TamTamy Blog

Corporate blogs are one of the possible meeting points between companies and their customers. We have seen some cases in which such a tool has certainly had very positive effects and has strengthened the relationship between the enterprise and its readers or the brand fans.

But despite this, a recent analysis has shown that most consumers trust the suggestions from corporate blogs only to a very limited degree, which reaches only 16%.
How come?

We have already given an explanation to this in previous posts, but it is important to underline it once more.
Putting yourselves in your customers’ shoes, whom would you trust more, between the unbiased advice of a friend and the suggestions (possibly partial) of a company which is trying to sell its brand in the best way?

The answer is obvious, and the data obtained from the answers of the analyzed sample show that 77% place their trust in the advice they get via email from someone known, followed by online consumers’ ratings (60%), results of search engines (50%), Yellow Pages (48%), print newspapers (46%), friends’ pages in Social Networks, and company blogs in last position.

How can a company win its customers’ trust then, and see that they are not hostile? The keywords are always the same: transparency and practicality.

If the company decides to offer a useful service to its readers through the blog, rather than using it only as a means of advertising to publicize its products, this purpose will surely be perceived and the dialogue will begin. As we have already mentioned, this dialogue requires some effort from both sides, but particularly from the company, which will be available to the citizens to answer their questions and help them overcome possible problems and doubts concerning the brand.

The blog, besides being a way to convey information to the audience, must be first of all a valid support to the customer, without forgetting that every comment expressed by a consumer is an occasion to improve your service and widen the group of your devoted.

As in any healthy relationship, both sides can benefit from a sincere communication.

After all we have said about the dialogue between companies and consumers, about why it is useful to open a corporate blog, and about the importance of showing that behind a brand there is a group of people and not only a marketing department, it is important to go deeper into the role that the users’ comments have on corporate blogs, and why you should never underestimate them.
When you open a corporate blog, you do it precisely with the aim of establishing a contact with your audience, be it made up of consumers or other companies or partners. We understand then that there is no point in hindering the only way that the counterparts have to clarify further doubts or even only to express their opinion. It would be like putting a plaster on the mouth of the people who take part in a conference where we had declared we would be at their disposal.
On the contrary, the more comments a blog will have, the luckier the author should feel because he has opened a debate on a precise theme, will which thus have an echo also outside, as we have already seen.
It must be said, though, that it is generally easier to see a line of opinions on blogs which deal with specific subjects, such as those regarding technology for example, rather than on corporate blogs, but even more so, it would be a big mistake to hinder, or worse, cancel the comment of a consumer on a company’s blog. This would tell the outside world that the company has something to hide, going against the concept of transparency which we have already talked about.
You could now run up against the negative boomerang effect where the consumer who has been silenced, and in a way betrayed, reacts expressing his feelings on his blog, on other forums, on social networks, creating a negative image of the company which could, in its turn, bring about another rain of negative voices of people with a small, middle or large audience, as in the case of influencers.
In conclusion, any company that decides to open a corporate blog will have to accept its risks, transforming them into positive factors. While cancelling a negative comment opens some hostility between the two parts, answering with sincerity creates an empathy which will surely be appreciated and acknowledged.