A blog post from 2007
I wrote about blogging as a senior in college. A few months later, I interviewed with the Minnesota Timberwolves and got my first sports job that summer. Back then, bloggers were sort of outcasts. There were a lot of debates about giving bloggers media credentials to cover sports. Media companies like ESPN embraced Bill Simmons and promoted page 2, and my favorite hoops blog was written by Henry Abbot, Truehoop.
Content producers broke the media cycle and more voices were heard and fans had unprecedented access. I learned many lessons from reading blogs and my curiosity about how does a fan becomes a fan started then. I asked myself questions like; how does content drive brand? Do fans become more of a fan when they engage in content? How do fans evolve over time? What place do storytellers have in fan acquisition? I tackled those questions for the next 15 years of my career and I hope to share some of those insights next…
College paper:
On-line Blogging:
The effects on today’s marketing
Internet blogging has exploded. There are an estimated 3000 new bloggers joining the Internet. Blogging websites such as Myspace.com, Fatwallet.com, and Blogger.com has taken blogging to the mainstream. According to a Perseus study; over 90 percent of blogs are authored by people between the ages of 13 and 29, with 51.5 percent between the ages of 13 and 19(http://www.perseus.tufts.edu). Consumers and marketers today are taking advantage of this new communication tool.
Overview:
Advertisers have discovered Blogging can be a direct communication tool to reach their consumers. There are several companies that took advantage of this new method of marketing. Furthermore; CEOs and VPs of marketing are utilizing the Internet to express their personal thoughts on happenings in their industry. They are blogging for the same reasons they do public speaking. Blogging builds credibility for themselves and their companies. Blogging has become a new, faster, and cheaper way to reach potential and current customers.
Case Study:
Brand Royal Enfield
Brands Royal Enfield is an English motorcycle company that effectively utilizes blogging as a marketing tool to attract consumers’ attention to their company.
Royal Enfield gave bikes to a group of bloggers who were allowed to ride off on a day trip. People had a good time, three bloggers bought the bike, but more importantly, everyone wrote about it on their blogs.
Royal Enfield’s blog site for consumers to blog about their products and others is
http://www.mouthshut.com/Product/categories.php?cid=925022
Blog sites by CEOs and Marketing management:
Mark Cuban: http://www.blogmaverick.com/
Alan Meckler: http://weblogs.jupitermedia.com/meckler/
Jonathon Schwartz: http://blogs.sun.com/jonathan
Robin Hopper: http://hopper.iupload.com/default.asp?item=45206&
Toby Bloomberg: http://www.bloombergmarketing.blogs.com/
Examples of Marketers using Blogs to grab their consumers’ attention:
http://www.blogbusinessworld.blogspot.com/
http://www.mouthshut.com/Product/categories.php?cid=925022
Terapad.com
http://www.realtyblogging.com/real-estate-marketing/
Examples of Consumers using Blogs to converse about products:
http://www.retailevents.co.uk/blog/?cat=8
http://www.fatwallet.com/c/49/
http://retailstore.blogspot.com/
http://www.consumerblogs.org.nz/davidrussell/2006/06/taxi.html
http://www.bloggersblog.com/consumerblogs/
http://blogs.consumeraffairs.com/bosworth/
http://houseblogger.typepad.com/
Literature published about Blog Marketing:
"Albuquerque Ad Agency '3' Re-Creates Its Website as an Advertising and Marketing Blog." SYS CON Media. 14 Sept. 2006 <http://www.sys-con.com/read/271445.htm>.
Beck, Greg. "This Blog is False and Misleading (in New York)." Public Citizen. 14 Sept. 2006 <http://pubcit.typepad.com/clpblog>.
Gardner, Susan. Buzz Marketing with Blogs for Dummies. New Jersey: Willey, 2005.
Hotlz, Shel, and Ted Demopoulos. Blogging for Business: Everything You Need to Know and Why You Should Care.
Hung, Tony. "MySpace May End Marketing as We Know It." Blog Hearld. 14 Sept. 2006 <http://www.blogherald.com/2006/09/13/myspace-may-end-marketing-as-we-know-it/>.
"Inc. 500 Company Lunches Blog Marketing." Press Release News Wire. 14 Sept. 2006 <http://www.prweb.com/releases/pepperjam/blog/prweb435721.htm>.
Moody, Glyn. "Who are the Hacker Bloggers?" Linux Journal. 14 Sept. 2006 <http://www.linuxjournal.com/node/1000094>.
"New Player in the Blogging Market Comes to Town." Net4Now. 14 Sept. 2006 <http://www.net4now.com/isp_news/news_article.asp?News_ID=3695>.
Ord, Rich. Web Pro World. 14 Sept. 2006 <http://webproworld.com/viewtopic.php?t=29586>.
"Professionals Discuss “Beyond Blogging 101” At Monthly IABC Luncheon." Daily Buisness News. 14 Sept. 2006 <http://atlanta.dbusinessnews.com/shownews.php?newsid=92337&type_news=latest>.
"PubSub to Offer Blog Search Functionality for BurrellesLuce Media Monitoring Services." PubSub Sandbox. 14 Sept. 2006 <http://www.toprankblog.com/>.
Scoble, Rob, and Shel Israle. Naked Conversations: How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers. New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons, 2006.
"Valtira Unveils Version 3.0 of the Simplicis Marketing Dashboard." Promotion World. 14 Sept. 2006 <http://www.promotionworld.com/news/press/060914SimplicisMarketingSoftware.html>.
Weil, Debbie. The Corporate Blogging Book: Absolutely Everything You Need to Know to Get It Right.
Wright, Jermey. "Blog Marketing." Blogmarketingbook. 14 Sept. 2006 <http://www.blogmarketingbook.com/>.
Wright, Jermy. Blog Marketing. New York: McGraw Hill, 2006.
Zoyab, Alaphia. "Blogging, the New Marketing Tool for Advertisers." NDTV. 14 Sept. 2006 <http://www.ndtv.com/morenews/showmorestory.asp?category=National&slug=Blogging,+the+new+marketing+tool+&id=93141>.
