wow, that was fast.
shortly after i posted "toyota, ford, volvo...mazda," i got an email from a "MBA student" from the kelley school of business in indiana asking me to fill out a survey about brands and blogging.
i was hesitant to reply to "Melanie Yao" or to fill out the surveymonkey form.
i'm a reporter, which means i'm nosey and i can't help it. i got into other people's business before i figured out i could make a career out of it.
so, here we go.
Melanie provided her cell phone # which i called. left vm.
I googled her, and first result was adam tow's blog. (i don't know him) so i emailed him to see if she's legit. he pinged yes.
oh, she just called back. we're on the phone:
Me: hi, i just wanted to look into this, for one, to make sure it's not spam.
Melanie: i'm getting a low response rate because of that. i interned at Hewlett-Packard at palo alto. right now i'm in Indiana. I read some Harvard Business Review articles focused on blogging/marketing and want to submit an article on that topic.
Me: so what are you trying to do?
Melanie: there are few articles that focus on blogging and implications that it has on brands. people write "i love Ikea," etc. if they're becoming cult brands and if this is why.
Me: i'm not sure what your article would add to the stuff that already is out there. can you explain?
Melanie: Of course, i have to add to the info that's out there. i ask bloggers, "what is your intention about writing about this brand?" a lot of them say, "i don't really care about the brand, i'm just mentioning it."
Me: i see...
Melanie: but you're right, i have to do a lot more research. i'm sure a lot of companies are doing a lot of getting to know the consumers, what they are saying.
Me: yes.....
Melanie: right, so i want to find out where you go from here--what do you do with that information? do you make changes based on the blogs? how important do you consider the blogs?
Me: ok, here we are.
Melanie: i want to take it a step further since it seems that all the marketing companies (intelliseek.com, umbria.com, blogpulse.com, etc.) are offering the service of investigating blogs.
Me: Not a bad idea.
so i'm gonna go ahead and fill out the survey since i agree with melanie that it's very trendy to talk about blogging/marketing, but the fact of the matter is that--according to Jan. study by pew internet and american life project--62% of US internet users don't know what a blog is. about 8.4 million Americans have looked at a blog in the last 24 hours. is that number worth the trouble? but of course, it is growing daily, according to technorati's numbers (full disclosure: doing some research work for them). "informal" eMarketer survey states 4% of "major" US businesses have a blog.
so, marketing consultants love NEW things to sell. business people love new info to buy. power point presentations are waiting to be made. conference calls, meetings, lunches, dinners--so much frazzled activity to fill human time. and of course, i'm blogging about it.
all this because i killed the volvo.
Comments