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Is the writing well and truly on the wall for the Precedent blog?
I received the below email today…its not the most complimentary of emails as you can see. But I couldn’t agree with it more… I feel that our blog is far too worthy for its own good. Of course there are interesting nuggets in there but I believe a really successful blog needs to show attitude and display the personality of its authors. In fact the larger and more controversial, the personality the better! On the flipside this can mean that most successful bloggers may also be the most obnoxious and self obsessed… the kind of person that you don’t want to meet in a bar! Interestingly our director of Strategy Neil Davis touches on this phenomenon in his seminar “The Democratic Web.” But enough of this shameless self-promotion - back to the matter in hand.My question is: given that I have gone out of my way to fill Precedent with talented people whose company I enjoy and who are nothing like the obnoxious individuals mentioned above - how do you balance the obnoxious with the engaging, self-grandisation with nuanced discussion in order to develop a “kick arse attitude”? Or maybe we shouldn’t worry about that and just chat and blog.
Tell me I’m curious, John it’s quite alright to respond through the comments on the blog that’s what they’re there for, I’m looking forward to hearing your views
Email from John Smith
Surely the point behind a blog on a companys website is a desire to communicate, if not excite and engage, with the audience (clients or potential clients). A blog who’s tone of voice is superior and condescending and who’s subject matter is neither fresh or exciting, will do nothing but alienate the audience it is aimed at.
Just have a look down at the comments and feedback. No comments, no comments, no comments, no comments, no comments…
Has this piece of communication failed? Are your audience unaware or do they simply not care about what you are saying? Or worse, is the tone and content of your communication actually turning people off?
A blog with no interaction is no more an effective piece of communication than scrawling a message on a toilet wall.
Surely a ‘communications agency’ would be more aware of the power of any piece of communication it generates and be more interested in getting the right message across, rather than ticking the ‘ive got one of those’ box.
So, is the writing well and truly on the wall for the Precedent blog?
Yes good points - it is difficult to get a comment with actually trying to provoke a reaction. Maybe we should be more challenging or a little outrageous in our blogs… It may help people get over that barrier of adding first comment. - Must have worked this time at least!
Paul, maybe you should write more as your blog post got the first (I believe, though I haven’t visited in some time) two comment, for now, reaction.
I can understand where both Paul and ‘John Smith’ are coming from - being controversial here and there is a good thing. However I don’t believe we should be controversial for the sake of it…
The point of the blog is to give everyone a chance to have their own say and to show a bit of personality within the company. But an agency blog isn’t necessarily going to be a massive hive of controversial activity - an area where all and sundry come to share their views - there are plenty of other places where people are already doing that and we’re not trying to compete with them.
We want to give our own people the chance to have their say – and we have some very authoritative people within the business! From feedback, we know a lot of people value our opinions on things - we like to challenge people more. But equally we like to be challenged ourselves and I’d like to encourage more comments like John’s, which will hopefully inspire us as a company to make more of our blog for 2008…
Interestingly, most of our competitors don’t have a blog – and typically those that do also don’t have many comments. Our blog is actually one of the more used areas of the site by clients and contacts, so the desire for it is clearly there.
Let’s make more use of it in the New Year, Precedent and others alike!
I’ve received another email comment about our blog from John Smith. I really don’t understand why he didn’t post it as a comment on the blog as it’s exactly the kind of thing that we need more of. That aside I’d like to thank him for taking the time once again to offer us his thoughts.
John
I agree that some of our postings are a little too worthy and the personality of the individual author needs to shine through. I also agree that good business is built on good relationships, however good relationships have to be earned - based on mutual understanding, respect and an ability to deliver! It is important that we deliver a wide range of services to a very high standard across a wide range of client sectors and for this we need a mix of people with different skills and personalities. Our blog is an area that allows these individuals to express their personal opinions on matters that interest them, it’s not an area for marketing messages.
Precedents’ personality is the sum of the personalities within it. No one post represents the company but combined they go some of the way.
Your point regarding the correct first impressions and not getting a second chance is of course true and the main web site is designed to deal with this. The blog is there to share ideas and opinions internally and externally with the intention to stimulate thought and with the comments and suggestions you’ve given I’m hopeful that future posts have a little more umph!
With regard to the particular posts you pick out it is not my place to comment in detail but I shall leave it to the authors to reply should they feel the need. However, I would say that I found all three posts interesting for different reasons.
One final thought to leave you with. Do you think you would have voiced your opinions as readily as you have or indeed have written at all had you not created a nom de plume? And if herein lies the answer for the Precedent blog, if all contributors write under a false name will they be more outspoken and generate more conversations or is it more important that we’re prepared to be accountable for what we say? What says more about the type of organisation we are?
Thank you once again for your time and I look forward to hearing from you again hopefully once you’ve been won over by the stimulating content of our blog!
Whoops I forgot to post John’s email.
Paul,
Many thanks for your quick and honest response. Can I say how refreshing it is to be engaged in a conversation, rather than have a controversial point swept under the carpet. I also do find it rather ironic that between us we have possibly contributed the most interesting and engaging blog post on the precedent website to date!
I am sure that you have surrounded yourself with a talented, capable and friendly team, I just can’t help feeling that you have missed two fundamental points.
Firstly, and I know it’s a cliché, but you never get a second chance to make a first impression. I am sure you are aware that any successful business is based on personal relationships. How sad it would be if a potential client was actually discouraged from making that first approach simply because they felt alienated by opinions posted on a blog, what if, as you say, the first impression is “What self righteous bunch they are!”
This leads nicely onto my second point. As a ‘communications consultancy’, you should be aware of the importance of communication and tone of voice in any medium. The fundamental questions of “who is my audience?”,”what am I saying?” and “why am I saying it?” haven’t even been considered in a lot of the blog posts. This is interesting because it begs the question, if you are so blase about your own communications, why on earth would I want to trust you with mine?
If you actually take a step back and look at some of the examples the problem of tone of voice becomes obvious…
“I’ve been a bookworm for as long as I can remember.
My shelves at home are groaning under the weight of books that go back to my early reading days.”
– So what?
“Facebook, the second most popular site in the UK has been struggling to generate a proper revenue stream from its popular social networking site. Their answer
- a social ad program. Are they modest about it? Not really…”
– Who cares?
And my personal favourite…
“I’m too busy working on some great new projects to write a very long post, but couldn’t resist letting you know about a very interesting interface design developed at my old university, University of Glasgow.”
– Oh come on, please!
Maybe it’s a little bit of baa humbug in this silly season, but here’s hoping for a fresh approach for the new year!
I think one of the problems with the Precedent blog is that it is probably not read enough internally. Those most comfortable with breaking that barrier and posting a comment on somebody’s article will surely be those people happy to chat with that person about their opinions in the pub or around the company kettle. So why so little comment and interaction on the blog from those within the team.
I do belive John Smith has identified one of the possible problems - much of the opinion on the blog is written more as though it were a pitch for new business or an executive summary for one of the reports produced at the end of a lengthy consultantion exercises. I think there is a case for those contributing to the blog to “chill out” and just have a chat like they would over a pint….less consultancy speak (rich coming from me I know -but perhaps 2 years without it is hitting home) and a little more casual conversation could encourage a more genuine conversation. And….come on guys within Precedent start taking more of an interest in your colleagues posts and start the comment ball rolling…..