Marketers, Get to Know Joe Blog

Posting’s been light the last few days, for no real reason other than my laziness, but some issues have been stewing in the back of my head and I’ll be posting more on them here shortly...

This post has to do with a comment Robert Scoble made recently that hit at the heart of something I’ve been thinking, writing and talking with others about for a while now.  It has to do with the way marketers currently think about blogs and to a broader extent, online influence:

I find that marketers pay too much attention to the head of the tail and not enough to the bloggers who have maybe five readers, but are highly trusted by those five readers.

It’s true.  Speaking from my own experience, I really think a disproportionate amount of attention is placed on bloggers in the front (or head) of a news cycle.  Why?  Because everrryone wants a high-impact story – the type that not only generates traditional media coverage that trickles down, but also online buzz that bubbles up.

Take a peek inside any marketer’s playbook and I’ll bet you’ll see a variation of this equation: information + access + audience = greater % of attention.

It’s a pretty simple formula which is probably why it’s so widely used.  Typically the variable is the audience.  It can be anyone really, media is certainly a common one and yes, like it or not folks, the blogging community is now one too.  Access is nothing new either, pre-briefing tactics have been in the playbook for ages, but what’s changing, however, is who gets access.

Again, as more marketers recognize the influence and impact of the blogosphere, the more likely they are to provide a broader spectrum of people (including bloggers) with access (be it access to people, access to products, access to information, etc.).  Admittedly, this has its own set of challenges, but bottom line: companies are doing this right now.

So why’s this a problem?  It’s not, technically speaking.  In many ways it’s a sound strategy, in fact if you read “We The Media,” Dan Gillmor actually recommends bringing bloggers into the marketing mix:

Aim carefully at people who really care. Find out which micro-publishers are talking about your product or service.  Also ask around about whom you should be contacting. Then make sure you keep these people well-informed. Treat them like professional journalists who are trying to get things right, and they’ll be more likely to treat you with similar respect. – Chapter 4, Newsmakers Turn the Tables

The problem, as I see it and as Scoble references (and I promise the point is coming soon), is that too much emphasis is being placed on bloggers at the head of the news cycle – in the interest of building buzz around a product launch, with attention and engagement of the blogosphere tapering off quickly as the “hits” are tallied and the launch reports are delivered.  Consequently, the tail of the blogosphere, where millions of raw, unfiltered discussion about brands are taking place, continues to carry on, mostly ignored by marketers.

Why?  Because the expenditure of resources to effectively reach the tail doesn’t have the same immediate return as working with bloggers in the head.  Put another way, most marketers aren’t sold on the idea that Joe Blog with his 5 subscribers has any influence.  At least, not enough to justify the resources to reach him.  This is a pretty common opinion among marketers, probably more common than I’d like to admit.

The way I see it, most marketers (and PR folk for that matter) are used to dealing with dozens of markets of millions verses millions of markets of dozens.  Meaning they’re used to going where they can get the biggest bang for the buck.  In the broadcast world it’s CNN.  In the print media world it’s the WSJ.  In the online world it’s Boing Boing.  You get the picture.  It’s not Joe Blog.

The concept of a “trusted network” isn’t on a page in the marketer’s playbook right now.  When it comes to online programs, I think too many companies are too focused on getting the A-list blogs to write two sentences about an announcement, while ignoring the C-list blogs that are writing two pages about the same thing.

So, while Joe Blog on the C-list may lack the reach of his blogger brethren, he still has a degree of influence on those folks who read his stuff.  Even if it’s only 5 people, those 5 people follow Joe Blog because they either know him, like what he writes or they share a common interest.  Regardless, there’s a level of trust in Joe.  And influence is a very powerful byproduct of trust.

So my advice to marketers?  Get to know Joe.   He represents the real opinion shifting power of the blogosphere....

Comments

[david]

Interesting... I was recently faulting a fellow PR guy for quoting the '99% of all blogs are 15 year old goths on Live Journal and can be safely ignored' mantra that I hear in most agencies.

I agree 100% with you - I frequently get into polite disagreements with agency clients who wonder why I'm wasting time with blogs with readerships of a few hundred. It's because those few hundred are the first few hundred who are going to evangelize your client's product....

[matthew podboy]

Great post, Mike. If influence is the objective, Joe Blog with a focused and loyal readership should be the target.

[Mike]

The challenge with the thinking here is probably best summed up with two words: “prove it.” If I’m the client, the question back is “prove to me that Joe Blog matters.” That’s nothing new or unique to PR, we’ve been dealing with the challenge of measurement for eons, but it’s a critical question – one that I’ll aim to address in a follow-up post here shortly…

[Joe]

Hey, I am Joe Blog!

I think that even if the small blogger has an influence over just one person, that could add up to thousands of dollars in lost or gained revenue to the companies in question. Joe Blog has the same effect as traditional word of mouth but multiplied because of the global reach of the Internet.

[Mike]

Exactly!