Business Blogging

Mazda’s Blogging Mishap

Yesterday, Matthew spoke of companies jumping on the blogging trend much like they did with e-commerce shops years ago. In the comments I mentioned that the difference between the two online “eras” is that with blogging you know much more quickly if you are going to be a success or not. By accident I have found the perfect example and it happened this week.

BL Ochman caught an interesting site made by Mazada, a fake blog or pseudo blog if you will. Here are her thoughts:

Mazda blows it big-time with a fake blog HolloweenM3 that includes not one but three Mazda commercials disguised as videos found by a blogger on public access TV. The lastest video, titled Phantasmagoria, shows a bunch of 20-somethings riding around listening to heavy metal music in a Mazda with some ghouls.

It would be funny if it was run as a TV ad. It’s just stupid in a fake blog.

And you can bet it cost Mazda a gazillion dollars.

Other people in the industry caught wind of the blog as well and felt the same sentiments as Ochman. Funny I thought because if these people didn’t think the blog was going to be successful then there is a good chance that it wouldn’t be successful at all.

I wanted to provide a Business Logs analysis of the site and went to go visit it today, but it was gone. Gone as in it doesn’t exist anymore. There are no previous pages showing. Nothing. I couldn’t even find a Google cache of the site. This is probably the quickest I have seen the blogosphere impact a corporate blog ever. Hopefully Mazda has learned its lesson and will not make the same mistake again.

Corporations who view blogs as marketing gimmicks will quickly find that they are wasting both their time and money with them because the blogosphere does not tolerate this kind of behavior. The market has spoken and Mazda has done nothing but lower its reputation and waste money by trying to exploit a medium that they don’t understand. Bravo.

The Power of the Industry Blog

MarketingProfs has a great article concerning industry blogs and the power they wield with regards to your company’s product and service. Every marketer’s dream is to create a viral marketing campaign that speaks highly of their product. They know once that happens then their product will spread much more rapidly than it could if done soley through traditional marketing means.

When it comes to Internet marketing, one of the ways to kick-start this process is to get your piece of news mentioned on possibly the most effective online mouthpiece around: the industry blog.

Catherine hits the nail on the head and shows why blogs can be such a powerful force in the marketing world. People like to write in their blogs and speak about what they like or dislike. Word of mouth spreads quickly. Get your product a blog and get it mentioned in your industry’s blog (if there isn’t one, why don’t you start one?).

In contrast, company news mentioned by a leading industry blog will be objective — and from a trusted source — so it’s more likely that people would listen.

This goes along with what we have been saying for quite some time now and that is why the blogosphere doesn’t fall for the fake marketing talk. They want and expect honesty. We could have come up with some crazy story for you concerning our whitepaper, but knew that just coming out with the truth was the only way to go.

Advertising on a Small Budget

You have a new product or service to offer, but have a limited marketing budget to spread the word. You could do TV/Radio commercials or buy some Google Ads, however all of these options show little return for what you invest in them. Word of mouth is what you want. Viral marketing.

So what options do you have? Your company could start a product blog. Discuss what makes the product so great. Tell stories about how people are using your product or service. You start talking about it and if they like what they see other people will start to talk about it on their sites.

Google and other search engines begin to pick this up. People find sites through search engines. People start coming from other sites and Google searches.

You don’t need to spend $100,000 on advertising. You can work wonders with a small budget. Maybe you won’t get that initial rush like you would with TV, but this method should show greater long term benefits. This is just one option as we have many more ideas to share and explore over the next couple of months.

Half-life, Full Solution

Scenario: Dr. Louis Thompson teaches Nuclear Physics at The University of South Florida and has a hard time managing his various teaching and research assistants, not to mention all of his students. His university website is cluttered with old links from past semesters, outdated PDFs, and homework answers he never intended to post. He is still a novice computer user, and the complicated content management system that professors are expected to use is almost unusable for him. He wants to have an online resource for his students and assistants, but is lost under a sea of complicated technology.