CT Biz Blogs

The main three reasons for blogging are listed at the top of this site:

• Connect with your customers
• Share your expertise and thoughts
• Build your business

What does that mean? I’ll tackle these one at a time in a series of posts.

Connect with customers:

“Markets are conversations,” says The Cluetrain Manifesto.

The first markets were filled with talk. Some of it was about goods and products. Some of it was news, opinion, and gossip. Little of it mattered to everyone; all of it engaged someone. There were often conversations about the work of hands: “Feel this knife. See how it fits your palm.” “The cotton in this shirt, where did it come from?” “Taste this apple. We won’t have them next week. If you like it you should take some today.” Some of these conversations ended in a sale, but don’t let that fool you. The sale was merely the exclamation mark at the end of the sentence.

Customers still want that today. They are looking for ways to communicate — to listen and to be heard.

Weblogs represent a way to have a conversation. Sometimes it’s a “distributed” conversation — one blogger writes a post, another blogger responds on his or her blog, and the conversation goes back and forth. Sometimes passionate customers create their own weblogs to talk about their experiences with products. (Netflix, for example.)

Sometimes it’s a conversation through the comments feature, which all weblogs should have. Again, from the Hacking Netflix site — the blogger asked a question, and got much praise for Netflix in the comments.

Customers don’t want to be shouted at and they aren’t interested in being manipulated to want your product or service. They want you to supply them with what they need. Sometimes you have to explain to them why they need something. But mostly, you have to listen to them.

That’s where weblogs come in. A weblog is a part of the conversations that are going on now, all around the world, via the Internet. They’re dynamic, immediate, engaging, and happening 24/7. The best part is –you don’t have to stay awake 24/7 to take part in them.

You do have to be out there, in the Internet, with a public, available space for communicating your ideas, asking your questions, sharing your expertise, and listening for the answering voices.