Zoomedia Blog
The Zoomedia engineers have built me a blog - Great! That means I get to spend my spare time on red-eyes, in hotel rooms, or sleepless at 3am writing a blog... That got me to thinking - why blog? and why would/should our clients be blogging?
So here goes - my first blog on blogging...
Let's define the terms - a blog is short for a weblog, the name "web log" is a hint as to the original function of a blog - a chronological series of content entries on a website commonly seen as an online diary. You can learn more on Wikipedia (free online user-generated encyclopedia) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog (We will talk about wikis and their uses at a later date)
Blogs have become ubiquitous and are used for almost every topic you can think of - everyone is blogging on everything all the time. So what is it that blogging offers the life science industry? Interestingly, blogs are almost the antithesis of how communications people in life sciences communicate. How and why would a pharmaceutical marketer post information on a company or drug in a completely uncontrolled environment that allows anyone to comment on the content and if they wish, take it into an entirely different context and use your own marketing against you?
No control - in an industry so highly regulated and with a reputation to improve that's pretty scary...
So should we do it at all and what will happen if we do?
Blogs are not going away but don't feel like you should blog just because everyone else is. Like any other communications medium you should select the most appropriate for your audience - what are you trying to say and to whom? where are they? Do you want to have a conversation or just deliver information? Blogs can be extremely useful in differentiating your brand and changing customers perspectives - see J&Js efforts to bring together Moms who blog launching in the Fall (http://66.117.58.150/) Corporate blogs can increase goodwill through direct contact with patients, investors, peers - topics do not have to be product specific but can discuss your dedication to developing new therapies, your scientific approach, the company's community and outreach programs. Blogs invite comment (they don't have to be comment enabled but it is a user expectation) Some would think J&J's launching a corporate blog a few weeks before laying off 4% of the workforce and suing the RedCross akin to putting their head on the proverbial chopper.The JnJBTW blog jnjbtw.com is an interesting one to watch although resulting comments on the RedCross posting are not necessarily favorable to J&J (http://jnjbtw.com/?p=105#) We'll see if they stick with it and what value it has for the company and users...
With a frenzy of Web 2.0 conferences, seminars, and "how tos" coming up in the Fall, I'll continue to blog the basics on blogs, wikis, widgets, gadgets, forums, Diggit, del.icio.us, youtubing, and hopefully impart something worth your comments...
More soon,
Barbara
Tags: Transforming Technology, Web 2.0