How to keep blogs from scaring the hell out of people
All of us who work with blogs, especially those of us who’ve done it for years, are excited about their potential. We can come up with lots of useful examples of how businesses can benefit from blogs, but sometimes our own enthusiasm gets the best of us.
To put it more succinctly: A lot of folks who are blogging “experts” talk about blogs in a way that scares the hell out of normal business people.
The thing is, lots of business are already interested in blogs. They’ve heard of them, and maybe they have a kid who’s on LiveJournal or a friend who’s got a TypePad blog. So they’re inclined to think positively of blogs. But too often, we use terrible examples or scare stories to convince people how to start blogging, and that’s just not helping our case. A normal manager or decision maker at a business is going to think, “They vilify Kryptonite locks or criticize Dan Rather — that seems a lot riskier than just doing an email newsletter.”
It’s not just the high-profile scare stories, either. Starting a conversation by talking about how blogs are a “revolution” or “will change the way your company works” isn’t going to sound so appealing to a company that’s doing well, where the people in charge aren’t looking to make radical changes. The good news is, you don’t have to work that hard to persuade your company or your clients to adopt blogs; Just present the facts and they’ll make their own case for you.
To get started, some key points that can help you make the case:
- Blogs are an established technology, having been around for years and used by everyone from the biggest companies in the world to mom-and-pop shops.
- Blogs work with the other technology you have. They’re not trying to replace email, or the rest of your website, they’re just giving your company a new channel to communicate in.
- A blog can be used anywhere that tools like email and IM are: Inside or outside the company, in one location or around the world.
- There’s no set rules about how to have a blog. You can start small, with a lot of control over content and community, and expand over time — don’t jump in with both feet if you’re not ready.
The bottom line is, if you’re trying to convince your boss to start trying blogs, or you have a client that you know would be a perfect candidate for using a blog, don’t start preaching about the scary stuff. Just let them know blogs are safe, and that there’s plenty of examples of the tangible and intangible benefits that businesses can get by embracing them.
Still need more help? Get in touch and we’ll help you show what blogs can do for your business. Without scaring the hell out of people.
4 TrackBacks
Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: How to keep blogs from scaring the hell out of people.
TrackBack URL for this entry: http://www.movabletype.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/41
Anil Dash suggests that the key to making blogs accessible for everyone is to present blogs as safe.But too often, we use terrible examples or scare stories to convince people how to start blogging, and that’s just not helping our... Read More
Anil Dash points out reasons why blogging can be a not-so-friendly topic in the corporate world, and how to overcome the “scary” aspect: Blogs are an established technology, having been around for years and used by everyone from the ... Read More
TITLE: Wikis, Blogs and Other Points of Failure - Fear Not URL: http://www.elsua.net/2006/04/12/wikis-blogs-and-other-points-of-failure-fear-not/ IP: 80.231.19.69 BLOG NAME: E L S U A ~ A KM Blog DATE: 04/12/2006 01:07:39 PM Read More
While I don't advicate scare tactics, sometimes a little fear of Blog is a good thing. We just landed a client based on attacks they were getting from a blog. Here's his quote
"Well the interesting thing about (company) is that they are typically wedded to old school everything. So, my mission here is to point out the ultimate dysfunction of trying to counter this wildly successful blog with old media tactics - more press releases, TV interviews, etc. For Pete's sake, as part of our work sessions we strategize about how to blunt the impact of this guy's blog! And what do we know about blogging, and new media? Nothing."
Nuf Said
The experts are also scaring "normal" nonprofit people. Web gurus and techies often promote blogging as a radical, new end in itself, not as a tool in a larger strategy for building relationships with donors, volunteers, members, and clients.
As an antidote, I wrote a (rather long) post on studio 501c, my new Typepad blog for nonprofit nontechies. Called a blog can be like a business lunch, it aims to dispel some of the myths about blogging and offer a good starter model -- a business-lunch blog -- that could work for many nonprofits as well as businesses.