The Jeff Beckham Weblog

At South by Southwest, the “Future of Corporate Blogs” panel talked about some issues companies have faced in launching blogs, and how they can be used to benefit the business.

The panelist whose story most closely matched with my employer’s was Lionel Menchaca of Dell, who created the Direct2Dell blog 18 months ago. That site now gets a million page views per week and has helped reduce the negative perception that Dell was battling among its customers.

In addition, Dell has created IdeaStorm, where people can suggest ideas for Dell products and services, have others rank them, and then Dell takes the best ones under consideration.

The panelists agreed that the first step in meeting (and exceeding) customers’ expectations through an online tool like a blog is to listen first to their problems, then analyze that feedback, then take action. Taking action, of course, is key, but it’s also meaningless without having real feedback from customers to act upon.

Companies often express fear at jumping in to the social media arena, but the alternative (doing nothing) allows the conversation to go on without any attempt at having an impact. Becoming a part of the conversation with your customers almost always decreases the time between their problems and a solution.