So, I set up a myspace.com account primarily to see my friends’ myspace accounts, and while it’s a great sandbox for group interaction, I prefer posting on one of my own domains. It wasn’t long before I started getting friend invitations from acquaintances. Then, what I could call a “company” that I had little ties with requested to befriend me.

This reminded me of a new marketing strategy called “double loop marketing.” The key behind the strategy is to create a company-sponsored blog to generate a feedback loop between the company and its customers. This approach uses the Internet for what it was truly made for, connecting people. Having corporations invade this blogging world might not be something that the community really wants, though.

Macromedia has succeeded in using blogs as a tool by aggregating the blogs of their customer base and employees into a news aggregator. Macromedia’s customers are a little different than that of Tide detergent or Irish Spring soap, though. Customers are seeking development answers at Macromedia’s site. These customers use Macromedia software day-in and day-out and come across a variety of problems (“bugs”) that they have little or no experience with. These bugs may have been generated by the software, but are most often generated by the users. Bugs don’t generally arise out of most household products, though. Can anyone imagine interacting with a blog for dishwasher detergent or apple juice?

Ultimately, a company is interested in providing you with the sales pitch, regardless of whether it’s using a blog, a billboard, or a television commercial. Most blogs are generated by individuals, though, ones that aren’t trying to sell something for the good of their stockholders. As we’ve seen with Mazda, attempting to gain access to this community of viral ideas can fail miserably when the attempt isn’t genuine.

Celebrity sites prove that the particular star has moved away from being an individual and has been converted into an institution that’s selling something. Many celebrity sites have “online diaries” or blogs, but the posts are impersonal (to prevent any cracks showing in the celebrity’s image)and doesn’t allow for feedback. Granted, it would be difficult for a celebrity to keep up with all the fan feedback, but I still like what Wil Wheaton said in the book “Blog!: how the newest media revolution is changing politics, business, and culture:”

“I don’t think of my site as a celebrity site, which tend to be very disingenuous and are usually trying to sell something. Reading them is more like watching Entertainment Tonight rather than actually getting to know someone.”

In contrast to all these attempts for advertisers to penetrate the blogging community, companies like hosting provider TextDrive. create a blog to share knowledge between its employees. Naturally, the company’s internal conversation is available for us to read or comment on as well. Whether or not it works as a soft sell, I think this form of company blogging can be permitted so long as it stays genuine to the goal of connecting people within a company first.

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 29th, 2005 at 5:36 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.