Pete Blackshaw, CMO of Nielsen BuzzMetrics, has written a thoughtful book review cum analysis of the current state of corporate blogging in his latest article for ClickZ: Corporate Blogging: Great Liberator of Oxymoron.
A bit of the backstory… he peppered me with questions via email last week before writing the column. Then went off and wrote his own thing. It’s the most substantive and useful review I’ve read to date. He really gets it — both my book (it was published last week) and blogging as it relates to business. For example, he writes:
There’s nothing terribly novel or catchy about the title, “The Corporate Blogging Book,” but this speaks volumes about the book’s straight-to-the-point practicality and usefulness. – Pete Blackshaw
Thanks Pete. Would you believe that Penguin Portfolio and I spent months coming up with that title? Ultimately it was my suggestion. I thought an obvious, clearly descriptive title would get picked up in Google searches; it has.
I also wanted a “corporate-friendly” title that wouldn’t scare off my intended readers. Much as I love Naked Conversations as a title, those (naked c’s) are about the last thing a corporate suit wants to have.
Pete also puts me in august blogging company by mentioning me in the same breath with Robert Scoble (who is, I gotta say from personal acquaintance, an awfully nice guy):
Like Robert Scoble, she projects both authenticity and humility. This comes across in her blog as well. She’s a great listener and reluctant to over-preach blog dogma or must-haves until she’s absorbed lots of content and conversations about the topic. – PB
Towards the end of his article, Pete picks a small nit by questioning whether I go deeply enough into how a blog fits with a company’s operational culture. He writes:
… though Weil gets it right about the power and importance of authenticity, she misses some key opportunities to discuss the conspicuous disconnects between a corporate blog’s “come talk to me” welcome mat and the typical customer service department’s unmistakably grim “don’t talk to me” sign. – PB
Good point. Pete is talking about the execution phase of corporate blogging, how it fits in not just with a company’s marketing efforts but with everything a company does in interacting with customers.
As yet this is an area too new and unformed to be written about decisively (at least it was by my Dec. 31, 2005 deadline for the book). Of course, it’s great fodder for the next edition of The Corporate Blogging Book… or for my next book should it be on a related topic!
Useful Links
Corporate Blogging: Great Liberator of Oxymoron (Pete Blackshaw’s ClickZ column – August 8, 2006)
Should Corporations or Brands Blog: Why and How? (on Pete’s ConsumerGeneratedMedia blog)