We Have a Relationship—We Blog!
As a way to enhance relationships with customers, e-tailers are beginning to test Web logs (blogs). Online merchants feel that their blogs will give their e-stores more of a personality, and will get customers to return to their Web sites even when they are not in the mood to shop. For example, eHobbies is a small company with 25 employees. On its new blog it posts pho-tographs of employees and photos taken at trade shows. The firm believes that its blog helps "humanize" the company by showing that it is "a company of hobbyists," who in many ways are just like their customers.
But there can be problems with a company having a blog. One difficulty is how do you keep the customer from straying from the store Web site (where he or she can purchase merchan-dise) to the blog, and then not returning to the store's site? After all, most blogs contain links to other articles on the Web. Another issue is that some customers might not like the language used on the blog or might not appreciate a scorching review or comment.
Perhaps the most controversial company with a blog is GoDaddy.com, a firm offering Internet domains and hosting services. On its blog, the company's owner, Bob Parsons, offers his thoughts on a lot of different topics, and often his comments are highly opinionated. While this is enough for some individuals who visit this blog to never return, Parsons feels that his blog lets his company become more to consumers than just "some name with a URL on the Inter-net," and also lets people "understand why we do things the way we do them."
QUESTION: How do you think blogs fit into the diffusion process?