You Have to Love How One Beer Company Does Corporate Blogging

04/26/08

Corporate blogging is still a little understood art.  And very little practiced, to be quite honest, outside of the tech field. You think most companies are blogging?  Guess again. According to this ongoing survey, only a measly 11.6 % of the Fortune 500 are doing it—as of about a week ago, to be exact. (Not to speak of the even smaller percentage of those doing it well, I might add, whether in the Fortune 500 or elsewhere.)

But there was an absolutely great front-page piece in the Wall Street Journal on Thursday: For All You Do, Bud, This Blog Is About You.  Here’s an excerpt:

(Jim) Arndorfer, 37 years old, is a full-time employee of Miller Brewing Co., the U.S. arm of SABMiller PLC. A former reporter for Advertising Age, he now runs Brew Blog, a free Web site dedicated to breaking news about beer. Especially news about Anheuser-Busch’s beer.

Brew Blog is the latest and perhaps most unlikely front in Miller’s drive to rattle Anheuser. Mr. Arndorfer tracks the St. Louis company’s every move, from earnings reports to management changes. He relishes revealing details of its products before Anheuser does.

Okay, this is funny!  I think it’s one of the best front-page pieces in the Journal in a long time.  [But then, I would—I’m a blogger!] A great, big shout-out to the reporter, David Kesmodel.  The competitive antics of these two big brewers is no secret; it’s the stuff of ad industry legend.  But, more than this, I think the Brew Blog is a great case study in corporate blogging. Here are some reasons why....

1) It’s going the competition one better, bigtime—another way to get a leg up with the consuming public.  Launching such a blog is a brilliant move by a number-two player.  Why wait for blogs to become commonplace in their industry?  Seize the moment and grab the spotlight!

2) The Internet has made everyone a publisher these days, so why not a beverage company?  (Or any manufacturer or consumer products company, for that matter...) Sure, as a big firm, Miller’s no stranger to publishing its own content—it’s had a “Brew” magazine for some time.  But print’s old and tired.  Hat’s off to the company for taking things a big step further and extending its publishing efforts to the blogosphere.

3) Don’t just talk about getting the CEO or some VPs to start blogging.  Frankly, it’s very hard to build a sustainable blog that way, and is often flat-out boring as hell, besides… :-) Hire a journalist!  I’d say somebody in Miller’s marketing ranks was very, very smart—they went out and got one of the best.  Think about it: print journalism right now sucks as a business, and good people are being cut loose right and left, or looking for challenges elsewhere.  What better job for them that to run their own blog?  Mr. Arndorfer must be having the time of his life!  He’s reporter, editor, researcher, fact-checker, everything, for his own little “paper.” Maybe even the business manager, too.  Yes, he’s a “micropublisher.” And many more hundreds—thousands!—of companies should have one.

4) The Brew Blog isn’t fluff—it reports real news, does the hard work of research, to dig out stories in the industry that matter, even before some of the traditional trade press does.  (Just read the WSJ story above to prove that point.) But it leaves the Miller marketing and PR stuff to other areas of the corporate site. Here’s how the Brew Blog explains itself on its About page:

The “Brew” site aims to give beer people daily analysis, commentary and some original reporting on the current state of the alcohol-beverage industry....If you work in the beer industry, or cover it, or just watch it with interest, we hope that http://www.brewblog.com will be one of your daily stops on the Web for beer industry market analysis.  Even though “Brew” is published by the Miller Brewing Company, this is not the site for Miller press releases and the “official” word from the company.

5) Most of all, though, Brew Blog is a fine example of how a big company can reach out and really engage with its public—and with bloggers and the media as well.  Good journalism gives people a reason to visit, and to come back, and any visitor has the opportunity to participate in the discussion.  Here’s more of how the blog describes its purpose:

We want this site to be the home of an active and informed dialogue about the American beer business.  The best way that can happen is for you to share with us your opinions about the stories you see on Brewblog.com.  Every story on Brewblog.com has an orange link that says, “Comments.” To post a comment of your own, just click on that link.

Congratulations to Miller Brewing, to blogger/journalist Jim Arndorfer, and to the brilliant people who hired him and gave him his charge!

What do you think?  How can companies today win with blogging strategies?  What’s yours doing?  Is there an opportunity in your industry to do something innovative?  Or maybe just plain rattle your competition!  :-)

Me?  I’m switchin’ to Miller.....