My question is can you really get a good actuate perception of someone online? Some people maybe amazing writers but may not have very good one-on-one people and communication skills. Or someone may just be a so-so writer but have amazing people and communication skills. By observing someone’s blog could you pick that up? I guess the only thing I think could solve this problem is using a program like skype or pod casting. Then you would get a little better sense of one’s personality.

I also like Mark Granovetter take on “weak ties.� I had ever thought of networking ties in that sense but it is very true. The “strong ties� I have of course have come in handy but it’s the weak ones that have gotten me further. The most major “weak tie� has helped me find a potential internship next fall.

My other thought was about the blogs companies have for customers to comment on. What happens if there are a few positive comments and then the rest negative? That is not good for the company’s image. My idea would be for the company to try to use the criticism to help improve their product or service. And then respond to the criticism on the blog posting with a comment on how they are going to solve the problem and make improvements. How else could the company save or repair their image?

The conversation continues on the Global PR Blog today, Elizabeth Albrycht responded to Erin Caldwell in the comment section of the blog on a discussion point about the different strategies used by companies in who should blog. Elizabeth said, “Achie…

Your point about the public noticing that a company is interested in what people have to say is correct….I think I can prove that point by giving a couple of examples of a company that in my mind has had a few teething problems with their blog in the last nine months. I am thinking of GM’s FastLane Blog, while in many instances, the blog has produced excellent content and also responded to many enquiries from customers, there have been instances where I think the blog has just been overwhelmed with the level of interest and response.

Here’s my article on two interviews I held with two GM customer’s who had commented on the FastLane Blog, but did not receive a response directly, and their reactions to GM.

http://blogsurvey.backbonemedia.com/archives/2005/09/the_gm_blog_les.html

It’s also interesting that because of the nature of many blogging platforms, comments don’t have RSS feeds or email reminders (this blog is a notable exception) corporate bloggers may have actually responded to a customer’s comment, but the customer did not know the corporate blogger responded and assumes they never did respond, which harms the company’s brand, the opposite result of what the company was trying to achieve.

I think also when you bring up the issue of feedback, as a content strategy, feedback appears to generate the most response from customers, especially when you have a product. I can think of examples from Intuit, Macromedia and Microsoft here. All three companies use their blogs to respond to customer queries both on their blogs and on their customer’s blogs. And that ties into your point about the need for a group of professional bloggers to provide a backbone to a company’s blogging efforts, yes I agree, someone is needed to monitor the web.

I was thinking if you are running Macromedia or any company for that matter that has development and senior technical people blogging, PR and or customer service can help to triage the questions from customers on their own blogs to both respond to customer questions and blog articles. There are some who will also debate whether bloggers should have help in triaging their own sites. In my opinion I think the story from GM illustrates Bob Lutz needed help and that GM is currently using other people to answer questions due to the sheer volume of response.

This spelling mistake example from a case study on Microsoft illustrates that how customers encouraged by the new openness to feedback from Microsoft posted a question on their own blog, and received a response back from Microsoft fairly quickly.

http://www.backbonemedia.com/blogsurvey/52-Microsoft-case-study.htm

And my further interview with the customer, Ken Dyck, who originally asked the question about the spelling mistake is here.
http://blogsurvey.backbonemedia.com/archives/2005/07/ken_dyke_interv.html

This issue of feedback was my biggest lesson learned/learnt (us/uk) from the Backbone Media Study earlier this year, especially from the case study on Macromedia. Macromedia customers really did respond powerfully to the way Macromedia manages its blogging efforts, and Macromedia gained tremendous benefits from its blogging efforts.

http://www.backbonemedia.com/blogsurvey/47-macromedia-case-study.htm

John

Erin brings up a good point, which I will translate as achieving a balance between free-for-all employee blogging and more strategically managed “official” blogging. There is certainly a place for both. One point I try to emphasize to people when I am explaining this world of participatory or grassroots communications is that leadership is still very important. You might have thousands of employess blogging, and only a few will be truly fantastic and influential all of the time. They emerge as natural leaders. But I would argue that it is the responsibility of the communications to both nudge these naturals along as well as identify other potentials and give them the training and tools they need to get to a higher quality level.

In fact, the communications team itself need to be leaders in recognizing talent among all of the connected audiences and figuring out how to nuture and/or harness that talent towards organizational goals. A tricky, but vital, task.

Your right, quantity does not make up for quality.

John

Two-way communication between companies and their publics has been in existence for a very long time … just not very effectively. Most of what PR puts out there is very one-sided, as Elizabeth noted. I agree, more than anything, blogging provides an opportunity to really build a broad network of relationships. Granted, the depth of these relationships can be a positive thing, but the focus should be on the breadth — expanding that network, making online “acquaintances,” so to speak. And increasing that crucial two-way communication. I would like to point out, too, that blogs are not only important as a means of developing a public that is more easily reached and influenced, but because blogs make feedback so convenient. Companies can learn a lot from their publics, and blogs make it very easy to collect worthwhile information. AND, when a company is actively interested in hearing what people have to say, the public notices that … and through the resulting confidence, the network grows even more.

The power of/trouble with blogs is they can’t be faked, or at least not over a period of time. If a company is full of energetic, insightful, knowledgeable thinkers (a la Microsoft), there is no better way to show them off. On the other hand, if a company is full of illiterate sheep, the corporate blog will make that clear as well.