Don't Fear the Blog

So you’ve started your online community page, and it’s finally time to start inviting colleagues, prospects, and others. “Come; learn; contribute,” you urge, hoping to gather as much content as possible. Then comes the slap in the face: you log into your page, and there, underneath the latest blog post, next to that innocuous little icon that says Post a Comment, is a scathing assessment of your company.

Unfortunately, not all feedback that your community site garners is going to be positive; there are, however, ways that you can deal with this. You can manage your site like a vigilante, eradicating any offending comments and the articles that spawned them, and shrieking “I will make us look good!” into the night; you can choose to ignore the negative comments and hope that other visitors to your blog do the same; or you can see the comments as constructive feedback and use them as a basis for improvement. As strategists in relationships, we suggest the latter.

It is possible to make sure that undesirable content never reaches the eyes of your viewers to begin with: most blogs offer the site administrator the opportunity to preview comments before publishing; if you don’t like it, you can delete it. The danger here is the reputation that you earn for your company when a handful of people submitting honest, productive criticism notice that their postings are conspicuously always missing (can you say “Big Brother”?). You also don’t do yourself any favors when you publish a negative post without addressing the issue therein. That tells your readers that either you don’t pay enough attention to your blog to know what’s posted there or that you don’t pay enough attention to your clients to acknowledge their feedback. Plus, any other visitors to your site will believe those critical comments unless you give them a reason not to.

The best rule of thumb is to treat a belligerent blogger or negative entry the same way that you would treat a difficult client, employee or colleague in person: acknowledge the complaint, apologize, work through the issue, and always be constructive. Publish a counter-post as soon as possible; if you truly believe that the criticism is unfair, firmly reassert your standing and give evidence to support yourself. If you plan on actually changing company policy or procedures, say so, but don’t say that you’re going to change if you don’t really mean it. Hopefully, the criticism will stop once it’s been acknowledged; if you find yourself repeatedly defending yourself from the same reader, they may be unappeasable and just trying to harm your company or gain attention. It’s then that you may want to consider screening that user’s comments and refusing to post some of them.

Blogs actually allow a rare and previously non-existent outlet for expression from the masses; the anonymity afforded by the Internet opens the door to uninhibited, honest communication on an entirely new level. Before starting your online community, you must understand and be comfortable with the fact that everyone is going to use that forum to tell you exactly how they feel. It won’t always be what you want to hear. Embrace it, because that’s what relationships are about. With a little confidence and charm, you can turn even the most blatant criticism into an opportunity for growth, change, and even good PR. Open yourself to this possibility, and don’t fear the blog.

Online Communities: They're not just for trendy teenagers anymore.

We all know what MySpace is. We’ve all heard of Facebook. (If you actually don’t know what I’m talking about, I apologize; drop me a line and let me know what it’s been like living under that rock.) But how many of us are actually tapped into these resources? If you think that online communities are just for trendy teenagers, it’s time to think again. Virtual communities are emerging across age, industry, and lifestyle as one of the greatest networking and informational tools to which we have access. So don’t be afraid to jump right in and see where the wave takes you.

Virtual social networks offer many more benefits than just learning your coworker’s favorite bands or sneaking a peak at how many “friends” your competitors have. Creating or joining one of these networks creates what is in essence an instant networking platform, where you can meet, learn about, and collaborate with individuals, companies, resources, organizations and more. Not only is the door open to traditional business networking, but it affords the opportunity for the exchange of any kind of information you’d like: prior work, suggestions, contests, networking forums, archived information- the list goes on and on. A corporate online community can also give your employees, clients, and associates unique voices that almost become testimonials to the human side of your business.

A virtual community can serve many functions and in some cases supercedes the need for a traditional web site. It can become a significant part of your business communications strategy. Let employees write their own bios and credentials, deliver company news as blog or bulletin board entries, post photo and video galleries from clients. Plug in content from other notable authorities relevant to what you sell. The possibilities are endless and the communication is two-way. Invite prospects, clients and resources to join groups and engage with you and each other. It becomes a single, layered, yet easy-to-use interactive package. In essence, your community site becomes a publishing system for a full range of business and personal content.

So you’ve heard the arguments for starting a community site, and you’re pretty sure it would take your company in the right direction; now you’re just not sure how to take that initial step, right? How do you even begin to tap into all of the marvelous resources that an online community can offer? It’s definitely possible to manage a community site the wrong way, and you shouldn’t grope in the dark trying to create or maintain your site. Before adding any content, you must evaluate the specific purposes you want the site to serve and what kind of content can help achieve these goals. Think about how you want to portray your company and who will be viewing your content. A professional marketing or strategic firm with experience in community sites can help you create a site that moves beyond favorite songs and goofy news to create truly marketable, viewer-worthy content.

A word of warning: your online community won’t become an all-in-one, ready-to-go magnetic resource overnight. It will take time to raise awareness and gain membership, and it will even take time for you to become familiar and comfortable with all of the opportunities that your site affords. Get the ball rolling by “seeding” the site with content: begin with your own profile, add photos, video and news, and make it a point to prompt discussions and subgroups. Be sure that internal people and close associates actively participate in the exchange; a community doesn’t work with just one member! Once you have lain down this basic foundation, you can begin to invite more sensitive outside sources to visit the site, set up their own profiles, and begin to exchange information. Before you know it, content will begin to blossom in ways you’d never thought possible.

Refreshing Local Music. Rocking Local Beer.

After 20 years of working with partners like WXRT to sponsor live local music in and around Chicago, the Goose Island Beer Company decided to create its own program to promote local music. The program was launched on July 11th at Goose Island's own invitation only open house in a run up to that weekend's Pitchfork Music Festival in Union Park, for which Goose island was the official beer sponsor.

The program, named "312unes", is focused on promoting undiscovered local talent while encouraging drinkers to choose a better beer when they visit some of Chicago's better known music venues. For Goose the concept for 312unes was simple - 312, a rocking local beer + rocking local bands = a rocking local landscape.

Torque is pleased to have designed the logo, website, advertising, coasters and giveaway items for 312unes.

To learn more about 312unes visit the official program website at 312unes.com or watch a video overview of our 312unes work here.

Making today's hottest trend work for you : The benefits of online video

As of October 2006, more Americans watched Internet video than had televisions in their homes. 30 million people have logged onto Youtube and other video hosting sites to watch the trailer for Spider-Man 3, and over five million have watched the Miller Lite “catfight” commercial online. The online video phenomenon has gone beyond the concept of the next big thing to become the perfect expression of what consumers want right now. Why is that, and what does it mean for your business? (Check out this site for more statistics on the hottest online video clips.)

Consumers today have become accustomed to instant informational gratification, thanks to such technological innovations as cell phones, text messaging, Google, wi-fi, instant home page news updates, and even online library catalogs. Full-color, high-definition LED displays are becoming the norm everywhere, enabling businesses to not only state what they do but to show video footage to consumers passing by on the street. We don’t just like to be spoon-fed our information; we demand it.

Broadband Internet access has the greatest impact on Internet video of any technological innovation. According to a 2006 study by eMarketer, broadband Internet is the fastest growing segment of the Web, creating “an unprecedented consumer demand in Internet-distributed rich media.” Broadband users have been proven to spend more time online, do more things, and do them more often than their dial-up counterparts. Naturally, as American broadband saturation continues to increase, so, too, will the viewing of online video content. (Click here for more statistics on Internet usage and trends.)

Internet video is especially appealing to consumers because it channels information directly into the brain; the combination of motion, graphics, voice, music and still images makes video the ultimate sensory learning experience. Statistics have proven time and again that viewers will skim a web page’s written content but watch a video in its entirety. In addition, video works to counteract the sterile, impersonal environment of a web page. It creates a feeling of interacting and connecting that is traditionally absent in technical endeavors.

This is all very interesting, but does can online video really help you sell your product? In a word, yes. At Torque, we’ve noticed tremendous customer response to online videos that we’ve prepared for clients. Nationwide, online video has proven to be one of the greatest converters of customers; not only does video content continuously boast a higher rate of viewers than static PDFs, but these viewers are more likely to act on what they have seen. Even video that is not specifically sales-oriented will lead to higher closing rates, as it will capture the interest of viewers and entice them to spend time on your website learning more about your services. In fact, eMarketer released a report this week showing that of the 80% of viewers who had watched an online video ad as of June 6, 2007, over half had taken some action, ranging from talking to friends and family members about the product to actually making a purchase.

Online video is here to stay. In a society in which reading levels are dropping to make way for more graphic forms of information transfer, creating an online video ad or even a short informational clip is your passport to a consumer’s heart, mind, and wallet. As Erin Hunter, senior vice president of comScore Networks Media and Entertainment Solutions puts it, “People want more than a two-dimensional experience online…[Online video] creates a fantastic opportunity for advertisers to capitalize on what is now a mainstream audience.”