Today, allow me to present two sides of one coin. Heads, we have corporations using blogs to find out what people really think about their products. Tails, executives using blogs as a corporate soapbox, an place where three-letter types can speak their minds without being interrupted, and yet in a more personal way than a press release. Both stories are a boon for anybody seeking information.
Let’s say, for example, that you work for an automobile manufacturer. You’ve got a new vehicle you are trying to launch. The first thing you want to do is find out what your competitors are up to. However, if you limit yourself to sources like MotorTrend or the Detroit Newspapers, you are missing the most important data. Car critics can only buy so many cars; in the end you will have to sell cars to living, breathing people. So it isn’t enough to find out what a bunch of paid reviewers think are the strengths and weaknesses of your product. You need to find out what Joe and Jane Average think.
How do you tell that? Well, sites like Edmunds have some consumer reviews. However, most of them are rather short, and tend towards rants or raves. Furthermore, you might be missing important data by relying on your opinion — or Edmund’s opinion — of what your product’s competition really is. Here is where blogs — and judicious Googling — come into play. Wheat and chaff must be carefully separated, but you might just find out really important details about yourself and the competition. You might discover which features really matter, or what petty annoyances they have, or what they think of the price, or that they find your ads so obnoxious they won’t even go see your product, or that they have a completely different idea of what your product is all about. People can be really blunt in their blogs, but you are rarely left wondering what they really think.
You can’t pay for this kind of information. No focus group or survey will ever get you this data. Most people are simply too polite to tell you this stuff if they think you will ever know. Oh, and the article linked above touches ever-so-gently on the idea that letting a prominent blogger preview your product can result in free advertising.
On the other side, you can find out a lot about your competition by paying attention to what they do and say. Sure, read the press releases and any news coverage that might be out there, but nothing tells you what’s going on like reading what the people at the top think. It’s unvarnished, free from outside editing, free from outside spin. You are guaranteed to find out what he wants people to know about his product or company. You might find something insightful. You might find something insightfully stupid — young CEOs are particularly adept at inserting foot into mouth in a way that would benefit the competition if they were paying attention.
For that matter, you might find out what your bosses are thinking if you can get a look at their blogs.
Use both approaches on any company or product, and you will almost certainly know more about it than someone who limits himself to traditional news sources and a stack of traditionally prepared market research reports.
As an aside, why did Greenspan raise interest rates today? Because “We’ve turned the corner. Because with oil at record high prices, and that means almost certain inflation. If you believe any of these things, rates had to go up, and they may need to continue going up. Despite this, my theory is — unproven and with no degree in economics to back it up — that the dirty secret of interest rates is beyond a certain threshold, low rates do not stimulate economic development. This is because despite the low cost of borrowing money, there is also low incentive to lend on the part of financial institutions. I think in the end, this will be the lesson we learn from Japan.