Image blogs: Tales of Pride and Self-Flagellation
Today’s dish consists of four special ingredients:
a) a Happy Meal, only complete with the plastic replica of a controversial vehicle
I’m taking a closer look at four sources that I have classified as image blogs (see one,two). My assumption is that the main purpose of these blogs is to influence the public perception of a company in ways which are only tangentially related to the goal of increasing sales.
Let’s look at the examples one by one.
Digital Straight Talk (Cox Communications)
While we provide a Cox point of view, we also shoot for a balanced discussion that’s light on bull and heavy on substance. We air third-party commentary and even views from those who just might disagree with us.
(from http://www.digitalstraighttalk.com/about/)
Cox’ “light on bull, heavy on substance” mantra mirrors the attitude the company seeks to convey: “direct”, “no-nonsense”, “opinionated”. And yes, that does sound like talk radio. It’s an interesting approach for an image blog; what could be called the offensive strategy (Wal-Mart is similar), as contrasted with the more defensive style of Dell and McDonald’s. A look at several posts (one, two, three) rather contradicts the claim that Cox “airs (sic) third-party commentary”, unless you count citing negative studies on cable and their refutation by Cox as commentary. As is often the case with product blogs, there is hardly a discussion taking place (in fact, I could not find any comments on the Cox blog so far). Digital Straight Talk is very much devised as a public relations megaphone, focused on loudly articulating a positive view of Cox and of cable in general and a negative view of the telecom companies and other competitors. It’s very much a one-way street in terms of who communicates.
From Edison’s Desk (GE)
From Edison’s Desk [...] offers a unique forum for technology enthusiasts around the globe to discuss the future of technology with top researchers from one of the world’s largest and most diverse industrial research labs.
GE’s main corporate blog presents the company’s research efforts in a number of areas (energy, transportation, computing) to a scientifically inclined audience. The researchers who collaboratively write the blog frequently use images and charts along with references to published academic papers in their posts. Comments are quite frequent and sometimes seem to come from members of other departments at GE, which supports the impression that the blog is not purely aimed at consumers or the general public, but also used as a means of communicating internally. Since the interest-group targeted is quite specific (people with a solid background in science or engineering) the blog is also a useful tool for recruiting.
Direct2Dell (Dell)
While Dell’s new blog also serves multiple purposes, it appears to be most popular as a place for disgruntled customers to vent and consequently for Dell’s CRM team to plead for forgiveness and promise betterment. While recent posts on Linux, diagnostics and the importance of e-mail have not garnered a lot of feedback, a 10-questions entry on Dell’s new XPS700 gamer PC line and the chain of mishaps associated with it has to date produced the incredible number of 272 comments, some of which are scathing. However, due to the inclusion of open criticism the conversation is largely perceived as “real†and “honest†and a substantial number of customers gives Dell good grades for their approach to “customer service via blog” (not to be confused with the grades they receive for their handling of the XPS700 issue). The 10-questions post is also an interesting example for “crisis management via blog”.
Open for Discussion (McDonald’s)
McDonald’s is unlikely to complain about a lack of feedback either, though as with Dell it’s not all love and appreciation in their corner of the blogosphere. VP Bob Langert provides an interesting description of his strategy:
The important thing is that we listen to–and respect–one another’s viewpoints. That’s the mission of this blog. To be frank, I’ve been hoping for more comments, more dialogue. This Hummer issue has definitely stirred things up. And I think that’s good.
The reasoning here is that the authenticity of a real conversation between McDonald’s and its critics positively outweighs any damaging effects the criticism itself might have. Someone who is completely uncritical of McDonald’s is not likely to even read the blog, and if he does it is highly unlikely that reading critical comments will have any negative effect. Conversely, those who are critical of McDonald’s can still be influenced - not necessarily by a change of behavior, but possibly by changing how the company communicates with skeptics.
Each of these four examples shows a slightly different approach to blogging:
1. Use your blog to tell you customers what’s going on, directly, without a middle man.
2. Use your blog as a talking showroom of your research, and to communicate internally.
3. Use your blog to bring controversial issues to your own doorstep. Participating in the discussion is in itself a means of influencing the discussion.
Note that all three approaches depend on involving the readership. The fourth option would be use your blog as a megaphone (as Cox is doing it), but I’m doubtful whether that is really a adequate application for a blog. The problem is that the credibility attached to blogs is related to their ability to function as discussions - if you’re not talking to anyone in particular and there are no voices other than your own, this discursive dynamism is taken away. I figure out who you are by watching how you respond to others. If you’re not responding to anyone but instead holding a monologue, that tells me preciously little about who you are. In the worst case, I’ll come to the conclusion that you’re either unwilling to listen or incapable of responding (see one of the comments on Langert’s post where he’s criticized for not reacting to questions).
Blogs posses an unparalleled degree of flexibility that other channels of communication available to companies lack. Issue a press release and you’re talking to a middleman, not to your customers. Produce an ad and you have no back channel and no chance to act in a social context, which would allow you to build trust. Place a job ad and engage in an extremely formal and highly asymmetrical exchange with potential candidates, an exchange that is largely about meeting requirements and allows for very little conversation, at least initially. However, this versatility goes hand in hand with a certain lack of predictability related to the participatory nature of blogs. The result of a discussion cannot be a “clear messageâ€, but arguably a discussion can be much more persuasive and powerful than a lone voice, especially when that voice isn’t talking to anyone in particular.