Corporate Blogging

When I read this about Tello last year..

Second, they’ve obviously decided that the bloggers don’t matter much. Om Malik and Alec Saunders took the time to write about them. Even though they each command a large and very relevant audience, Tello didn’t bother to list either of them on the news page. Lots of other bloggers wrote about Tello too (including our own MobileCrunch), but were not mentioned. Companies that don’t embrace bloggers tend to become attacked by bloggers. Companies that embrace bloggers, and thank them, get lots and lots of love.

I wondered how a tech product expected to survive without the support of bloggers. Well it didn’t. It’s irrelevant what Tello was about (John Sculley from Apple, convergent service). The key is that by not participating with bloggers and focussing on mainstream media, you not only lose out on the support of the handful of bloggers that could get you 50 million media impressions in 7 days )see the Robert Scoble video story), but you also run the risk of alienating them to the extent that they run an anti-marketing, anti-advertising campaign against your tender new product. Yes, a blogger may only have 100 readers but those 100 have their own readers and if a high percentage start blogging on about you and your product, you may end up on the business page of a major newspaper. But not for the reasons you want…

If you are starting to feel “held to ransom” or “held captive” by bloggers, take off your corporate hat and put on a consumer one for a moment. Now think of the 1,600 ads you have been bombarded with daily. Held captive doesn’t even come close to how that feels.