Wednesday, January 31, 2007

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.



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6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mack - Great post. And it would sure be nice if ole Technorati got the link thing right before it went off selling how wonderful it was to clients who will likely depend on only one source for that data .. the big T.

Anonymous said...

Mack,

Olgivy is part of the WPP group which encourages blogging. There are actually quite a few Olgivy bloggers out there; I can give you a list if you're interested.

I also work for WPP (Research International, Idea Architects and Qualitative team) and we do have a list of blogs by WPP employees on our internal system.

Glad to see that Olgivy are taking the blogging one step further.

Anonymous said...

Yes Mack--you're right. That's the big mental shift that goes on when we try to use social media as a marketing tool, whether it's for a big biz or a small one.

I have a business blog, and it took a while for it to sink in with me that the power of a blog is unleashed when you realize that your blog is there to host discussions for people in your community, rather to simply show off your knowledge.

I can see why corporations need a little remedial education to get started. It's baby steps--perhaps they start with learning to read a blog, then they jump in and start blogging, then after a while they start to grasp the importance of creating a dialogue with customers through the blog.

Anonymous said...

Great post and I agree with you that there's more to do than listen.

We at Ogilvy Public Relations are doing quite a bit more than just helping clients listen - although I think that is a terrific place to start. This new initiative originates within Ogilvy North America (advertising) and represents the advertising side of the company (big company) helping their marketing clients to better understand how blogs can impact their business.

I run the 360 Digital Influence team within Ogilvy PR. We have been working in social media for years helping clients not just understand but engage. But that engagement has to happen in a respectful, almost humble way, where companies truly respect the consumers taking the time to share their pov via new personal media channels.
"Digital" is everywhere within the different Ogilvy companies. And its exciting to see how each embraces and seeks to understand how social media will affect clients.

Mack Collier said...

Lolly and John, thanks for the clarification, and glad to know that Ogilvy is rolling up their sleeves and instructing their clients on how to enter this exciting space.

Anonymous said...

Looking at blogs, joining the community ... pfff ... I propose Ogilvy starts behaving as a responsible citizen rather then attacking colleague agencies with ridiculous legal claims. Check this out:
http://www.marketingblog.eu/marketingblog/2007/02/one_name_to_rul.html