Forrester Research published a report* yesterday which revealed that corporate blogs are the least trusted information source, with only one in six of those surveyed trusting them.
Initially I assumed that the reason that the trust level was so low was because the people surveyed were online users, so if they were savyy enough to be aware that they were reading a company blog then they would naturally be more cynical and distrusting. but no. Those who identified themselves as regular blog readers or bloggers actually trusted corporate blogs more, with blog readers at 24% and bloggers at 39%.
The rather sad statistic is that those who trust corporate blogs also trust every information source from Wikipedia to direct mail. Which leads to the question, what is the point of a corporate blogging if the only people who trust what you are writing online believe what ever you say anyway no matter what format? Corporates could potentially stick to more traditional and less risky forms of marketing and still have the same result.
However, Forrester advises that you shouldn’t give up on blogging but rather that it “only makes sense as part of a plan” and suggest a few ways to avoid the “low trust trap”. These include blogging about the customer’s problems, to your hordes of fans, to address issues at the core of the community or because you’re a celebrity. It also advises getting employees in on the act, that the media should use blogs to extend their content and audience and finally to have a voice, which it admits is the weakest reason for a company to have a corporate blog.
Overlooking the rather obvious advice that blogging only makes sense as part of a plan, the rest could be neatly summarised as only blog if you actually have a purpose. Much like viral videos, blogging is not a strategy it is a tactic and it will only be successful if it is done in order to achieve a specific objective. The most important question we can ask a client, as communication professionals, when they say that they would like a blog is “Why?”, the second most important question is “what blogs do you currently read?” If they cannot answer those two successfully then we should advise that they hold off on the blogging and get cracking on the reading front.
Businesses also need to be aware that there is more to successful blogging than writing engaging content. Of equal, if not actually of more, importance than the content are the promotion and community management aspects of blogging. Successful blogs engage with readers and other bloggers. We recommend to clients that they would devote two-thirds of their planned blogging time to reading and commenting on other blogs and to responding to comments left on their blog. Both elements are essential in stopping the blog from being used as just another a broadcast platform and in creating a community of interested readers, which should in turn should help it be regarded as a trusted source.
*A short version of the report, “Time to Rethink your Corporate Blogging Ideas” can be downloaded from the Forrester in exchange for contact details.
blogging, blogs
