that blogs could be used. Your ideas about the practical (and legal) limits of use are also helpful. I welcome comments from anyone else who has some experience with business use of blogs they might want to share. Of course, you can/should keep any proprietary information confidential in your comments about business use.
We have a blog on one of our websites! it looks different from this one, of course, but it’s a blog! We have a paint line and apparently there’s a lot of discussion about mixing colors, and removing paint and different issues. People type in their question and an expert from our company answers but other people can post suggestions or comments too. Good for us!
Hi Edie, your company’s use of the blog for customer support seems to be an ideal use of blog software for business. The only aspect of that particular application that I would like to solve in terms of what (media) a blog could support would be how to represent the paint(ing) with images where that would help represent the problem and/or solution.
I have two different experiences with blogs. The first is that I’m a mother of college-age students. They are very familiar with blogs and take advantage of the use of blogs on many of the sites where they “hang” out.
However, besides being a Mom, I also work for Cisco Systems (the telecommunications company). I work for the IT Infrasture area at Cisco and have never heard of any blogs being used at Cisco. However, before stating that we don’t use them, I went on a search. Guess what? I’m happy to tell you that Cisco DOES use blogs — and not internally (for employees), but externally for their customers.
Cisco has purposely setup blogs on the most visible aspects of their business, such as wireless technologies, networking in today’s world, government affairs as they relate to technologies, etc.
The blogs have all been started by executives and leaders in the company — so the initial communication is very controlled.
However, I also noticed that very few comments have been posted on these blogs. So at this time I’m thinking that Cisco is using these blogs to get information out about their technologies, but they are not generating very much interaction amongst their customers.
Thanks Gail, for sharing with us a prime example of how companies (like Cisco) remain a technology innovation leader. Innovation research describes two important factors for adoption of new technology (like blogging by/for business): one is getting company leadership involvement from the beginning, and the other is allowing its use to grow from grass-roots’ preferences. They seem to have captured the first, but perhaps the second is still waiting to be realized or stimulated. As described in my “the specter of moderation” blog entry, I have found that there are lots of factors in the way technology is used that can influence response (both welcomed and unwelcome).
Doc,
I agree that blogs are a trend that hit main streem about 2 years ago and I just don’t hear much about them these days. For some these sites are self fulfilling and many people who put them together do so for self expression. Take my family for example we have a family blog that gets distributed to all the Sullivan family members. This blog is used to keep us all updated on who has b-days, weddings and events such as births.
Blogs are a good tool in my opinion.
M.
Hi Mike,
To some degree you are right that the buzz about bogs may have diminished, but just as with the innovation of e-business itself, blogs are here to stay and find increasing use for business. Not unlike your family blog, many of them create a community between a company’s employees and the company’s customers and/or business partners, such as the IBMers’ blogs at:
http://www.ibm.com/blogs/zz/en/
How do you see blogs being used for business?
WHEN the world is actively blogging (as I am most novice at it – dont know if you will even see this blog), I see it as opportune avenue for interacting information from others who have used a ‘business’ product/service right at the business web site. There are, of course, many places that offer ‘reviews’ and comments on just about everything, but that is often at a neutral site and the comment is left there, not necessarily interactive.
When I seek the internet with a specific interest, I would think ‘blogging’ offers candid comments where I can ask questions and have others interact with me
Hi Lynn,
Thanks for sharing your thoughts as a first-time blogger. Our mental models of various Web-based online communications like blogging can really vary. You can see this in the varieties of blog sites as well as in how readers contribute to them through their comments.
The intrinsic nature of blog software inclines its use as an “interactive†journal in which the blog owner makes initial blog entries which may or may not be joined by the readers comments in reply.
As there is opportunity for interaction and dialog, a blog can take on a lot of the function of a discussion forum, but it is limited in not being able to handle threads that physically branch off into subtopics. Here, there is one long thread where subtopics are accommodated sequentially.
As for how and when your comments are published (made visible) to the blog, that is a function of using the moderation option where I receive email notification of your comment post and then I must login to the blog and approve it (or not).
Hi there,
I too have never really blogged before. But I have come accross them all over the Internet. I think that this is a great way to share information with a group of people and see what everyone’s opinion is to a subject. I have read blogs alot about different subjects, but never have I signed up to respond. This method, I see can be used to promote and target a specific audience, at a very cost oriented manner. I know that a lot of people are now blogging and now people are becoming famous because of them. I think that it is a good tool to stay connected.
Hi Juan,
Thanks for trying this out as a first time blogger and considering the business implications of it in terms of creating a “community” of users and to achieve marketing goals in a more interactive way.
Doc,
I find this very interesting. I had a chance to look through the IBM blog site and it seems to me that all the bloggers do is post blog’s about things and topics they want to blog about? When I clicked on different peoples links it took me to more blog sites and then further clicks took me to more blog sites. It seems that it is a way to move from information to information but I think we need a google search for blog topics. http://www.blogsearch.com would be my suggestion so that bloggers can find other blogs of interest to post comments and information. I will look into this further and see how I can apply it to my company and practices.
Mike
Hi MIke,
Yes, you are right in the sense that blog owners tend to write about things of interest to them, but in doing so in a blog they can solicit and receive comments and that make it interactive. The ability for readers to also write on Web pages in an easy manner to discuss matters of mutual interest makes blogs very useful for building a sense of community among your site users and e-business customers.
I see blogs as social meeting places for business with the current economic climate reducing cost for businesses is most important and achievable, these blogs will provide company training, meeting place in lieu of travel and future business internationally without going overseas. Thanks, Marie
Thanks Marie, for sharing your insights into how blogs can help take up the slack in performing business communications that while becoming increasingly global, are also becoming increasingly expensive to support through face-to-face meeting.