I’ve been a squeaky wheel for the NST blog for many years, and I’m proud of my squeaky wheel status. I believe in blogs, and their power to build relationships. As part of my plea to bring our NST blog to fruition, I led efforts to develop our NST white paper on blogging. It’s a good read for clients and others who are considering entering the blogosphere. The six page-paper covers some hot topics facing companies and organizations today as they consider whether creating a blog or monitoring and engaging bloggers is right for them. The paper is sprinkled with quotes from thought leaders who realize the power of blogs. Here are a few of my favorites.
* “In sports, players who perform and help win championships build the team brand and fill the seats. Much the same, companies should consider taking their all-stars and making them visible online,” says Steve Rubel, digital trends expert.
* “Neither a press release nor a full-page ad in the New York Times will boost your search engine rankings as much as a regularly updated blog,” says Robert Scoble and Shel Israel in “Naked Conversations.”
* “Do whatever it takes to listen more. Your customers are talking online about your brand right now. If you’re not listening to them, your competitors will. And, they can use that knowledge to try to steal your customers … your customers will leave for brands that ARE listening,” says Rohit Bhargava, author of “Personality Not Included, a Guide on How to Use Personality to Reinvent Your Marketing.”
* “Blogging lets us communicate with our customers in a more personal and direct way. But more importantly, blogging gives us a much needed way for customers to communicate with us … (and) provide valuable feedback or insight that can be brought back to the business,” says Michael Brito, social media strategist for Intel in a ProBlogger.com article.
* “A bad blog is worse than no blog. A dead blog is worse than no blog. But an engaging blog is one of the best things in the world that you can do for your business,” said Jeremy Wright, CEO of b5media in a ProBlogger.com article.
* “Listening to the groundswell will relentlessly reveal your stupidity. When customers can complain, bitterly and accurately, about the way you do business and you can measure and quantify their complaints, it’s hard to deny your own flaws,” says Josh Bernoff in “Groundswell.”
Check out the NST Blog White Paper for greater context or contact me with questions or for more info.
