That’s what Suzanne Davis of Pierce Mattie Public Relations said in a post about brand advocacy and “ghost blogging”.
With the ever increasing popularity of blogs and the increase in companies that do
blog, we’re reaching a point now where blogging has become mainstream. Now those companies that do blog need to find a way to differentiate their blog from the rest of the noise. It used to be that companies that wanted to be different turned to blogging in order to be competitive, well, now blogging has grown to another level.For businesses this means that it’s time to be more transparent.
What? You mean I have to be transparent when I blog? is a question that I know some of you are asking…
Yes, dear readers, if you really want to keep those customers, you need to be open and honest in your blog. Suzanne offers a shining example of a company who uses their blog to show what goes on behind the scenes and invites customers to share their thoughts…and that company is Southwest Airlines. Southwest isn’t afraid to engage with their customers and be open about the decisions that they make.
Nobody is perfect and no company is perfect. People know this. They don’t want you to be perfect, they just want you to fix their problems, be honest, and apologize when you make a mistake. How hard is that?
I was reading your post and wondering why is transparency so important? I think its because being open establishes credibility with customers, if you can admit your mistakes then maybe what you sell has value as well.
Posted by: john cass | July 25, 2007 8:02 PM | Permalink to Comment