Peter Kim's Client Side Marketing Blog List
A nice call out from Peter Kim, an analyst from Forrester Research (full disclosure: EarthLink retains their services.) He is building a list of top client side marketing blogs. His list does not include group and brand blogs or those written by consultants, agencies or service providers. Overall, there are not many client side marketing blogs -- though the list is quickly expanding beyond Peter's initial 13. I am hoping in time that a client side blog will be the rule not the exception.
Here is Peter's initial list:
Flooring the Consumer :: Technorati authority = 504. Authored by CB Whittemore, Director of In-Store Innovation, Wear-Dated Carpet Fiber.
Marketing Nirvana :: 424. Mario Sundar, Community Evangelist, LinkedIn.
Experience Curve :: 332. Karl Long, Web/Social Media Integration Manager, Nokia.
The Marketing Excellence Blog :: 254. Eric Kintz, VP Marketing, Digital Photography & Entertainment, Hewlett-Packard.
Consumer Generated Media :: 191. Pete Blackshaw, CMO, Nielsen Buzzmetrics.
Decker Marketing :: 167. Sam Decker, VP Marketing, Bazaarvoice.
Masi Guy :: 162. Tim Jackson, Brand Manager, Masi Bicycles.
Attention Max :: 153. Max Kalehoff, VP Marketing, Nielsen Buzzmetrics.
Churbuck.com :: 148. David Churbuck, VP Global Web Marketing, Lenovo.
Emerson Process Experts :: 130. Jim Cahill, Marketing Communications Manager, Emerson Process Management.
Bernaisesource :: 99. Dan Greenfield, VP Corporate Communications, EarthLink.
John Dragoon's Blog :: 29. John Dragoon, CMO, Novell.
Randy's Journal :: n/a. Randy Tinseth, VP Marketing, Boeing.
To understand what makes these bloggers tick, I reached out to some of them and asked why they blog and why they think there are so few client side marketing bloggers. Here are some of their thoughts.
CB Whittemore
I blog to get the word out about topics that matter to our industry and marketplace as quickly as possible to demonstrate that our brand is paying attention to the issues that matter; to digitally capture reference materials and ideas that add value to our customers; to better appreciate how social media works [and figure out how to apply it elsewhere].
So few client side marketing professionals blog due to lack of time; too strong an appreciation for traditional marketing; not enough understanding of how new marketing [aka social media] works and how powerful it is; belief that it's a fad and/or not relevant; risk aversion; lack of internal or corporate support.
Karl Long
In many ways blogging's a habit, I started 5 years ago for very different reasons, and now I continue for fun, for experimentation, and in some ways to reach out further than I could do through any other medium (for the price). I hate to say it but I'm an idea guy and blogging is one of the best ways I have to share ideas and bounce them off like minded people.
I think there are a couple of reasons there are so few client side marketing professionals blogging. I think it may have something to do with the fact that our discipline is still influenced by marketing and brand theory that favors command, control, and broadcast. In many ways marketing may be the one discipline most undermined by the democratization of communication. Combine that with the fact that blogging inside many big brands is still considered risky in the perception that you can become an "unwitting spokesperson" for a company, and potentially run afoul of various protocols and policies.
Jim Cahill
Personally, I blog because I enjoy sharing what I learn about. For the Emerson Process Experts blog, we had a need to raise the awareness of the expertise around Emerson Process Management. I thought the best way we could do that is to tell stories about what they do in working with process manufacturers to solve problems. I had a chance to learn much more about what some of our experts in all the Emerson Process Management divisions do. I enjoy the challenge of trying to distill what I learn down to something I hope will be interesting for those who read the blog.
The blog provides a conversational way to do that, and provides the opportunity for a two-way dialog given the comments area. Much of this conversation still happens offline in emails, but I’ve seen an up tick in a comment or two in recent posts.
I see two really big reasons why so few client side marketing professionals blog. One is that blogs fly in the face of conventional marketing wisdom, that is, a very top-down approach. This wisdom holds that you must carefully understand the concerns of your target audience and how you can uniquely address these concerns. Positioning is carefully crafted around these concerns and integrated marketing programs develop to communicate this positioning. Success is when all elements of the communications plan meet this positioning. Blogging is really bottom up, where it starts with the individual and what they care about, even where the mission of the blog is clearly defined as it is with Emerson Process Experts. The top levels of a marketing organization may view this as a loss of control.
The second big hurdle is overcoming the legal and HR objections. There’s a lot of “what if” that has to be overcome as negative scenarios are discussed. There may be concerns about trade secrets, financial disclosure information, inappropriate comments, etc. It’s not unlike the days when email was coming onto the scene and policies needed to be developed to implemented to address the bad things that could happen.
Eric Kintz
I started blogging as a way to discover the web 2.0 world and understand in depth how it worked and evolved real time. I really believe that you cannot be a credible marketer today if you don’t engage personally in web 2.0 activities, by blogging or participating on social networks. I blog also to structure my thoughts and put them to the test of the blogosphere as well as use another channel to tell the story of what we are doing at HP.
I think many more client side marketing professionals do blog, but do so through personal blogs without revealing their marketing role. Very few companies are still comfortable with the idea of letting go of the controlled message model or at least accepting the new influence of the blogosphere.
Mario Sundar
I blog to educate myself further and finding a community of like minded marketers
Why there are so few client side marketing professionals blogging is probably a difficult one for me to answer. But, I think Jason Calacanis nailed it when he said on my blog: "I think certain types of folks are wired for blogging. I don't recommend it for every CEO."
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And why do I blog? At this point, I can’t imagine not blogging. I went from believing I have nothing worth saying to saying too much (I leave its worthiness to you). Blogging is critical to walking the walk and interacting with the online marketing and PR community.Why are there so few client side marketing professionals? I refer back to a posting I did last year. I venture to say that lack of time is the biggest reason, but a prevailing fear of saying the wrong thing keeps many from joining the ranks. At a certain point, blogging will no longer be an option, but a requirement for those who wish to practice PR. And at that point, we will have moved on, creating lists of top marketing podcasters and vloggers.
Let me get back to you.
Technorati Tags: Peter Kim; Forrester; M20; Client Side Marketing; CB Whittemore; Mario Sundar; Karl Long; Eric Kintz; Pete Blackshaw; Sam Decker; Tim Jackson; Max Kalehoff; David Churbuck; Jim Cahill; Dan Greenfield; John Dragoon; Randy Tinseth;
Eric (Comment this)
I'm with you in hoping for more marketing voices in the conversational language of blogs. (Comment this)
Great question. I am responding to Peter Kim's posting, but my understanding is that a client side blogger is literally the "client." Generally he or she is someone who works at a company and only represents the company he or she is hired by. He or she does not work at an agency nor is he or she a consultant and therefore does not have multiple clients. (Comment this)