9/11, blogs and tech vendors

A friend at a software vendor called last week to ask what his company should do about blogs. Ok, so what does that have to do with 9/11 in the title?

9/11 changed all our lives for the worse - but it did help along a couple of things. I read this morning in USA Today that many S. Asian actors who are popping all over TV networks (including the kid on American Idol that many think cannot sing), got their break as shows were looking for Middle Eastern looking characters after 9/11.

The other is the emergence of blogs. I have a POV (that many share) that in the dark months that followed 9/11, when our moods were dictated by color coded security guidance from the government, mainstream media became "lamestream" and either for patriotic or other reasons quit acting like the fourth estate. Citizen journalism grew to fill the void between the official word and the rote media reporting of it.

Something similar has happened in technology. We have massive PR and marketing dollars that technology vendors spend, and the industry and financial analysts and the tech media have mostly become "lamestream". Enter blogs as the fourth estate for technology. Many of us bloggers ask the tough questions that need to be asked.

And most tech vendors are not sure what to do about blogs. Indeed many of them are now defensively trying their own blogs. And not sure how to do it. Their natural instinct is to turn press releases in to blogs. They are scared to death of having a Scoble like maverick write their blogs. Or the conversation is one way. Or they allow employees to write personal blogs, but can claim deniability as not representing the "official" viewpoint.

My recommendation is to have blogs reflect natural conversation that is happening on a daily basis within your customers, employees, channel. Your sales people can tell you how hard it is to sell certain products at certain price points. They are hearing it from customers each day. Don't market your way around it in a blog. You bicker with your channel on a daily basis about how to split revenues. Don't sugar coat it in a blog. Your employees are telling you about quality or customer satisfaction issues. Don't pretend otherwise on a blog. Bloggers are talking about your company. Reach out to them. Don't pretend they do not exist.

Mike Prosceno of SAP who jut started his own blog says it well "In the pre-blogging world, communications was about broadcasting one-to-many messages and employing command-and-control around those messages. Today, the new paradigm is about open and transparent conversations and influence in networks..."

Vendor written blogs are hugely important - they personalize vendors, and they should provide a window in to the murky workings of a systems integrator or a telephone company or how a software vendor prioritizes features in the next release. Vendors have so much to showcase - their R&D, their global reach, their vertical nuances, their partners, their quality processes. But they miss a huge opportunity if they just digitize press releases.

Have blogs reflect what is happening in the field and the trenches - and what is being said about you in other blogs. If you don't, the color coding of your messages may be pretty, but citizen journalists wll only second guess them.