Can We Afford Not To Blog? (II)

In times of crisis, you need strong leader who is visible and has the charisma to lead.

Now, I will tell you this -- and I give the president some credit on this -- he sent one John Wayne dude down here that can get some stuff done, and his name is [Lt.] Gen. [Russel] Honore.
And he came off the doggone chopper, and he started cussing and people started moving. .

Why Blogging?

You need to stay connected with your audience. And for business models that have somewhat gone adrift, retrenching 10,000 workers is not going to do the trick. You need to regroup, stay focus, articulate, communicate and execute your vision. Blogging for the following reasons may provide the impetus for that.

1. Energise the connection with increasingly message wary customers in a way that is invigorating and proactive. Do you think Bob Lutz, General Motors Vice Chairman is effective in this regard?

2. Weblogs are viral and make it easy to create word-of-mouth networks. The right post can spread through the blogsphere instaneously to large numbers of people to reach tipping point.


3. Weblogs are NOT a direct marketing medium. Consumers are savvy. They can sense it if you push it in their face. A well executed blogging strategy requires time to convert into tangible results. And when it does, it could become your most powerful tool in your marketing mix.

5. Provide global reach in building brand awareness and differentiation. It allows you to articulate what makes your business different from your competitor and how your prospective customer can understand that you have something better to offer. If English Cut can do it, so can you!

6. Educate and inform the audience. It is the last form of honest marketing. It allows customer to get to know you on a personal level. This engenders a sense of trust and allows you to speak with passion and fervour, and provides a little entertainment and have some humour. Customers like to engage in a conversation, and NOT talk down to. It is like going to your favourite watering hole to chill out.

7. Cost effective way of leveraging off technology by projecting your business into the big league. The running cost of utilising the superb telecommunication infrastructure and broadband connectivity is afffordable even to small enterprises. Networking and collaboration can take place seamlessly. Small Business Trends.

If it is so effective, why aren't we adopting it?

There could be many reasons. Perhaps we do not quite appreciate the benefits the technology confers, existing practice is good enough for us, plain blissfully ignorant, or simply don't have the resources to react, let alone anticipate change.

Can we afford to standstill?

A look at the healthcare industry may provide us with some clues as to the kind of competition we are facing. Holiday in India for Good Health, Travel For Your Health.

Neighboring countries have gotten into the act - and they aspire to be the Mayo Clinic of the East. Some have adhered to American standards for hospital accreditation, and with it the benefits of enjoying medical insurance cover making it convenient for US citizens to seek treatments overseas. In that sense , our competitors are attempting to render the competition irrelevant by creating uncontested marketspace.

Consumers in Europe are already seeking out India for certain medical treatments.

Even if we are successful in mastering domain knowledge and technology, we still need to grapple with establishing our network in order to go-to-market.

Are we clued in or clueless as to what's going on out there?

Is it a case of sent one John Wayne dude down here that can get some stuff done, and ..... started cussing and people started moving.

We need to ACE our DTN ( domain knowledge, technology and networking ).


Keywords: domain knowledge, technology, networking, mavens, tipping point, blog, viral marketing