I've been begging various product managers to start blogs at AOL, and many have started. Some folks I talk to at AOL--and other companies--tell me they don't have the time to blog.
Great point about blogging every day Ryan. It's true, you need to be out there on a regular basis.
Here is what I say to product folks who tell me they don't have the time to blog:
If you are in the Internet industry and you don't have time to blog about your product then you should quit. Go home, give up, and find another career. Your competitors are blogging about their products and talking to the market, and there is no way to compete if you don't engage the discussion. So, by not blogging you basically are giving up and telling the market that you don't care. That's the honest truth.
Blog or die!
You can't compete in the web-development space without a blog any more. Period, end of story.
Blog or die.
Reader Comments
(Page 1 of 2)2. I couldn't agree more. Now, could you lean on the AIM team to start blogging? For the biggest IM network on the planet, there's way too little communication going on. (The Windows Live (MSN) Messenger and Google Talk teams both have blogs...)
Posted at 1:45PM on Aug 30th 2006 by Jordan Running
4. I find your comment too radical. It is true that, for some business, blogging is a powerful tool to market yourself. But it is also true that there are still other tools to get to the same goal; they have been working for years, and they still work. Blog or die? I find a lot of people out there (I mean "the real world" - both business and clients) who doesn't know anything about blogs, and they look like they are alive and well!!
Posted at 3:59PM on Aug 30th 2006 by Consultor Anónimo
7. Or, you could just make great products. The amount of time that it take to run a decent blog is often prohibitive, and writing a blog is not neccessarily the most effective use of a computer programmer's time, unless it comes naturally. Some people should just hire a ghostwriter.
Posted at 9:57PM on Aug 30th 2006 by Adam Saunders
8. Do you think this only (or mostly) applies to companies in the "internet industry"?
Seems like there's mostly lots of, dare I say it, web 2.0 companies which blog. Say, for example, would it make sense for a company which rights financial software to blog? Would anyone care? Other than their customers maybe? Then again, they might not care to read their blog.
Posted at 10:14PM on Aug 30th 2006 by Diego
9. Apple are doing very well without anyone there blogging.
Posted at 12:07AM on Aug 31st 2006 by Diego
10. Amen. I think blogging provides a VERY valuable service to companies, that is it provides a direct conduit to their customers. Will I call a company and work my way thru their IVR system to leave my comment with a $10/hr customer service rep who will file it in their CRM system? No. Will I send them an email which disappears into a void? Maybe. Will I leave a comment on their blog telling them what I think? Absolutely.
Posted at 8:39AM on Aug 31st 2006 by Jason Kolb
11. A bad blog is worse than no blog at all.
Posted at 9:17AM on Aug 31st 2006 by fiat lux
12. Gordon S.:
I've got a growing list of AOL product blogs on my team's blog. We are quickly becoming the one-stop place for all things AOL community tool and service update-related.
Check out:
Community Info blog, http://journals.aol.com/communityeditor/community-forum
Community Forum AIM Page, http://aimpages.com/communityforum
Posted at 9:53AM on Aug 31st 2006 by Ryan Morris
13. Regarding the comments about no AIM blogging... perhaps you have not seen
http://journals.aol.com/gregsblog/aimInfo
or
http://journals.aol.com/juberti/runningman
?
15. oops, forgot the rest.
I don't buy it. "Competing" is about making something people want. Helping them, making their lives better. Does Steve Jobs and his team have blogs? No, they just make a great product. If you want to reach the people, don't spend too much time with the insiders. The insiders will warp your mind. You'll want to impress them, but they're very different than the people."
You CAN be successful with a blog -- and maybe it helps -- but it's not necessary. The only thing that's necessary is a great product/service.
from
http://scott.heiferman.com/notes/2006/08/blog.html
16. Meh, as someone who at times has to rack his brains to come up with blog ideas, let me just say, easier said than done... maybe you should offer some suggestions to these potential bloggers rather than just say "Do it or quit".
Writing a decent blog means writing skills in addition to being knowledgeable about your topic. Not everyone is a writer, especially middle management and above folks, who specialize in the short, terse, as-few-words-as-possible email. Maybe they don't want to blog because they think they can't write.
What are your suggestions on how you come up with posts and how you approach the idea of blogging on a regular basis?
17. Well Said!
Some of my favorite AOL Bloggers:
AIM INFO: http://journals.aol.com/gregsblog/aimInfo/
AIMS Cheif SW Architect: http://journals.aol.com/juberti/runningman
& Via the Greenhouse site a list of bloggers
http://greenhouse.aol.com/blogs.jsp#
Cheers
Christie
18. A blog is the cornerstone of viral marketing. And since mainstream TV advertising is dead....
Posted at 2:59AM on Sep 1st 2006 by Paul Salber
19. I think Jason is being a drama queen. Blogging can be a good way to communicate with and keep people up to date, but how much actual productive value have most of these "discussions" or "conversations" added to anyone's lives?
I keep hearing "get in on the conversation" and "join the discussion" but the word THE is sadly misplaced there. It's a bunch of fragmented mini-discussions here and there, most of which really have very little value to people selling things. They are more for philosophical types.
I don't make my purchases on the web based on whether or not the seller has a blog. In fact very few things I buy on the web are from stores with blogs.
Blogosphere, ego is thy name.
Posted at 3:27AM on Sep 1st 2006 by Scott
20. In the case of my aimInfo blog, I am reaching out to the community at large to discuss issues with OpenAIM, Triton, or any other IM related matters. I am not trying to sell someone on using Triton instead of Trillian or any other IM client. I would like them to use "the latest and greatest," but to each their own. I use VS.net 2003 for coding c++, but some developers like emacs.
An AOL Product Manager's blog is going to be pointed at a different audience than a Developer's blog. Though the goal is essentially the same, make yourself available to your users to hopefully keep them engaged in the product. Many features/bug fixes have come simply from users leaving comments on my blog or emailing or IM-ing me. Giving users what they want, that is what it is all about.
Posted at 8:58AM on Sep 1st 2006 by Greg C. from GregsBlog
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1. Well said! One of these days everyone is going to realize that they need to be PART of the conversation rather then IGNORING the conversation. It's going to happen either way.
Posted at 12:44PM on Aug 30th 2006 by C.C. Chapman