Being Prepared

[vangogh]

I don't know that alienating some has to be bad. You can't please everyone and sometimes what alienates one group brings another group closer to you. A good example is politics. If you write posts that are extremely liberal you'll likely alienate most if not all conservatives, but at the same time you gain a loyal following of liberals.

You have to be careful, since you could end up alienating one group without actually bringing the other group closer to you. Still if you try to stay in the middle you might not alienate anyone, but you might not motivate them much either or give them a reason to come back.

[orion_joel]

I just think it needs to be an area that you tread lightly and be sure if you end up alienating anyone you try and make sure it isn't your main demographic.

[vangogh]

You certainly don't want to alienate your market, but not everyone is in your market. It's a way of creating a common bond by finding a common enemy. It just depends on what your blog is about, who your market is. I was watching the World Series tonight so I'll use baseball as an example.

The New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox have a very passionate rivalry. Fans of the two teams often hate each other for no other reason than rooting for the other team. If I was writing a blog about baseball in general I wouldn't want to offend either group of fans since both would be in the market for my blog.

If my blog was specifically about the New York Yankees I would absolutely knock the Red Sox as often as possible. Sure that would alienate Red Sox fans, but they wouldn't be reading a blog about the Yankees in the first place. The topic alone alienates them so there's really no danger in alienating them further. However it would probably make your readers want to read you more. You're fighting the common enemy. You make your own readers more passionate without really losing any potential new readers.

[KristineS]

I write two corporate blogs for two radically different groups of customers. One blog is written for an outdoor company and is aimed at hunters. Hunters tend to be a largely conservative, mostly male group. The other blog is written for a machine embroidery supplies company. It is aimed at machine embroiderers who own their own businesses. This group is primarily female.

I definitely take a different tone depending on which blog I'm writing. There are some things I would say on one blog that I wouldn't say on the other. I think the trick is having enough knowledge of your potential audience through forums or research or simply industry knowledge to know how the majority of them think. You're not going to get it right every time, but most customers will cut you a little slack if they know you're trying.

There are also some subjects I think most corporate blogs should avoid, politics and religion being two. Corporate blogs are not outlets for the personal beliefs and feelings of the writer, they're about promoting the company and the company's products.

[greenoak]

i sure agree about being careful...
we are also a stable responsible corporation....but i want my blog to be authentic and different and a little outside the box, and maybe fun...and im happy with the blog being more spicy and maybe more messy ... ,,.i dont want to look like a homoginized corporate creation of a store presented by a good pr person... .... ... ..
. we need to be an outside the box kind of place, a real destination, and i want to project that with words and pictures.......believing thats maybe why they would drive 2 hours to come see us instead of going to the mall...
so i hear you on being middle of the road....but maybe not for here...i wear an obama pin to work.... they probably know anyway....and i do the blog mostly for my pleasure......and i sure dont have a corporate board or a boss over my head .... ...just my family and our financial future.....
i think my way might be a good way for any business to break thru the pack into a good profitable place....

im so thankful for the internet , im sure i wouldnt have discovered blogging or a whole lot of other good things without it..

[vangogh]

I think it all comes down to offering something other blogs can't or don't. It doesn't have to be the kind of thing that alienates one group in favor of another, but it should be something to set you apart.

[KristineS]

I definitely agree with that. The blog has to have a personality and something that draws people to come back and read again. A lot of corporate blogs do make the mistake of being too bland. If there's nothing there to hook the reader, they won't come back and see what you might have to say tomorrow.

[vangogh]

In many cases that blandness arises from a desire not to offend anyone, which is why I say it's ok to alienate some if overall it helps improve your blog. No matter what you do most people aren't going to subscribe. It's ok to offend some of those people who aren't going to subscribe if it means others become more likely to subscribe as a result.