Another aspect to Google’s blogging protocol is that the blogs of each product team is focused solely on Press Relations. That means that comments are turned off for the blog posts. This in turn means that readers cannot voice their opinion and bloggers cannot respond. In short – conversation is not possible.
How can this be beneficial?
I have always stuck to the belief that one of the strongest aspects of a blog is the fact that you can encourage readers to comment and share their own ideas. Gathering information from readers in this way is quite efficient and effective – both in terms of time and money. So how does Google do it without allowing people to comment on their posts?
Perhaps Google already has an advantage of, well, merely being Google. Despite the fact that they do not allow comments in their blogs, their posts serve a purpose similar to that of a pebble being thrown into a placid pond. A tiny pebble thrown into calm waters gives off ripples that have a far reaching effect. Same thing with Google posts – they incite such active discussion in the blogosphere such that their ultimate aim of making their presence even more felt online is achieved.
How can your business benefit from this strategy?
I think that you can adopt a similar policy of using your blog as a venue for press releases. Though you may not feel comfortable letting go of the traditional press release as of yet, you may want to ease into this pattern little by little and see how it can benefit your own business.
Image from: Drawn
Originally posted on October 25, 2007 @ 10:41 am