Halvorson New Media, LLC
Christine Halvorson writes the “BabyBabble” blog at Stonyfeild Farm.

Is business blogging a bottom line?

by ERIN DONAGHUE

Christine Halvorson, a corporate blogger at the Stonyfield Farms organic yogurt company, is often met with confusion when she explains her job to her friends and family. “The most common reaction is, How can there be that much to say about yogurt?” she said.

Halvorson, in fact, says she plays a vital role in Stonyfield Farm’s mission to promote environmentally friendly farming practices and family health, and to keep closely connected with its loyal customer base. And she does it by blogging about much more than yogurt. She says her “Babybabble” blog, which focuses on parenting infants and young babies, is a great way to reach out to customers who buy Stonyfield Farm’s popular “yoBaby” yogurt product.

Babybabble, a friendly online chat page decked out in soothing greens and pictures of diaper-clad babies, features posts on everything from breastfeeding to flu shots — and allows new parents to “comment” with their feedback.

“We call it nurturing the niches,” she said. “We’re giving customers a place where they can hear us speak in a real voice, not only advertising, but chatting and giving them a chance to chat back.”

Increasingly companies are funneling more resources, more money, and yes, even more personnel, into their blogging efforts. In a new study released by the Center for Marketing Research at University of Massacusetts, Dartmouth, 19 percent of Inc. Magazine’s 500 fastest-growing companies responded that they actively write blogs, and almost 40 percent responded that blogs were important to their marketing approach. Corporate “Blogmaster” was a CNN hot job for 2007, raking in an estimated yearly income of $70,000. “As more and more companies get blogs it will be an expectation, like having a Web site,” said Dr. Nora Barnes, director of the Center for Marketing Research and co-researcher on the study.

These days, businesses are increasingly using blogs to giving loyal customers a peek behind the corporate curtain. And the tech-savvy post-millennium consumer base is demanding more real-time interaction with the companies they buy from, according to Barnes. “The most common thing you hear from a consumer is ‘I can never get in touch with a person,’” said Barnes. “They’re sick of automated phone dialing, they’re sick of being put on hold for 15 minutes, and they’re sick of being transferred 12 times. This is something that blogs can cure.”

But that’s not all blogs can do for a business. The blogosphere represents an extensive network of potential buyers who can make or break businesses with their high-tech version of word of mouth marketing, according to Mark Berger, online marketing manager at Homegrown Naturals, an organic food company. “Bloggers are the 21st century Paul Revere. They are the opinion makers of today — we want to have these bloggers be our friends,” he said. According to Berger, monitoring the blogosphere for company mentions and forging relationships with like-minded bloggers are an important part of keeping up a corporate blog.

Blogs are also a fantastic way of ramping up a corporate Web site’s Google ranking, according to Teresa Valdez-Klein of the Blog Business Summit, a consulting agency. “Search engines pay attention to blogs because the content is constantly changing. It’s like flashing a light at someone, whereas a static site is like a dim bulb,” she said. Consistently generating new content, says Valdez Klein, is the key to drawing new users (and potential buyers) to a company’s site.

But effective strategies for turning this loosely connected network of information into cash can be elusive. Time constraints, technological barriers and blog “culture shock” can be daunting, and companies are increasingly looking for skilled professionals who can effectively navigate the confusing terrain of the blogosphere. Solutions can include hiring an in-house “Blogmaster” or getting tips from an increasing array of “blog consulting” agencies.

A common concern for companies launching a blog can be fear of entering into a dialogue with consumers, said Debbie Weil, a Washington-area blog consultant. “Companies are very afraid that (blogs) will take too much time and that ‘people’ will post all these terrible things,” Weil said.

Teresa Valdez-Klein, a blog consultant with the Blog Business Summit, a blog consulting agency, agrees. “More than anything there’s a fear of the unknown — a fear of losing control of the message,” she said. Valdez-Klein has seen an increase in the past year of businesses that seek out blog consulting services to help them come to terms with their unique culture of collaboration. But many executives would rather present a polished public relations message from behind the executive desk rather than respond to customer feedback, according to Valdez Klein.

“The up side is you can connect with your audience and the downside is it forces you to be open and transparent and honest,” said Barnes. However businesses, she said, may not be faced with such a choice in the very near future.

“People want to participate in the business,” said Berger. “They don’t want to be passive consumers, they want to be actively engaged.” Berger often uses his blog to release “sneak peeks” of new products for Homegrown Naturals’ popular Annie’s macaroni and cheese line. He also recently invited consumers to weigh in on Homegrown Naturals’ next marketing strategy, “Bernie’s blog,” designed in bright purple and written from the perspective of the company’s furry mascot, became an instant hit with customers.

The blog, according to Berger, has generated a devoted online community of users who not only visit the site consistently, but stay there for awhile. “It captures a lot of what we call ‘mindshare,’” he said. Berger used a web tracking software to study users’ movement within the company’s Web site, and determined that out of the 20 pages on which users lingered the longest, 18 were from Bernie’s blog.

Many companies, however, are concerned that it’s difficult to accurately track how a blog’s popularity can translate directly into sales dollars — and they want to make sure that allocating resources to a blog will show a significant return on investment. But according to Barnes, the proof is in the digital pudding. “These companies are asking, if I spend $70,000 on a Blogmaster, am I going to get $70,000 back? Our feeling is absolutely positively, and if you don’t get one, you’re going to lose consumers,” she said.