Archive for November, 2004

Two technology-related bloggers are auctioning their services on e-Bay. Jeremy Wright and Darren Barefoot have both opened auctions to provide blogging services to companies who want to host their own corporate blogs.

There’s nothing wrong with a little self-promotion.

It does lead me to think about a different question you may be asking, which is: "Gee, blogs sound cool and all, but who’s going to actually do this stuff?" Can blogs be outsourced? Is it a good idea? I’ll talk more about that later this week.

Earlier I asked the question, "What do blogs replace?", and responded with my knee-jerk answer: "Absolutely nothing." So where do blogs fit in an association’s communications program?

Generally speaking, blogs do not replace websites. (Though in an earlier post I suggested that some organizations with limited website needs could feasibly use a blog as a website.)

Most associations these days rely on their website as a central part of their strategy and have a lot of different web needs. Websites are used to recruit members, provide information to current members, offer content to external audiences, provide specific online member resources and services, and many other things depending on the organization’s mission.

A blog (or blogs) generally works best as a component of an association’s website. It’s one information resource among many. Blogs are a specialized form of communications, and I think they work best if they are well-defined rather than a generic catch-all for all of an association’s online communications.

And in my opinion, blogs don’t replace email newsletters. E-newsletters are an entirely different type of distribution method, and one that, despite the ever-increasing complications posed by spam filters which make it hard even for fully-opt-in newsletters to reach 100% delivery, still has an extremely valuable role to play for associations.

It’s easy to get caught up in the notion that a new technology will "replace" an old practice. It doesn’t seem to often work out that way. Instead, new technologies open new avenues for providing member service and help associations expand their influence over their audience by reaching different target markets in different ways.

I’ll use trade associations specifically as an example because that’s what I’m most familiar with, and be warned — sweeping generalizations lie ahead. When I first stumbled into the association world back in 1992, it was pretty much a given that trade associations of all sizes and types produced a print newsletter (usually monthly, sometimes weekly if it was large), and some type of magazine (monthly, quarterly, or annually, again depending on the size), as well as a membership directory.

That was it!

When I started, I was basically hired to write the monthly newsletter for a state association. Today, at the organization I work for now, our communications program consists of:

• A weekly one-page "print" publication of industry and association news for members (almost two-thirds of our members still prefer to get this by fax instead of email, which means its written and designed to be consumed as print)
• A (usually) weekly e-mail newsletter which, since it is designed and written solely for email distribution, has a completely different look-and-feel. It’s chatty, personalized, sometimes purposely provocative — and completely free to whomever subscribes. Since launching 77 issues ago, it’s produced significant (and measurable) results in product sales, membership growth, and website traffic.
• A quarterly print magazine which acts as a "business journal" for the small business owners who make up our membership.
• A "news-gathering" blog that brings together links on industry information and news from our state and local chapter blogs, along with occasional commentary and event information.
• An annual print membership directory (we’d love to get rid of it, since we maintain daily-updated directories on our website, but our members would revolt — they love it).
• A website that acts as a complete member resource center, including access to not only everything listed above, but downloadable member resources and business tools, technical and standards information, consumer information, directories, and new specialized content sections we are creating for niches within our target market.

I’m starting to miss the good old days.

I’m sure most associations can point to the same communications "explosion" over the same period of time, and I’m just using our organization as an example because it’s the one I’m most familiar with. The point is that blogs are a component, not a replacement, and can be a potentially valuable part of your communications program. They’re simply a new distribution method that can play a complementary role to the rest of your program.

Blogs have been described as a conversation between the blogger and his or her readers, but the discussion is actually broader than that. Most successful blogs are engaged in a conversation with the entire World Wide Web.

It all comes down to links. In the good ol’ days of the web (like, a few years ago), links were something you devoted a page of your website to: "Here’s a list of websites you might find interesting …"

Through blogging, linking has become a much more organic way of producing content. Linking to articles, downloads, and other resources is fundamental to the nature of blogging. In fact, read through the most popular blogs and you will see that the majority of their posts are little more than a link to a news article or another blog, followed by the blogger’s opinion on what the link points to.

Within the "blogosphere" (a word used to describe, basically, the world of blogs as opposed to mainstream media), some discussions cross multiple blogs for lengthy periods of time, with bloggers commenting on each other’s posts ad nauseam. Within certain sectors, where there may be a group of bloggers devoted to the most seemingly arcane of subjects, the continuous back-and-forth between blogs can seem perplexing to outsiders — even incestuous. (However, a subject that seems arcane to most people may very well be central to your organization’s mission — so you should keep an eye on blogs that are related to it.)

This type of cross-blog discussion is what led to the blog "breakthrough" in the public consciousness. The scandal involving Dan Rather and the Bush National Guard memos, as has been reported extensively, initially arose when a group of bloggers pounced on the fact that the allegedly 70s-era memos were pretty obviously written in Microsoft Word.

Earlier, on the other side of the political spectrum, Trent Lott’s resignation as Senate majority leader came about when comments he made praising former segregationist presidential candidate Strom Thurmond were repeated and passed along by several bloggers. The topic did not make a dent in mainstream news media until it became a controversy in the blogosphere.

Whether providing links as a central part of your blog’s purpose as a "news gathering" type of blog, or following a "link and comment" approach as part of a thought leadership blog, you have the best chance of making a dent with your audience if the blog’s author is an avid web surfer herself, and is liberal with linking in her posts.

For one thing, it’s an instant "added value" as your blog becomes a gateway for important weblinks related to your industry or profession. For another, from a more practical perspective, it makes it easier to produce content, and blogs need content. (More on that later.)

And for a third bonus reason — Google loves blogs, because Google loves link-rich webpages. A frequently-maintained blog can act as a lure for web traffic to your primary site, because the more links you provide, and the more blogs that link to yours, the higher your page-ranks in the search engine.

With all these examples and ideas thrown out the table, hopefully you have now thought of at least a few ways in which blogs might play a role in your communications program. Let’s turn now to some more nitty-gritty.

First, how do you make a blog? Let me count the ways …

Hosted blogs. This is the easiest way to do it. Blogs have taken off so rapidly that there are a lot of services out there which offer inexpensive (or free) ways to start blogging. These are online services that enable you to sign up online, use a template, and start posting right away in your browser. A couple examples:

• Blogger.com
  The blog you’re reading now was created with the free Blogger tool, which is owned by Google. Go to blogger.com, fill out a couple of fields, pick a template, and start posting.

  No doubt, Blogger is waaay easy. But it has its limitations. First, it doesn’t allow you to group posts by category for easier archiving. Second, it offers no statistics on visits or pageviews, so you have to use a third-party service or else fly blind. Third, commenting is clumsy. Fourth, you have to deal with that annoying Blogger bar at the top of the page. Fifth, modifying the template (to, for example, add links to the sidebar like those on the right side of this page) involves hard HTML coding. And if you want to modify an entire template to match the look of your website, you’ll need someone with good programming skills.

  All that said, if you need a quick and free blog (like I did), it works great.

• TypePad
  TypePad is a paid-hosted service, with costs ranging from a few bucks a month to $14.95 or so, depending on the features you want. TypePad resolves a lot of the limitations mentioned above, allowing for simpler commenting, a relatively simple way to add items to the sidebar, a drag-and-drop templating interface, statistics (limited), and a design interface to change certain items about the template.

  At ACCA, we use the TypePad service for our blog. However, remember, if you want to completely customize a template — so that it fully integrates with your site’s look-and-feel — the template programming required is extensive.

Host your own blogs. If you want complete control over your blog(s), with total customization in application and design (so that it fully integrates with your primary site), then look into hosting your own blog program. (If you don’t care if the blog looks like the rest of your site, but you want a completely free blog and have the resources/expertise to set up blog software on your own web server, this is also an avenue to consider.)

There are tons of free or very inexpensive blogging platforms out there. Some of the best known ones are:

• Movable Type (the individual version of TypePad)
• WordPress
• Nucleus
• Greymatter

Some larger organizations with more specialized needs have also had blogging platforms built into their content management systems. In any event, there’s a blogging solution available for organizations of all sizes, staff levels, and expertise. And they all pretty much do the same thing. The only differences lie in the features and/or customizations you might want.

Blogs are written by people, not committees. Some of the most successful blogs have the stamp of a human being’s personality, and those personalities are engaging, casual, even quirky. (I’ll get more into writing guidelines later.)

What better way to "humanize" your association’s programs or services than to have someone talk about them in her own voice, and show how a specific program really impacts her?

Here’s how most associations talk about a specific program or service:

"The National Widget Association provides the XYZ Program, which offers members A benefit, B benefit, C benefit, etc."

Then there’s a testimonial: "The XYZ Program really did provide me with A benefit, B benefit, and C benefit … I love it!"

Depending on the type of the program or service being offered, what if a member who uses it were to write a blog — telling his story — his experiences with using that program — and how it really impacted his life/business/community?

Here’s a more specific example: credentialing/certification. If your association has a credentialing program, consider having a member who undergoes the testing or training write a blog on his or her experience. (On his own, association manager Ben Martin is writing a blog about his experience preparing for the ASAE-sponsored CAE exam.)

Never underestimate the importance of narrative. People like to read about other people, no matter if they’re HR directors, small business owners, marketing executives, or CEOs. People are nosy! A story that puts a program in perspective — not just nuts-and-bolts info on "First I did this, then I did that," but offering real insight into the writer’s life — helps members and potential members not just understand a service, but relate to it.

Another example: through Google I found the University of North Dakota Alumni Association, which presents two blogs written by current students, but aimed at alumni readers. Since the primary goal of an alumni association is to build ongoing support for the host institution, I thought this was a great idea to help alumni reconnect with their alma mater and get a tangible view on how their support (money) is affecting the lives of students today.

This sort of thinking isn’t new to blogs, of course. My point is that using a blog in this manner can not only make a narrative easier to implement, but if done well will create an ongoing relationship that pays off in greater use of the program.

Okay, more potential blogging opportunities:

Membership associations can find a great resource for blogging within their own membership. Do you have individual members who are actively engaged, innovative thinkers within your industry or profession? Then why not invite them to develop a blog that is "sponsored" by your organization?

You may even have members who are already blogging (if you’re a national professional society, there’s a very good chance of this, in fact). Find out who they are. You may find one or two who would be happy to participate in an association-sponsored blog because the association’s brand and audience can provide a larger readership than an individual blog built from the ground up.

Alternatively, if you find several members (or potential members) who are blogging or considering it, consider gathering their links together for a "Community of Blogs" section on your website. Depending on how lively blogs are in your sector, perhaps you can write a "Best of the Blogs" feature for your web or print publications featuring excerpts from the most interesting posts.

Food for thought along those lines: a few weeks ago I stumbled across the website of a company called 21publish.com , which apparently provides "blog portals" for organizations. According to its website, it helps organizations create their own blogging communities for members with the use of a simple online tool a la Blogger.com, etc. It’s easy to imagine a professional society finding great community-building value in a resource like this. (But please note, I don’t know anything about this company other than what’s on its website, so this isn’t any kind of an endorsement. I just found the concept intriguing.)