re:publica 1 April09 "My career as a corporate blogger"

Ed BrillDirector, Product ManagementIBM

“My career as a corporate blogger”

IBM Software Group | Lotus software

Ed Brill•Director of Product Management, IBM Lotus Notes•15 years at IBM Lotus•20 years in IT industry•Academic study in business/marketing•Loves travel, photography•Never in my job description to author a blog•Not a celebrity


Overview of my blog – edbrill.com

Started in December, 2002

3,700+ blog entries...average of 1+ per day

40,000+ valid comments (with a near-flawless anti-spam filter)

Typical visits = 2,000 per business day

Typical pageviews = 2,500/day

Peak visits/pageviews = 10,000+

Estimated RSS traffic = 10,000+ subscribers

Sources: – One-third each: Referrers / Direct traffic / Search engines


Visitor map -- edbrill.com

Majority reach in English-speaking countries, plus Germany and France

Japan = 10% of my product's market, <1% of blog visits

Lesson learned: Blogging can only be one source of input


Blogging motivators

Why I started blogging As an outlet for creative

writing

To share information with my customers– and counter bad information

To build relationships, network, and connect with people while working from a home office

Some ego

No sense of pioneering, it just happened

Why I still blog today To share timely information

with my customers, partners, industry, and IBM colleagues– and counter bad information

To aid in decision-making

To influence the marketplace

To build and strengthen relationships– but this is now also

happening on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.

To learn about the world

© 2009 IBM Corporation

Making headlinesLast year consultant Sara Radicati published a negative report about IBM's Notes e-mail product. That led to organized outrage from bloggers who, it turns out, are consultants who make money installing Notes. She says her firm, the Radicati Group in Palo Alto, Calif., was deluged with obscene phone calls and e-mails, a common element when blogs go negative. "They were trying to disable my business," she says. "It was obscene, vile, abusive, offensive stuff. These are a bunch of sickos."

The anti-Radicati bloggers got an endorsement of sorts from an executive at IBM. Ed Brill, an IBMer who works on Notes marketing and publishes his own blog (edbrill.com), responded on July 23 last year to Radicati's bearish Notes report. He questioned whether she had ties to Microsoft and referred readers to two other blogs with far blunter assertions.

Within days bloggers had posted "investigative" articles "exposing" her as corrupt and unethical, claiming she was a "shill"who took bribes from Microsoft.One blogger said she was doing something shady by operating a group that helps small companies find venture funding. Bloggers linked to one another's sites and posted on Brill's blog and elsewhere, creating an echo chamber in which, through repetition, the scandal began to seem genuine. Six days after the attacks began, a Notes consultant in the U.K. gloated on Brill's blog:"The Radicati Group?Their analysis is now meaningless …. Their name has been blackened, their reputation in tatters."

Radicati fought back by responding on her own Web site, but the smear job hovers online, appearing when you Google her name or start with Brill's mostly diplomatic site and then work your way through its links. One step away is IBM itself, which has a Notes site that once linked into Brill's. That link has since been taken down. Radicati says IBMignored her pleas to stop Brill from linking to the hate sites. IBM says it has nothing to do with Brill's blog.

A week after that flap IBMer Brill fired up the swarm again, issuing a call to arms against research firm Meta Group for similar sins. "Y'all did such a good job on the last report … " his blog entry began. Sure enough, soon Meta was being "investigated" by bloggers and "exposed" as Radicati was. Gartner, which now owns Meta, declined to comment.

No wonder companies now live in fear of blogs.


What readers have learned about me Travels – business and professional

When I got married

When my daughter was conceived (!)

What gadgets / cameras / mobile phones I use

How my emotions play out in the context of my job and decision-making

And all of this matters because a major aspect of blogging success is authentic voice


Corporate blogging the wrong way


Corporate blogging the right way


What has been the impact of blogging @ edbrill.com?

Business success:– At the time I started blogging, Lotus Notes was in a challenging

period, both from a business and mind-share perspective– Over the last four years, the Notes business has grown significantly

(>10% per year). Blogging is not at all the whole story, but it has been been a contributor:• Customer quote: “edbrill.com has helped decrease the distance between

IBM and me” – My competitors have been forced to completely change their tactics

Personal success:– My career at IBM has clearly benefitted– However, for a while, I was typecast as the public face for my product

(though again, it was never my “job”)– And many IBMers know me as a blogger first, despite my successful

career and other contributions to the business


Community – the real success

IBM Lotus Technical Forum



Bringing customers into the community


Changing tools: Twitter


Changing tools: Facebook


Changing tools: LinkedIn


Keys to social media success Successful engagement cannot look/feel/read “corporate”

– Authentic voice

Interactivity is key– Participate in the interaction

Regular updates required

Be an authoritative information source

Don't be afraid to admit mistakes publicly

Don't expect praise– Humans are more apt to criticize than to compliment– Accept and engage critics...to a point

Demonstrate responsiveness – reader impact

Link to others

Provide ways to contact offline

[email protected]: @edbrill

Thank You

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.edbrill.com/

Technology

re:publica 1 April09 "My career as a corporate blogger"