Corporate Blogging - Useful, or just a game?

A Forrester social media analyst finds that corporate blogs are the least trusted form of information available (see graph above). No surprises that a bunch of people who make money from corporate blogging pop up to disagree (well, they would...).

The first trick in debunking the unwanted data is always to argue that the punter didn't understand the questions and / or the maths was cr*p:

First of all, there’s a clear problem in how the question is worded and/or response quality. You can see this in the data - almost a quarter of respondents report they don’t trust or are neutral about email from people they know. The intention of the question is clear - so why would this number not be very close to 100%? When I ran the question before, it asked about advertising in the channels. This version requires respondents to respond with their own interpretation - might be editorial, might be ads, who knows?

So the numbers are what they are. You still have three variables mixed together that should be isolated and potentially produce a strong case for “why.” There’s channel, content type, and creator - examining these more closely will lead you in the right direction. The Edelman Trust Barometer does a great job here. So does Universal McCann’s Tracking survey.

The second paragraph is not wholly wrong, but I'd argue the data is still indicative.

Or, here is the wrong example ploy:

However, while the data you selected to peg your report on are great for generating a headline, I believe they're ultimately irrelevant. Blogs are a both a communications channel AND a medium, whose value are not proxied well by prompted survey questions among general populations, but instead by the trust developed among engaged niches over time, i.e., customer and industry relationships.

Here's an analogy: Do you trust telephones? No. But you may eventually build trust with the people with whom you talk and do business with via the telephone -- over time.

Um...(most) people do trust the telephone, its company marketeering over it they don't trust. Anyway, then there is the hope over observation ploy:

Of interest to me was how many respondents in the survey said they didn't trust the personal or company blogs, and yet they still reported that they read them.

Sounds to me that the blogs are providing some utility, even if they aren't recording a large amount of trust yet. Obviously there remains an enormous amount of work to be done by bloggers in general to build up trust with their readers, and corporate blogs are unquestionably the worst offenders in this regard. But there are some good examples to emulate out there, as previous comments have noted. The good news out of this for me is that the readers haven't given up on blogs, even if they retain a healthy dose of skepticism about what they read and the source.

Now to be fair, I think the second paragraph is starting to sketch out the answer. In this vein, more useful still are people giving specific examples of what does work and why - via Robin Grant:

I think we’d find that trust levels of individual blogs vary greatly depending on some of the factors you’ve outlined yourself – the brand in question, how the blog is used, what sort of content is produced and how the blogger(s) engage with the audience and the wider community.

At We Are Social, we help Skype run their network of blogs, and we approach it in a very nuanced way, at different times announcing new products, dealing with issues, talking to the fan base and always being a voice in the community, both in Skype’s own blogs and forums and out in the wilds of social media. We think the approach works well...

Our own observation is similar to Robin's above - if the blog is being used to do the same job as the advertising without adding any extra value, it will have the same level of trust. Add to the value of the conversation, and the trust will go up.

To underpin this we turn to Game Theory, specifically the concept of Strong Tells in signalling a willingness to co-operate.Tthe stronger your demonstrated commitment, your willingness to disclose to the other party (the user), the more they are inclined to trust you. Here are some key Strong Tells:

- Commitment: Trust is typically built over a number of experiences (the "Relationship") rather than in a one off.

- Self Criticism: Another Strong Tell is a show of independence - the willingness to actually criticise the company, or apologise - and do something about it!

- Transparency - no obfuscation, just good advice on the how, what, where etc of the product

There are many other situational ones, but the basic rule of the Strong Tell is this - to be trusted, you have to put yourself at risk in some way, so it is clear you are as committed to the Customer Relationship as the customer.

Now, I've heard the horror stories - legal restrictions, the internal compromises even to be able to blog, etc etc - but there is a very simple guifing principle - what Strong Tells are you going to put out?

Now, the original Author also offered some useful advice in the same vein:

Blogs exclusively about companies and products are what I think generate these low trust ratings. So don’t do a blog like that.

Instead, adjust your strategy based on your objectives. (Sound familiar?)

If you want to be a thought leader and helper for your customers, and you blog frequently about those customers’ problems and solutions, then you can generate trust. This takes time and effort, but it will enhance your company’s reputation and it’s worth it.

Ask not what you want your customers to do for you, ask instead what your customers want you to do for them!