The Naked Truth
Friday, I went to dinner with a great blogger. He's supported himself for several year's by blogging about poker. He brought my attention to a great video blog (note: I refuse to use the goofy term vlog) called zeFrank. First, let me warn you these guys are brutally honest, meaning sometimes their language can be a bit salty and that brings me to my second point. Often, I find marketers trying to use the term "blog" because it's hot when in fact they are not at all interested in creating a real blog. They don't want to link out, they don't want to post regularly and they certainly don't want to have interaction with the customers.
The bottom line is this; blogs are driven by authenticity. They require that you present the naked truth. If you asking yourself, "How can I fake sincerity?" You might not be ready to blog.
Posted by: Spidey
7 Comments:
I'm with you, Jeff... I've run across quite a few "blogs for blogs' sake," where it's clear that the idea of starting a blog preceded the idea for the content.
July 19, 2006
Insincerity will kill a brand or product, not just a blog. Provacative truth is a great consumer motivator and it's easy to recognize the marketers who look in the mirror and face the truth about thier brands, their companies, and most importantly, their consumers.
July 19, 2006
The hidden extremist in me discusses the web "Cluetrain-style" with lots of folks and, I find myself saying “Why not even, in the long term, eliminate the concept of the ‘official website!’ No one takes that seriously anyway!” The idea being, people’s conversations on blogs, mailing lists, etc., are so much more authentic and valuable to the visitor than the official website, which is usually nothing but ‘brochure-ware." Forget if the discussion is positive or negative - it’ll be negative if the products are cr*p, and it’ll be positive if their products are great. But let’s get people talking.
July 19, 2006
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July 19, 2006
I would agree on the most part with "Elvis," but as a consumer I tend to look to these websites as the authority-- I'd love to see more integration of message boards and/or blogging, but not to lose the "official website" completely.
For example: sites like Amazon that show all the product information, but then have places for consumer input and un-monitored comments are a good balance.
July 19, 2006
I agree with you guys. The questions is much bigger than blog or not, it's really a question of whether a company has the confidence to be authentic. Are we too afraid to allow any criticism. We've all met people like that and they're not very attractive.
July 19, 2006
A lot of companies have their own MySpace to let users interact with their brand, in a way. You can't really censor them too well, so it takes guts. It can really pay off, though...
http://myspace.com/burgerking
July 19, 2006
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