Most large companies are slow to adapt and are resisting the demands of today’s consumer. Big corporations can afford the continuous bleed-off of cash pushing their messages via old-stream marketing. Most can survive until they wake up to the reality of the marketplace in a year or two from now. But small and mid-size business owners can’t afford that luxury.

Besides, that’s where the huge advantage for small and mid-size business owners lies — in taking action and adapting now! The sooner business owners accept that the consumer is in control, and create a business growth strategy that embraces that fact, the sooner they can establish a leadership position in their chosen niche.

Thanks for the mention on “Consumer Generated Media” in the resources section.

John-Paul Micek
Business Owner’s Blog

Thanks for the fantastic feedback. Excellent remarks!

…blog hard indeed! :-)

TL

That’s a helluva post and reply.

I would not expect someone writing a biz blog to give me any less of a pitch than I would if I went into my fav store and talked to a salesperson.

I want to know their opinion. If they steer me wrong, I never go back. Same as I treat brick and mortar bloggers, also known as salespeople.

Will you sometimes get burned ? Sure. Same as in the big world. Finding a great opinion and source of info is a real treasure, no matter if it’s a blog or a mechanic.

Life’s tough…blog hard !

TL

I’m honored to one of several fantastic guest bloggers at Darren Rowse’s blog, Problogger. Darren by the way is on an awesome trip in Turkey right now. I published a post there today entitledCustomer Evangelism & Business Value Blogging&nbsp…

Thanks for the feedback. Great questions. :-)

First and foremost I read blogs about topics and subjects I’m interested in. Sometimes there are topics that products “revolve” around and there products in which “topics” revolve around. Perhaps a play on ideas here but some blogs derive legitimate topics around their products to help generate discussion that leads to higher visibility for that product…or service. Some which are very topic and subject oriented present complimentary product and services that match their content. These products can be home grown or sponsored.

At the heart of any good discussion is a value exchange of information between two or more mutually interested parties. It isn’t the size of the group that would drive my interest to read a blog. Rather, it is the size of my interest and the value I feel I receive from the source which in this context is a blog.

Do I purchase or avoid products based on the recommendation of others? Yes and no. Size or numbers may matter here as I would need to feel that I’ve spoken with a “reasonable” sampling of those who have experience with the product or service I’m interested in. While other customer testimonials aren’t the lone deciding factor in my purchase decision, they can be a very signficant factor when an engaging conversation takes place and where reasonable credibility exists.

The Amazon reviews are an example or the Edmunds.com town hall forums is another non-blog example of customer evangelism at some level. They along with blogs are people talking to people about the products and services they like and dislike. A business blog needs to enter into and or start dialogue while also maintaining customer trust. All of these influences boil down to trust.

I think it would be reasonable to expect some level of influence from a sponsor but again, it is about the source. If I have confidence in a business whose blog I read and believe integrity exists between them and any sponsored messages they choose to recieve then I will give benefit of the doubt for the possibility that said recommendations (if they are talking about a sponsored product) can be made objectively. Of course I would still do my fact checking regarding the product itself but the recommendation could have a positive influence on my decision initially because of the confidence I have in that business blog. I trust the business blog, I trust there judgement in whose messages they accept and if their is full disclosure than all is well and the decision is up to me in the end anyway.

Ideally, a business blog isn’t solely about a product or service but more about the context in which the product or service exists. Pheedo is a good example. Therir expertise is RSS Advertising and RSS Marketing. They don’t use their blog as platform to pitch their services directly. They let their expertise do that for them by publishing their case studies, thought leadership and general expertise about a topic I’m interested in but also happens to be a topic that ties directly to their service offering.

So as I engage them more and more on these topics, I am more familiar with their expertise, I’ve become aware of their services and I like and trust their advice and thinking. I then talk about them to others that I know will benefit from their expertise or service and who share the same interest, I may also link back to them and I also inquirer about how they can help me accomplish things they do for their clients. And so goes the community building and collaboration between business and customer. I evangelize to some degree on their behalf while also engaging them with questions, feedback and readership.

Regarding employee or independent, you raise an interesting point that I’m sure is the difference in credibility with some people. I’d be more interested in someone who knows a product or service well and can assist me with questions and support when I need but honestly, I’m more interest in the community benefit. That is, what value is the business delivering to me as an interested prospect or current customer? Again, going back to Pheedo example the value is in the information I get and how I think it’s useful to me. What news, information or entertainment do I get from a particular blog? I’m not engaged in a buying decision process at all times so there needs to be something more to build on.

The business with a community focus will look to use a blog for delivering a stream of information to get conversations going “around” products and services that they deliver. The desired result would be good customer relationships where they matter most for a particular business.

Regards,

TL