Category: Weblogs

A lot of companies still don’t understand the power of blogs to build awareness and understanding. I participated in the Edelman/Technorati study of study of influential bloggers’ attitudes on communicating with corporations. Among the results that Richard Edelman calls out in his blog are that "Senior company executives who blog are only half as believable (19%) as company employees who blog (35%)" . Edelman asks "What does this mean for PR? I believe that the way we communicate with bloggers will increasingly be central to our success."

Companies need to spend time making sure their employees know what the key important messages are. PR people train executives before they are interviewed. They also need to train regular employees. There is a dual benefit to having employees who are able to clearly articulate the companies message and goals. Not only do those employees spread the word through vehicles like blogs but there can be no doubt that an informed employee who can articulate what the company is doing and why will be a better, more motivated employee. I guess in a word it creates alignment.

One of the Blogs I consistently find thought provoking and entertaining to read is Creating Passionate Users.She has two recent postings that certainly resonated with me.

The first includes a "little unofficial guide to creating passionate users for those working in Big Companies." I think I’ll print it out and post it on my wall at work.I found it inspiring. The posting especially works for me  because I work in a company that really does care about our users and it takes individuals to make that happen.

The second post is titled " The worst way to calm someone down."  I recently called  a credit card company that makes lots of money off college students. They give a student a credit card with a $500 limit. Then they make it very easy for the student to go over the credit limit by $10.  Finally they charge a $35 fee for going over the credit limit. Now don’t get me wrong I know that it is the student’s job to stay under their credit limit but it bugs me that this is  is so damn lucrative for this credit card company (CitiBank). One of the reasons these companies offer so many credit cards to students is that they can bilk them out of so much money.

When I called Citibank to complain  I experienced exactly what the Creating passionate Users blog describes. The person was maddeningly calm and uninterested. She made it very clear that our business was  totally unimportant to Citibank and that  she could care less. If she had mirrored my outrage just a little bit or even just acknowledged it I might not have been quite so inclined to stop doing business with CitiBank at all. She was totally in the right but boy oh boy did she make me angry. I walked away being absolutely clear that they could care less about my business. Oh well…..

My anniversary of blogging was last week. My very first blog entry was September 16, 2004. It has really been a fun year. I’ve learned a lot. Here’s my list of some of the blog related things I’ve learned.

1. I’ve learned that I like to write and I like  conversations. I’ve had many thought provoking and interesting conversations with some very interesting people that I wouldn’t have met or talked to  otherwise.
2. I’ve learned that blogging inside a company that endorses blogging and encourages it is different and in many ways easier than blogging as an individual. They both  are fun and they both allow you to express yourself but blogging from within a corporate community of bloggers which includes the leaders of the company is a very nurturing experience.
3. I’ve learned that blogging consistently takes discipline. I think it must be like the advice I have read to aspiring writers who want to improve. You have to write every day whether you feel like it or not. I obviously haven’t developed the discipline yet but I’m working on it.
4. I’ve learned that one of the best ways to meet fellow bloggers and make new contacts and friends is to comment on other people’s blogs and link to them from mine. I’ve connected with or reconnected with people like Chuq, James, Jon, ThinGuy and Geoff.
5. I’ve learned that you never know who is reading your Blog. A lot of of people including family, friends and coworkers read my blog. Of course I’ve also learned that a lot of people don’t read blogs.
6. I’ve learned that reading blogs can be as big a time sync as writing a blog.
7. I’ve learned that writing a blog can help you define who you are when you are looking for a job.
8. I’ve learned a heck of a lot about the mechanics of blogging. I’ve learned tools like Typepad, Roller,  and Bloglines.

Here are my goals for my next blog year.

1. Post better quality and more often. I posted something like 161 posts last year in my two blogs. Before the 50 I published in this blog I published about 111 entries in my Sun blog.  Some of the entries were better than others.  I hope to make even better written more interesting entries next year.
2. Start the PortfolioMinder blog. PortfolioMinder is the new Intuit product for which I am the Customer Care Manager. It will be  a product blog with many authors so it will be interesting to see how we can make it really interesting, useful, thought provoking and well read. I’m looking forward to learning about how a product blog is different than a personal blog.
3. Build the PortfolioMinder community. This is more than just a blog thing. I am really excited about helping to build a PortfolioMinder community. I’ve even got The Cluetrain Manifesto posted on the wall of my office.
4. Become better educated about Intuit and write not just about PortfolioMinder but also about all the other cool things that Intuit is doing and about how impressed I am with the company.  I also need to develop a better sense of what it is OK to publish and what it is not OK to publish.
5. Keep a good balance of postings on both work and non work subjects.
6. Be interesting
7. Continue to meet and engage with new bloggers.
8. Have fun!