Back when I was consulting to companys on how to launch and manage online communities, I had my own online community blog. In my quest for new and compelling content, I looked for stories about people that had set up corporate communities and interviewed them to understand what they were trying to achieve and what they felt made their communities successful. Here is an interview I did with Christine Halvorson, Chief Blogger at Stonyfield Farm. We sat down (virtually) to discuss her work on the Stonyfield Farm Blog. While this interview didn't receive many views in my personal blog, it got a great response when I posted it on Gather.
David: How long have you been blogging for Stonyfield Farm?
Christine: When blogs burst into mainstream consciousness, our company CEO, Gary Hirshberg, immediately saw that this new tool had great business potential. Stonyfield hired me in March, 2004, specifically to launch and write five blogs, which debuted on April 1, 2004. We've shuffled the five around a bit, and now there are four. One is written entirely by an organic dairy farmer, while I write and produce the other three. All four are geared toward certain target groups--1) women 2) people concerned about junk food in schools and healthy eating for children 3) parents of very young children and 4) people interested in organic agriculture and organic food.
David: What are you and Stonyfield hoping to achieve through blogging?
Christine: We want to maintain a conversation with our extremely loyal consumer base, in a real and authentic way. We are a company that has a vision--that we can do well by doing good in the world--and we hope that our consumers can join us in those efforts, tell us what they think, and help us in our mission.
David: How successful have the blogs been in meeting your goals? Do you use any metrics to measure success?
Christine: We're aren't very concerned with metrics, though we do want to be providing the type of content that interests people. The ones who come to read our blogs tell us they love them, especially the one from the organic dairy farmer's point of view. It gives them a glimpse into a different world, an insider's view of our company, and a place to come and "talk" and meet with others who are like-minded. Our page visits grow slowly, yet steadily, in addition to a subscriber base which receives each post directly into their emails (not necessarily what every reader wants, but we like to offer the option).
David: What type of feedback have you received from people?
Christine: Our readers, as noted above, love to come visit, rant, chat, and learn in this real way. We've engaged them with polls, questionnaires, etc.--even sought their advice on who they would see as an "authority" in a given field. The person they recommended is now one of our spokespersons!
David: What advice can you give other companies who are thinking about publishing corporate blogs?
Christine: Don't do it because everyone else is doing it. You can not approach blogging with an attitude of fear. I hear this so often--"What about the legal implications? What if someone writes something bad about you for all to see in the blogs? What if we don't have time? What if we have nothing to say?"
If you have nothing to say, you shouldn't be thinking about blogging. If you're overly concerned about legalities, you shouldn't be thinking about blogging. If you don't have time, hire someone specifically dedicated to the task--but not a marketing, advertising, or p.r. person. Hire someone who can write and grasp things quickly. That's all! People may post bad things about your company. You still have control over this medium. You can hit the "delete" key any time, but a more likely scenario is that you will engage your readers in a conversation and this will produce positive results.
David: Christine, thanks for taking the time to speak with me.
Christine: Sure. Happy to do it!
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David Woodrow is Vice President, Groups at Gather
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