The back story: Coined in 1997 by Jorn Barger of the Robot Wisdom Web site, the term “Weblog” — later shortened to the more commonly used “blog”— originally meant a list of highly recommended and often-annotated links to sites the author thought well worth your while. Later, bloggers evolved that pioneering usage into the more common one of frequently updated musings, rants, and digressions. From 23 blogs known to exist in 1999, numbers swarmed to 184 million by 2008, according to the New York-based media agency Universal McCann.
How it works: While many businesses start blogs on their own Web sites, there are numerous services online, often free, where you can quickly set up a blog, including Blogger (www.blogger.com), WordPress (www.wordpress.com), TypePad (www.typepad.com), Pitas (www.pitas.com), and Tumblr (www.tumblr.com). Most offer free, advertising-supported blogs but will charge for ad-free upgraded versions that offer additional features. Once you start blogging, the rules are pretty straightforward: Blog entries are usually no more than a few paragraphs in length, are frequently displayed in reverse-chronological order (with the newest post appearing first), and are usually organized by date, topic, and/or identifying labels called tags.
How exhibitors are using it: Knowing the impact bloggers now wield, NBC Universal courted these Internet-enabled influencers at the 2009 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. The company invited a select group of media- and tech-related bloggers by e-mail to its Sharp/NBC Universal Multimedia Lounge, a 20-by-40-foot space adjacent to its exhibit.
Designed by the New York-based experiential-marketing firm Jack Morton Worldwide Inc., the lounge tempted these wired writers with techno-catnip: LCD televisions, a Blu-Ray movie area, gaming stations, and high-speed connections to the Web. On the “Blogger Stage” inside the lounge, the bloggers could write, conduct interviews, and record podcasts. NBC sweetened the bait for unaffiliated bloggers by inviting several of them from its own high-profile properties, such as NBC News, the Syfy Channel’s Dvice Web site, and iVillage.com, among others.
In all, more than 100 of the invited guest bloggers and podcasters set up shop during CES in NBC’s lounge. Their blog posts extended NBC’s promotional reach to thousands of readers and listeners.
Livonia, MI-based live communications agency EWI Worldwide capitalized on a similar Web 2.0 strategy at EXHIBITOR2008, a conference and exhibition for exhibit and event marketers. But rather than inviting pre-existing bloggers to its booth, EWI invited attendees to impromptu in-booth blogging sessions.
Setting up two laptops in its booth, the company offered visitors the chance to come in and sound off about ... pretty much anything they wanted. Leery of the typical pep-rally voice in corporate Weblogs, EWI decided its blog would be like a white board on which everyone could grab a marker and express their thoughts. Keeping the pre-show promotion at a low simmer, EWI spread word about the blog through a brief mention in a few press releases.
When attendees entered the 30-by-40-foot booth, staff directed them to the laptop stations. EWI salted the blog with relaxed-fit observations on educational sessions at the show. Taking their cue from that, visitors sat down and checked out EWI’s insights or knocked off a couple sentences. From this undemanding but engaging social activity, EWI estimates it doubled attendees’ average booth visit from five to 10 minutes. But the real payoff was in the long term.
Now operating as its own Web site, the booth blog morphed into a freestanding one called Your Story Alive (currently available at www.yourstoryalive.com), where EWI personnel post on a potpourri of topics and field comments just as diverse from the blog’s readers on the nature of weaving your corporate story into your marketing efforts. Thanks in part to its introduction at EXHIBITOR2008, the blog realized a 2,800-percent increase in traffic in the first two months following the show, creating another point of contact for EWI and its customers.
The takeaway: Use business blogs as part of a long-term strategy for communicating with customers. Cultivate a non-corporate voice for them. Urge readers to comment openly on your posts. Set up a separate area where customers and the media can blog for you — and ideally about you — in your booth.
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