Archive for November, 2010

The Center for Marketing Research at the University of Massachusetts released a new study of the Fortune 500’s adoption of blogging and Twitter.  Highlights:

• One hundred-eight (22%) of the Fortune 500 companies have a public-facing blog with a post in the past 12 months. This is up from 16% in 2008.

• Blogging varied by industry type. As might be expected, companies in the computer industry like H-P, Dell and Oracle have the most blogs (11).

• Rank seems to influence the adoption of blogging by the F500 — the larger the company, the more likely to blog.   About 40% of the top 100 companies blog, compared to 19% in the next 100 slots on the list.

• All 108 blogs were examined to determine the level of interactivity the blog allowed — 90% percent of the Fortune 500 blogs take comments, have RSS feeds and take subscriptions

• 93 of the 108 F500 blogs are linked to a corporate Twitter account, a 300% increase over 2008.

• The Fortune 500 companies are blogging at a lower rate (22%) than the fast-growing Inc. 500 companies (45%).

• One hundred and seventy-three (35%) of the primary corporations listed on the 2009 Fortune 500 has a Twitter account with a post within the past 30 days

• The largest company in the world, Exxon Mobil, does not have a Twitter account.

• Four F500 companies (Boeing, Footlocker, FPL Group and Winn-Dixie Stores) had their Tweets protected and required a request to view their profile.

• About 70% of the companies actively engage on Twitter as evidenced by the use of @replies and re-tweets.

• 19% of F500 do podcasting (up from 16%) and 31% are using video on their blog sites (up from 21%).

It’s encouraging to see the adoption of social media tools among large companies, especially Twitter. I’ve also been doing my own research on corporate blogs and some of these companies (GE, Oracle, SAP, Caterpillar) are doing some amazing things with their blogs.

What is your take on these trends?

I am fascinated with uber-blogger Chris Brogan as a cultural icon of the social media revolution.  Whether it’s trying new business models or pioneering sponsored posts, he is our canary in the coal mine, exploring the leading edges of our field.

But  a post this week established a new milestone even for Chris. For your edification and entertainment, I am re-printing the entire post. Under a hand-drawn picture of a stick figure at a podium, he wrote:

“Okay, don’t do this. If you’re going to speak to people, speak TO (or even better WITH) them. Don’t look at your slides, read your slides, and tell me what’s on your slides. I know how to read. Stop it. Okay?”

… That’s it — 41 words.

What is remarkable about this?  Nothing until you see this: 

For you math majors out there, that is 6.7 tweets per word.  Further, Chris received nearly 50 comments, so there were nine more comments than total words in the post.  Ladies and gentlemen, that has to be a new world record.

The comments were uniformly positive and even included words like ”brilliant!!!!” and “awesome.”

I’m going to go WAY out on a limb here.  This is not a brilliant post.  In fact, this is pretty standard presentation advice that has been delivered since the days of flip charts and transparencies. If somebody told you this in a company training program you might roll your eyes and yawn.   I’ll even hypothesize that Chris would admit this does not teeter into his category of “brilliant” posts.

So why the big buzz over 41 not-awesome words?  Taken only at face value, this might indicate the social web is not a meritocracy.  But in this world, what really is?  So there is something else going on here. If we examine this post as a case study, what are the lessons we can learn as mere human bloggers?

Be the brand

Chris is more than a blogger, he is a brand … a big brand in social media terms.  This is an important lesson for two reasons.

1) Yes, you have a brand too. Everything you say — and don’t say — on the social web contributes to your cumulative image, your brand promise. Chris has very carefully curated a powerful image of authentic helpfulness that has endeared him to many loyal fans no matter what he writes.

2) On the blogosphere, people are bigger than the brands they have created. If the CEO of Coke left, Coke would survive. But if Chris turned his blog over to somebody else, the brand would shrivel up.  Here’s the unique opportunity: As a blogger, you ARE the brand.

Blogger as celebrity

Chris gets beaten up a lot by critics but among his loyal fans he has earned a cloak of invincibility associated with celebrity.  In this rarefied status, even the mundane becomes special and true fans are fascinated by his every word. If Chris wrote a post titled “I’m feeling a little gassy today” it would also be tweeted 300 times. (Chris — Please do this. I will PAY you to do this).

The lesson for us?  Unless you are a celebrity, and I’m pretty sure you’re not, you do not have a cloak of invincibility. Your content does matter and it better be compelling and entertaining to earn your reader engagement. Reader loyalty is not an entitlement, it’s a hard-earned honor.

Showing up, not showing off

One of the most important lessons you can learn from Chris’s success is that the guy is committed. Blogging is not an after-thought. It is not something delegated to guest bloggers. You show up and you work it — in his case, for years. He did not get to be our social media teddy bear by blogging once a month. Chris averages 7.5 posts a freaking week.

Chris shows up in other ways, too. Look down Ad Age list of top marketing blogs and he is one of the few who engages in a meaningful way across the social channels. Despite his enormous following, he still pays attention and is humble enough to learn from his tribe.

Simple can be good enough

This post demonstrates that an effective blog post does not have to be a PhD thesis. It doesn’t have to be edited to death.  Write about what’s happening now, what’s in your heart and mind in the moment.  Just do it.

I don’t think Chris intentionally writes for a target demographic.  He writes for himself and obviously has some fun doing it.  He loves to blog and it shows. By writing about what is interesting to him, he didn’t find his audience, his audience found him.

He can be a polarizing figure and I have been a Chris Brogan critic too, but I think we also have to give the guy credit. He has found his formula, he has stuck to it with tenacity and passion and he can now claim success in 50 words or less.

What lessons do you draw from this strange little blog post?

P.S. This post was 804 words long. If I don’t get 804 comments, there is going to be trouble around here.