Transform Your Business Blog

Ever wish you had a place to submit stories about Japan and vote on them? Now you do.

I recently stumbled on JapanSoc, a new site that looks like it’s putting a pretty good idea to work. On the site’s about page, it simply says, “JapanSoc is a social bookmarking site, devoted to news and stories about Japan.”

Creator Nick Ramsay has created a platform that anyone who uses Digg will find familiar. The idea is simple - when you come across a story you like that’s related to Japan, submit it to the site. Users then vote for the stories they like and the cream floats to the top.

Given the explosion in the number of Japan-related blogs and sites in English that we’ve seen over the past two years, this is bound to attract some attention. There don’t seem to be a whole lot of users on JapanSoc yet, but that will change once some of the bigger Japan blogs start linking to it and talking about it.

And then we’ll just be waiting for the Japanese version!

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Recently I had someone ask me for some examples of blogs with content focused on Japan that I thought were well done. Two examples came straight to mind: Clast and What Japan Thinks. I think these are two good examples because they have such different styles. Clast is a corporate blog, which updates only a few times a month and takes a decidedly academic approach in its writing on marketing. Anyone whose work involves marketing in Japan should already be reading this blog, though it is certainly built for a wider audience. W David Marx’s recent piece on trends in Japan is certainly worth your time. My only complaint about Clast is that I wish it were updated more frequently.

The second blog I mentioned, What Japan Thinks, is also written by a single person, though it’s not a corporate blog. Ken Yasumoto-Nicholson updates his site frequently - almost on a daily basis - and provides one of the only sources for Japanese opinion polls that have been translated into English.

What Japan Thinks covers the serious, silly, consumer and even sometimes political angles. It’s an interesting read because although the blog is obviously filling a niche, it does not get too narrow and has plenty of space to breathe and be able to provide social commentary.

Well, those are the two blogs I wanted to introduce this time. What are you still doing here? Go read them!

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Cnet.com is a rocking site if you’re into the latest technology and gadgets. However, Webware, Cnet’s little cousin, is one of my favorite places to find out about the latest web-based software and productivity tools.

A short while ago, Webware announced the winners of the top 100 Webware sites for 2007. They’re divided up into categories: Browsing, Communication, Media, Mobile, Publishing, etc.

I see some of the products I can’t live without: Firefox, Gmail, Skype, Digg, BitTorrent, You Tube, Last.fm, Feedburner, Google Docs & Spreadsheets, Adobe, Wikipedia, and of course: Word Press.

Webware’s users have voted on an interesting list, with a few products I haven’t used before but might give a whirl: Poll Daddy looks appealing, though I’m wondering why it might be better than using (or programming) a plug-in for Word Press. Any Poll Daddy users out there to tell us why it’s a winner?

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At a discussion over lunch today, the topic of Burger King moving back into the Japanese market came up. We were talking about how they would handle the marketing for their second time around, and the question as to whether or not Burger King would make use of “the King” came up. If you’re not familiar with the King, Slate’s Seth Stevenson has done the best write-up of this marketing phenomenon that I’ve come across.

Here’s the King’s Super Bowl ad:

My thoughts were that the King could generate fresh buzz marketing in Japan, if played right. Given the massive blog scene in Japan, a few viral videos could spread very quickly, should Burger King hook up with the right marketing agencies. Any thoughts?

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I included this quote in my previous post:

If I had asked my customers what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse.

- Henry Ford

We all know what a faster horse is, depending on what industry we work in. A ‘faster horse’ may be an advantage or a small improvement over a competitor, but it’s not truly innovative and doesn’t move the customer to feel loyal to your brand. In other words, a faster horse is something that, if two products or services are essentially equal, will give one a slight advantage over the other…it’s a tweak.

That might sound great, but consider price. Price is a faster horse. Maybe I sell pencils and you sell pencils. Perhaps they’re even the exact same pencils, made at the same factory. We both get them wholesale for five cents each and sell them for ten cents each. If I drop my price to nine cents, I will most likely outsell you. Same product, lower price. A faster horse.

The problem: You can undercut my price, and I can undercut yours again. Competing on the faster horse is a huge waste of time, energy and resources because we’re involved in a war of attrition. Neither of us is creating something new and eventually, we’ll both be selling pencils for six cents, until one (or both) of us goes out of business. Horses only go so fast.

In the meantime, someone will come along and actually change the product. He or she will sell something different - a blue pencil, a pen/pencil combination, a pencil that doubles as chopsticks, a pencil/mp3 player combination - something that our former customers want, but never imagined.

This person will change the industry, and probably put us out of business before we do it to each other. And we will most likely curse him or her as we race away from the pencil factory on our faster horses.

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For most web developers, CGI stands for Common Gateway Interface. It’s a way to deliver dynamic content, usually using the Perl programming language.

But I’ve decided to rebrand CGI - as Change, Grow and Innovate. Those are the three concepts behind what we do, and the reasons why we even started out as a company. I could easily go back to the jobs I used to do (except for that company that went under), but I’d rather challenge myself to change, grow and innovate with my own business.

Here are some quotes on each topic that I’ve enjoyed:

Change

“It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory.”
- W. Edwards Deming

“If you want to truly understand something, try to change it.”
- Kurt Lewin

“If nothing ever changed, there would be no butterflies.”
- Anonymous

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
- Margaret Mead

Growth

“There came a time when the risk to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.”
- Anais Nin

“Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people do that.”
- Mark Twain

“I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it.”
- Pablo Picasso

Innovation

“If you have always done it that way, it is probably wrong.”
- Charles Kettering

“He that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils; for time is the greatest innovator.”
- Sir Francis Bacon, “On Innovation”

“If I had asked my customers what they wanted they would have said a faster horse.”
- Henry Ford

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Seth Godin has given us a (perhaps all-too familiar) list of excuses entitled, “Top ways to defend the status quo.” We can read them and laugh a bit to ourselves, but they’re still painful to hear in real-life meetings, coming from the voices of real-life members of a firm’s ‘leadership’ team. Amongst the excuses:

• That will never work.
• Well, this might work for other people, but I think we’ll stick with what we’ve got.
• Well, if you had some real-world experience, then you would understand.

Check out the original post for the rest of the list. Hats off to the Canning Collaborative Learning Commons for bringing this to my attention.

A few I’d like to add to the original list:

• We’re waiting for the next big thing
• We’ll need to see that in a Power Point
• I like the idea, but I don’t think we have time to implement it

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There are plenty of guides to business blogging out there, but I thought I’d share eleven pointers that I’ve picked up through my own experience. Following these will put any business blog on the path to success - which we should define as carrying a stable, interested readership.

1. Get personal - Use your first and last name and have a picture of yourself on the blog. This is true for all members of your orginazation who post to the blog, if it’s used in common. Include a short bio as well. Not only does this help people become more familiar with the people behind the logo, it also lends some credibility to the authors and organization iteself.

2. Don’t get too personal - Few business blogs can get away with posting information about family events or pets. It’s a distraction. Focus on what people came to read.

3. Have clearly defined categories - Nothing is more frustrating than not knowing what the names in the category menu mean. With that in mind, keep the number of categories under ten, as a general rule. Too many categories is a sign that a blog is losing its focus.

4. Do not post a series of product release information - It’s boring. People won’t bookmark it and come back unless your business happens to be Ferrari. The regular website is the place for this, under the ‘products’ heading or sprinkled on the sidebar.

5. Spelling and grammar - ‘Nuff said.

6. Make sure permalinks and trackback links work - I’ve seen many blogs where they haven’t worked. They had a great idea and I wanted to link to them, but the trackback didn’t work. Blogging is about community and links, so make sure that people can easily permalink or trackback to you and help spread your ideas.

7. Keep out spam - The War on Spam hardly seems winnable, but there are way to keep your blog free of it. One is to be vigilant and keep an eye on your recent comments. There are blogs that don’t allow comments, or force people to register to make comments, but I think this takes away from a blog’s appeal to the community.

8. Use Technorati - A lot of people search Technorati for interesting blogs. If you’re blogging enough and with the right keywords and links, you will appear in their searches. If other people like what you write, they will link to you. Someday, you might even end up one of the highest ranked blogs on Technorati, which is quite an accomplishment.

9. Make use of links, trackbacks, and comments - Links on your own blog help with search engine visibility, as well as point people to further reading on a topic. Trackbacks show someone that you liked what they had to say. And commenting in other blogs tells them, “Hi! I’m here. I’ve got great stuff to say, come read my blog.”

10. Show your business from a new angle - A blog is your chance to show your culture to the world. Let customers see what they usually can’t. Stonyfield Farm’s blog occasionally posts video clips of their cows. This is wonderful - it actually allows us to see what goes on at the farm on a day-to-day basis. It builds an on-demand connection to the business that traditional marketing and advertsing can’t do.

11. Have fun! - If blogging about your business isn’t fun, it must be an awful place to work. Imagine a blog (literally) from hell. Try new things and speak your mind and let out some new ideas. If your business seems fun, they’ll come back for more.

There you have it. I’m sure there are plently more good tips, so let me have it if you think I’ve forgotten something!

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For the inaugural post in the Ireja Transform Your Business Blog, we have a short quiz. No cheating!

Question: What do the following people have in common?

1. Bob Parsons - CEO and founder of GoDaddy.com
2. Federico Minoli - CEO and President of Ducati
3. Hu Yoshida - Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of Hitachi Data Systems
4. Irving Wladawsky-Berger - Vice President, Technical Strategy and Innovation at IBM
5. John Mackey - CEO of Whole Foods Market

Stumped? Here’s a hint: It lets customers hear from them directly.

Ok, a few more:

1. Jonathan Schwartz - President and CEO of Sun Microsystems
2. Mark Cuban - Owner of the Dallas Mavericks
3. Randy Baseler - Vice President of Marketing at Boeing
4. Richard Edelman - President and CEO of Edelman
5. Karen Christensen - CEO of the Berkshire Publishing Group

Still wondering? Another hint: It helps them tell the story behind their companies.

A few more:

1. Bob Langert - Vice President of Corporate Responsibility at McDonalds
2. Bob Lutz - Vice Chairman of General Motors
3. Mena Trott - President and Co-Founder of Six Apart
4. Craig Newmark - Founder and Director of Craigslist.com
5. David Sifry - Founder and CEO of Technorati

You got it, right? I’ll give it up just in case:

Answer: They are all blogging.

Name links go to the blogs. Any questions?

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