The Purpose Driven Blog
A couple of weeks ago, I asked a simple question. Should digital agencies be blogging? I mean, we are out there advising clients on "social media" and how it's evolving the way we interact with brands and each other. Some folks felt that the question was silly. Isn't this a no brainer? Well, not exactly. The best part of the post came in the comments (no surprise) and the post itself got picked up by several agencies who use internal blogs to discuss issues like this. This means that they are having conversations in private vs. publicly. And there's nothing wrong with that. But wouldn't you like to be fly on that agency's wall? I would.
My POV comes from a personal perspective as most things do. Blogging has given me a better grasp of the nuances of social media—how it works and what it means to get involved. It's made me a better writer, a better thinker and more "strategic" at creative problem solving. For me, it is "intellectual prototyping" as Roger Martin put it. I use my blog and other social media tools as "digital ethnography". I watch what people do online. I study it and connect the dots. I look for patterns in behavior. I take comments on my blog to heart—even when I don't respond. I soak it all in. And it most definitely creeps into my work. You can be sure of that. So should agencies be blogging? My answer comes in the form of a challenge:
Yes, I believe agencies should be blogging. Blogging with a purpose. I believe they should invest the time and energy it takes and align the effort around their agency's culture, beliefs and perspectives. I believe it's an opportunity to participate openly. But if an agency doesn't see a purpose—then maybe it is better not to do it at all (I'm with you Cynthia). As I said in my comment, it's less about having a "social media strategy" and more about having a vision. My vision or "purpose" was to prove to myself that a blog could indeed be an "engaging experience"—but I didn't know how I was going to do this. Then I did my first meaningful visual and the rest was history. But enough about me—here's what some of you had to say:
"Sounds
like a big question. Perhaps we should also ask what they would blog
about? How often? Would their blog be public / internal or private (for
the clients only?)"
~Daniel
It's all about control. Blogging is about giving up control to conversation. Look at the popularity of Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, et al - the social web is taking over and this is hard to handle for the mega consultancies and, especially, the multi-national advertising agencies.
...I would take conversation and community over Flash and glitz anyday."
~Tim
"For
me it comes up to this: Will you take advice of an accountant or a
lawyer that only read some articles but never done any work themselves?
So why take advice from a marketer that never blogged before. (You all
know about Coke Zero and Sony psp flogs). I believe you have to
practice what you preach. The first thing I've done in FRANk was to
start a company blog. It's not much and we didn't "find our voice" yet
but I think all this will come. The critical thing is to be part of the
conversation as soon as you can. Because if you're not, well, you're
talking to yourself."
~Tamir
If an organization has ideas, points of view or expertise they wish to share and explore they should consider blogging.
I think it is risky for an agency to initiate blogging to prove
credibility in social media. When Ogilvy authored books he was
motivated by his message not the form it took."
~Kelly
"When I think things go wrong is when an agency has a blog that's a bit
too branded. Or one where there are too many people posting....One
where the blog loses the style and personality, due to the fact that
its more a blog by committee. The best blogs in my opinion are those
either run by one person or a small specific core group. "Don't lose
the unique style & personality."
~Eric
"An agency should have a blog (like its clients) only if there is a
strong business case for it. I love blogs and blogging But I don't see
any arguments here that convince me any given agency should have a
blog. Having the expertise in-house does not necessarily equate to
having an agency blog."
~Challis
"This one you all missed. It's bloody good fun. It has galvanised people
within the agency (both creators and readers) and provides a collective
focus.
We like that."
~Simon
"If you're a digital agency claiming to participate in social media and
conversational marketing, you should have a blog before you have a
site. How can you claim to be a marathon runner if you never ran in
your life?"
~Uwe
"I honestly think the reason more companies aren't doing this is time.
No one has it. And they have no idea who to designate to maintain and
write for their blogs."
~Beth
"If the agency blog has a purpose, then more power to them. But if they
blog for the mere sake of saying they do to clients, that rings more
insincere than not doing it at all."
~Cynthia
You can view full comments in the original post here:
Blogs are a huge value for any business, but particularly smaller businesses. The value comes in many different ways, including some that people don't think about until they've been blogging for some time. The biggest challenge is whether you have the blogging talent in your organization to put out a good blog. You'd think agencies would.
More on my blog (natch!):
http://smoothspan.wordpress.com/2007/11/01/blogging-is-indispensible-to-a-startup/
Posted by: Bob Warfield | Wednesday, November 14, 2007 at 02:48 PM
I agree that blogging just to blog is worthless and disingenuous. The key that everyone keeps bringing up is IF an agency has ideas that it wants to share THEN they should look into blogging. It seems to me that IF you don't have ideas THEN you shouldn't be in our business. :)
Posted by: John Herrington | Wednesday, November 14, 2007 at 04:31 PM