In the past few weeks I’ve noticed several business blogs started up by B2B and B2C sales people. Some of these bloggers are talking about their industry and services; others are talking about personal stuff. Either way, these folks are using their initiative and being very smart. They’re opening up a new channel to communicate with customers and attract new ones.
From the company’s point of view, I’d want to be out in front of this trend. Can you imagine a firm with 10 or 100 or 1000 sales reps all running their own blogs? What would that do to the firm’s branding, with every blog looking different and communicating a different message?
Danger! Avoid Brand Fragmentation
Companies should take the initiative. Why not create an area on the corporate site for sales blogs? Give the bloggers as much freedom of expression as possible, naturally, but at least provide a consistent blog design and commenting policy. Better to reinforce a firm’s existing brand than sit by passively while 10 or 100 or 1000 new brands are created.
Am I stating the obvious? Do you know companies who are sponsoring sales rep blogs now?
– Brad Shorr, Word Sell, Inc.
Hi Brad,
No doubt I’ve mentioned this already in prior comments on this blog, but I think the example of Hewlett Packard in the 1990s provides a particularly relevant example of the lesson to be learned here.
Back in the 1990s, Hewlett Packard had eighty six business units, most of which (I think all of which, I’m not certain) had there own sales and marketing teams.
As a result, purchasing managers received calls from many different HP representatives, trying to sell many different things to their company. Often, the sales reps would contradict one another in their sales pitches.
This helped to destroy the reputation of the company, and helped Dell and IBM to gain the ascendancy over HP.
No matter what the promotional medium, companies must ensure that they provide consistent messages and to the general public.
When blogging is the medium, it is no exception. As you say, companies must manage their blogging strategy effectively to ensure that prospective customers or clients receive a consistent message.
Cheers
Andrew
Hi Andrew, I remember you telling that story before, and it is a perfect example of what this post is about. These things can creep up on you — if brand fragmentation can happen to HP it can happen to anybody, don’t you think?
Hi again, Brad.
Absolutely. It can happen to any company of any size. Being large doesn’t necessary mean that a business is well run. (e.g. Enron)
Companies with multiple product lines and sales avenues are probably the most vulnerable, as is are any companies which do not have robust management and control systems in place.
When new mediums for promotion arise, companies sometimes lose sight of the fact that standard business disciplines should be applied to new mediums as well as old mediums. Blogging is no exception.
You raise the point that corporate bloggers should be given as much freedom as possible. I agree. What companies need is a strong, robust control environment which ensures that corporate messages remain consistent without limiting the flexibility and creativity of sales reps or other corporate bloggers.
To ensure that consistency in communication through blogging, companies should set a broad framework of control for blogging as a means of communication. Sales reps and other bloggers should then be given unlimited freedom of expression, provided it sits within the broad corporate framework.
This, of course, is much easier to manage if space is made available on the corporate site for sales blogs, as per your suggestion.
Cheers
Andrew
Hi Brad
Some companies such as Zappos are employing social media co-ordinators. As well as blogs, they’re looking at other social media.
Zappos even runs employee worshops on using Twitter. No doubt, part of that would be reinforcing consistency with the brand while embracing a level of individuality.
It may seem like a bold move to allow employees to blog pubicly. It’s a big step for many companies as there’s a level of trust involved.
But as someone said, every time an employee sends an email or communicates with a client, they’re representing the company, so maybe it’s just a new more proactive way of thinking.
Great topic.
Yvonne, Do you know how Zappos is doing with their move into social media? Good point about email, etc. Twitter is just another form of communication. Maybe the unfamiliarity is what makes companies resist it.