Blogs and Perceptions

Before listening to Professor Howard speak about blogs, my interaction with them was limited to infrequent viewings of blogs written by two of my friends. After leaving class that night, two things he said about blogs interested me, both from a business-standpoint and a personal-communication standpoint: the idea of using blogs as a business/customer feedback mechanism and the usefulness of blogs for organizing thoughts to aid in effectively communicating.

Using a blog to harness the customer's willingness to share opinions on products seems to be the ultimate use of both positive AND negative feedback on a product to a business's advantage. Although I'm not saying this would be the end-all, be-all for feedback, this process could save a business time and money normally expended in creating focus groups. Improving a product WOULD become a cinch from compiling and analyzing negative feedback, and positive feedback would be like free marketing, with one blogger/customer possibly spurring another customer to try the product based on his or her comments. The funny thing is, I don't know how many customers would be aware that they were blogging if they posted a comment about a product on a blog--for the blog-unsavvy like myself, I would just assume I was on a Web site and not be fully conscious of my participation in blogging.

The second "sticking" point about using blogs to organize thoughts was insightful in that it made me think about my two blogging friends. Neither of their blogs is business-related. Both are filled with strictly their observations about life, etc. But both are beautifully, exceptionally written. You can see the effort they put into organizing, structuring, and editing their thoughts. It's putting a communications strategy to work on the most personal level. I can't say for sure if their blogging made them better communicators or if their communication skills were already strong and therefore translated well to their blogs.