Ogilvy partners with Technorati to teach clients how to read blogs

Ogilvy and Technorati have partnered on a new initiative where Technorati will basically show Ogilvy how they can teach their clients to monitor blogs and use the content they find in their own campaigns. From the Technorati blog:

For bloggers and other citizen media creators it means new forms of distribution and awareness as brands increasingly enter the web as media sites and hubs of live web conversation. As we developed this product line it was clear that the best way to advance the state of the art was to show some of the worlds best creatives on what was possible and then work with them and major brands on how to build sites and advertising that reflect the conversations and passions of each brand's identity.

So basically, Ogilvy would rather work with Technorati to learn how to show clients how to read blogs, instead of just teaching clients how TO blog. Sounds like the difference between wanting to know what customers are saying about your brand, and wanting to understand WHY they are saying it.

One of the main reasons why I love the concept of companies joining their communities is because it leads to a real sense of interaction with their community of customers. And that interaction transforms BOTH parties.

It's one thing to search for blog postings about your company. It's quite another JOIN the blogosphere and to begin using the SAME tools in the SAME space that bloggers are. When companies enter the blogosphere, they shift from sending marketing messages TO their customers, to communicating WITH them. Not only that, but they THEN begin to RECEIVE the feedback that the community is sending back. That feedback and communication serves to transform the company's marketing processes, as the company begins to better understand the wants and needs of their community, by COMMUNICATING with them.

From the community's point of view, the blogging customers realize that the company has made an effort to better communicate with them, by entering their space and using their tools. That's great for brand equity. It also can help to create a sense of trust in the company, which leads to the community lowering its marketing guard and more freely communicating with the company.

Which leads to better marketing, which leads to better feedback, and so it goes. The end result is that by joining the community, the company becomes a community member itself, and over time, by satisfying its own wants and needs as a community member, it will also be meeting the wants and needs of its fellow community members, its customers.

So while a partnership with a blog-search company to better track blog conversations is a start, companies today can do so much better. Grab your shorts and jump in the water. You might not make the perfect entry, but your customers will appreciate the effort to communicate with them on their terms, using their tools, in their space.



Technorati Tags:
The Viral Garden, Marketing, Join The Community