Online diaries and discussions serving as cheap but effective marketing tool

As he treks around Pennsylvania this summer exploring the state's storied past, history buff Robert McCreary is keeping a blog -- an online journal that anyone with access to the Internet can see.

The Chalfant resident isn't doing this just for fun. He's being paid $3,000 plus expenses by the Pennsylvania Tourism Office. By offering a glimpse at the online diaries of McCreary and six others as they travel the state, the state is hoping to cash in on the hottest thing to hit the Web since e-mail.

From the state agencies to businesses large and small, blogs have emerged as the newest marketing tool.

They let organizations sell themselves and their products at a fraction of traditional advertising costs, while keeping customers informed, engaged and hopefully coming back for more. With some 9 million blogs already out there in cyberspace, BusinessWeek magazine said in a recent cover story that it is either "catch up ... or catch you later" for companies that fail to capitalize on the craze.

Not everyone in cyberland is sold on blogging as a marketing phenomenon. Blogs are like any other flash-in-the-pan advertising gimmick -- hype that's sure to evaporate, said Minneapolis marketing consultant Graeme Thickins. He believes they can even do more harm than good if bloggers get upset and start criticizing a company on their blogs.

For now, however, blog enthusiasts far outnumber the critics.

Locally, law firm Babst, Calland, Clements, Zomnir, economic marketing nonprofit Pittsburgh Regional Alliance and business software and services provider Ariba have launched blogs as a low-cost, grass-roots marketing alternative to spending millions more on a new ad campaign or better placement on search engines such as Google.

Chock-full of insider industry jargon such as "sourcing" and "supply chain," Ariba's new blog, "Spend matters," (www.spendmatters.com) may make the average Web surfer's eyes glaze over. But the company is betting that the six-month-old site will hook customers.

"Spend matters" isn't run by an Ariba employee, but rather consultant Jason Busch, who manages the blog from his computer terminal in Chicago. In a friendly and casual tone he regularly writes pithy paragraphs about "spend management" -- how companies manage their business costs.

If it sounds boring, well, for most people, it is. But Busch's target audience isn't the average Joe but the business person who is constantly thinking about business costs.

His goal, Ariba spokesman Kevin Brooks said, is "to have a conversation" with those executives about the issue. "The bottom line for us to drive awareness around spend management," he said.

"Spend matters" isn't a direct plug for Ariba or even accessible from the company's Web site. But Ariba's name is sprinkled throughout the blog, with the goal of engaging customers.

"We want to elevate spend management," said Busch, "... so companies don't think about it -- they just do it."

So far, the conversations have been fairly limited. Active since December, the "spend matters" blog has yet to generate a substantial audience.

But Busch notes that in March and April, the blog had more than 4,000 visitors, not counting those who may read the blog via a blogger subscription service known as RSS, for "really simple syndication."

"People aren't interacting on the site as much as we like," Busch acknowledged, adding that most of the conversations he has had with the blog's readers are via e-mails sent directly to him, not posted on the site.

"It's not about generating sales leads," Busch said. "The notion of the blog is to provide a community, commentary and discourse on what is spend management," he said. And from those conversations, it's hoped, a surge of familiarity with a firm.

For a small business such as local independent record label Lotuspike, a blog makes perfect sense -- most bloggers tend to be young and technically savvy, a demographic that also is most likely to buy the label's records.

The three-man company, which produces ambient and other electronic music, has found it's cheaper to blog than advertise in trade magazines -- and a lot more fun.

Lotuspike also recently released its first podcast -- an Internet broadcast that is downloadable onto a digital music player -- on the blog, www.lotuspike.com/lotusblog. Since then, its sales on digital music service iTunes have risen.

"It's a viral underground way of marketing," said Jeff Kowal, one of Lotuspike's co-founders. "It's a way for people to find out about us on a more intimate scale."

Critics such as Thickins, the Minneapolis marketing consultant, caution businesses against getting too caught up in blogs. By their nature, he said, they are antibusiness.

Passionate, gossipy ramblings -- not to mention their grass-roots nature -- just don't work in corporate world, he said in a recent telephone interview. There are much more effective ways to communicate with an audience, such as e-mail or a newsletter, he said.

And, Thickins added, companies need to be careful about what's said about them on blogs. A growing number of consultants and companies have sprung up just to help companies manage what is being said about them on blogs.

But blog backers argue that by dismissing blog mania, companies may be missing the boat. It's hard to beat the chance to lure potentially millions of customers with a personal conversation, they say.

"Blogging has become one of the most popular forms of online communication," said Carrie Fischer, a spokeswoman for the state's tourism office.

She notes that McCreary's first posting on Pennsylvania tourism's blog will appear tomorrow. "It's a direct conversation with our target audience in a very intimate and engaging way," Fischer said.

Date Posted: 18 May 2005 Last Modified: 18 May 2005