Monday, May 08, 2006

This is why companies should blog

Recently, BL wrote a post about companies that are 'hiding' their blogs, and one of the companies she mentioned was that HP was 'hiding' the fact that Eric Kintz is blogging. She adds: "My guess is that lawyers or PR departments are a more than a little nervous about this whole new media, "listen to your customers" thing, so they said "Well, ok, we can try it, but don't make the damn blog too easy to find."".

If HP is trying to hide the fact that Eric blogs, apparently Eric never got the memo. In fact, I had no idea that Eric was blogging until he came here and left a comment giving his blog addy. Since then I've seen him commenting on other blogs, including the nice write-up that Toby did recently on HP's blogging efforts.

So if Eric WAS hiding, he would have likely never read about BL's claims that he was 'hiding', but he found her post on the Marketing Profs blog, where she reposted a post she had made on WhatsNext.

But by joining the community, Eric is in a position to point out to BL that he's quite active on other blogs, as well as mention when other bloggers write about HP's blogging efforts.

If Eric was hiding, he would have no idea what BL or any other blogger was saying about him. Instead, he can not only address their concerns, but point them to examples of his involvement in the blogging community.

Is there a point to be made that HP needs to make it easier to find their blogs on HP's landing page? Yep and it's my guess that Eric will mention this to the right people at HP. But it's hard to claim that Eric is 'hiding' when he is going out to other blogs and actively attempting to engage with bloggers on their turf.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice post Mack.... I agree that there is an imperative to "join the commununity" and I hope to emulate some of my peers to do so. Looking forward to seeing the new top 25
Eric

Mack Collier said...

Eric the new list will be up this afternoon. Speaking of which, have you considered having your own blog? Alexa doesn't distinguish between your blog's traffic, and HP's, so at this point I can't accurately rank Marketing Excellence. Given your role at HP, and your willingness to engage other bloggers, I would think a stand-alone blog similar to what you have now at HP's site would move up pretty quickly.

Just a suggestion.

Anonymous said...

This reminds me of an endless debate we had at MarketingProfs about what to call our blog on the navigation bar. First it was "Daily Fix" (the name of the blog - but very few seemed to know what that was). Then it was "Blog"...but as the blog was brand-new, that seemed to cause some head-scratching, too. Then we changed it to "Daily News," because the blog is daily news & commentary, but readers thought that was a corporate area for press releases. Now, we're back to "Our Blog."

Hiding? No...but still darn near invisible!

Mack Collier said...

Ann I remember hearing about Daily News weeks ago, I think on BL's blog. You're not so invisible as you think you are ;) As for blog names, I actually called this blog 'This Parachute is a Napsack' for like a week till I came up with something(anything) better ;)

Anonymous said...

Mark...err, Mack....but what's in a name, right?

: )

p.s. It's the "Daily Fix" not the "Daily News." See? I told you it's really tough distinguishing!

Mack Collier said...

LOL Sorry, well hopefully you're as used to the name-game as I am ;)

Anonymous said...

Your are Nice. And so is your site! Maybe you need some more pictures. Will return in the near future.
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SEO Manager said...

I partly disagree about what you say about companies and blog. Hp might need to get things a bit ordered to customers and this involves a website well designed, first.

Here is the my point of view about companies and blogs :

Why companies should not blog in most cases.

Jean-Hugues.

Muhammad said...

a very valuable article. i highly appreciate it.