Modern Insider – Online Marketing Blog

These days almost no one escapes the talk about blogs, communities, Facebook, Twitter and so forth. These mediums have become the talk of the news often trumping the content its self and with massive adoption they are exploding into just about every corner. However with so many discussion points companies have run into a hurtle – where to focus efforts? How to chose the “right” channel.

Start with the bloggers… There’s no doubt that blogs are important — some call them the new newspapers, others say its journalism simply gone digital, but either way many influential bloggers exist and top blogs have a serious reach. But does that really make blogs the spot to be? It’s a difficult question to answer. After all blogs show up well in search results, strong arguments get shared and passed around on social networking sites and in email and they exist for as long as the owner wants with archives that most other channels don’t have. Still it’s rare to hear a consumer talk about seeking out numerous blogs to do research because they are blogs. Sure some people follow a few especially as it pertains to their professional life or major hobbies but when it comes time to buy that car, to upgrade the tv or find a moving company blogs often end up as the destination because of their search placement more than their nature as blogs.

Then you have the major social networking sites which range from photo sharing sources to professional networking and even micro-blogging. Like with blogs these sites have super users but also many, many, many more casual users who make up their vast reaching networks. That’s about where things stop though. On one hand there’s an element that social marketing has that blogs just get – and that’s personal connection. When a friend endorses, or insults a company on Facebook, you immediately know why. When your former colleague answers a LinkedIn question you know if you trust them or not. But unlike with blogs their relevance in search is questionable… communities may rank well but it’s just about unheard of to see a Facebook page answering a question about the MPG of Toyota’s new Hybrid.

Social networks also have the advantage of pushing information out. Where blogs rely on sharing and search to be found Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace feed profile changes, status updates, reviews and loads of other content out. This exposes people who may never have been looking to all sorts of things they would never have otherwise seen and is basically a digital form of word of mouth powered by a much bigger voice.

Finally there are niche social communities. While not as well known or highly trafficked as the broad social networks, communities pull together some of the benefits found in each. Personal communications bring members together, alerts and updates reach out to networks, and open URLs make them search engine friendly and great sources for consumer research. Communities are however more fickle. It’s not simply a matter of being a participant or posting an ad; companies must find out how each works in detail and participate beyond comments about themselves and their topics. Companies must participate in many places to reach less people and must be aware of sings in focus and even ownership. When done right there’s a lot of value, when done wrong it’s asking for disaster thanks to a lot of negative comments and chatter.

All of these channels come with perception downsides as well. In discussing this very topic today with two entirely different non-web people I was given two great examples about why they don’t tend to follow blogs. For one it is because of trust issues and for the other they simply don’t know where to find them in relation to any other page. However if I ask friends about the use of social networks to get recommendations or practical information many people point to inadequate responses that just don’t have the meat that blogs (and other sources) tend to include. Whether it’s not enough trust or not enough expertise the options are not perfect.

I think it’s safe to say that focusing on one side of the table is only to your own detriment. Blogs have followers, and finders. They influence, they get pointed to and they are open. Social networks may be less about a single topic (although there are many, many niche communities) and certainly less concise (many posts, many items to evaluate) but they reach deeper and access personal, one to one relationships that motivate in a whole other way. And communities drive people to engage as one to one around a topic creating a whole new spin in the term “enthusiast”.

Ultimately you need to do is figure out where the balance lies for your company. Figure out who you’re trying to reach and where and make the most of it.

If you’re a larger focused consumer facing organization, being well represented in blogs will help with research, communities with getting to your core customers but social networks will drive the mass appeal and involvement to make big numbers. But if you’re focused on trying to get a smaller segment to act, or just want to reach a more core audience for a smaller product focus, it may be ideal to shift away from the big networks and focus on the relevant followed blogs and forums. Similarly if your demographic is very socially active more effort would go there than to blogs and vise versa.

It’s all a matter of picking the right battles based on your needs and not mistaking the trend talked about on TV with the one you actually need to get your name, product or discussion out there.