In the spring of 2005, my friend Stowe Boyd from Corante (www.corante.com), posted on his blog that he was experiencing some problems with how Technorati was tracking his links (www .corante.com/getreal/archives/2005/05/16/whats_going_on_at_ technorati.php). He said he was being updated on new links, but his overall position among the top blogs wasn’t changing. Within a couple of hours, Adam Hertz of Technorati responded to Stowe’s comments, as shown next, explaining that the numbers issue was due to some growing pains something Technorati was working hard to fix. Hertz made no excuses, but he was honest about the issue and the solution.

Not only did Hertz find Stowe’s post, and not only did he respond to it, but he also responded to a comment left by another user later in the day and helped her through issues involving her blog and how Technorati was tracking it. Because Technorati execs are so responsive to bloggers and customers’ needs, user support for Technorati’s services continues to grow. changed his entire perception of the event. Whereas it used to end on the sour note of “that company wouldn’t even talk to me,” the story now ends with “I can’t believe a an exec read my blog!”

Any time any kind of comment about your company or products appears on a blog, it is an open invitation for you to comment or contact the blogger directly; in fact, the blogger wants to be contacted. Don’t be afraid to leave comments on others blogs. Nothing makes a blogger happier than hearing from you.

HOW TO WATCH BLOGS

Some people equate watching as a passive thing you watch TV, for example. Others equate it as an active thing, where you are nearly a participant like watching sports. And others like to watch after the fact for instance, by analyzing yesterday’s stock performance. Watching blogs can be a similar situation: you can watch actively or passively, and you can analyze past behavior to determine future outcomes. Active watching is done via free services such as Technorati (www.technorati.com) and BlogPulse (www.blogpulse .com), while passive searching is done via free services such as Pub- Sub (www.pubsub.com) and Feedster (www.feedster.com). If you are a “next-day trader” type, you can glean similar information by looking at your website statistics.

HOW BLOGS CAN DELIVER BUSINESS RESULTS

by John Nardini, executive vice president of Denali Flavors Denali Flavors’ Moose Tracks ice cream is a top seller and popular with those who have tried it. Still, many people have never heard of the product. As such, one of Denali’s business objectives is to generate awareness of Moose Tracks, which would then lead to a trial of the product. Once a customer tries the ice cream, Denali’s experience shows that the product’s impressive taste drives the customer to buy more.

The company decided to accomplish its marketing objectives by creating a series of blogs aimed at different consumer groups (see the illustration). The blogs would link to the Moose Tracks website (www.moosetracks.com) and be designed to funnel visitors to the site. This way, awareness of the product would happen naturally. In addition, the advertising/promotion costs would be low compared to a traditional media effort. Denali developed the following four blogs to address various consumer interests:

• Moosetopia (www.moosetopia.com)A fun entertainment blog written by the Moose Tracks moose. The blog reinforces the fun nature of the product, and every post is an awareness-generating effort for the brand, even if the author doesn’t talk directly about the product.

• Free Money Finance (www.freemoneyfinance.com)

This blog deals with personal finance with a tagline of “free and simple advice on money and finance designed to maximize your net worth.” As Denali’s top-rated blog, because of the popularity of the subject matter, this site is sponsored by Moose Tracks ice cream (a fact that is positioned prominently in the top-right corner).

• Team Moose Tracks (www.teammoosetracks.com)

This blog details the efforts of Denali’s cycling team to raise money for an orphanage in Latvia. It contains biking tips as well as details on the fundraising. This blog serves several purposes: It gains brand exposure for Moose Tracks and links back to the main site; it reflects positively on the company’s (and the brand’s) efforts to help a charity; and it raises a significant sum of money to help the orphanage.

• Denali Flavors (www.denaliflavors.com) Denali’s most recent blog gives an inside glimpse at what goes on in the company. This site will serve to attract comments and feedback directly from consumers on a wide range of topics. As each site was developed, it was marketed using tactics such as posting comments on other blogs, trading links with other sites, asking other sites for referrals, and writing articles on sites that link back to the blog. All of these drove traffic to the blogs which, in turn, drove traffic to the Moose Tracks website.

Denali measures the impact of blogging by the effects on the main site. To date, the blogs have helped Denali achieve the following results:

• Site visits up 18 percent

• Hits up 11 percent

• Total time on site up 27 percent

There’s still a lot of work to do (including potentially launching additional blogs), but the initial results are positive, while the costs are very low. In addition to the time spent by Denali’s blogger, the company has spent less than $500.