Adam Yates from the PR team at Fujifim writes in that his company has just lanunched a new corporate-sponsored blog …
– the Fujifilm Captains’ Blog. They’ve been watching the blog phenomenon from the sidelines for awhile now. Mindful of the fine line between genuine citizen journalism and commercialism, they shunned the very notion of creating a “Fujifilm Digital Camera Blog” or “Fujifilm CEO Blog”. Instead, they decided to use their blog to tell a story. Now that is smart brand blogging.
“We realized though, that for more than two decades we’ve had this fascinating group of people traipsing across the country flying in a blimp,” Yates said in an email. “And everyone who meets them seems mesmerized by the stories they tell. So, we set up a blog for them. Its our toe in the water…a small start, but so far people seem interested to read about who flies with them, where they go, what they do.”
There’s one big thing missing, however. Dialogue. Adam, you have a start here, but we need a way for us to discuss what the blimp team is talking about and also see who’s linking to your posts (e.g. comments and trackbacks). For example, people might want to speculate on how the planes know to steer clear of you. Or they might want to talk about how a blimp navigates at night without headlights. Finally, I am sure everyone will want to know what happens if your pilot is big pimpin’ blimpin’ and she has to go to the bathroom. Add more ports for dialogue and your blog is truly golden. You’re almost there.
On a related note, check out how Fujifilm has embraced RSS to boot.
Steve Rubel is a PR strategist with nearly 16 years of public relations, marketing, journalism and communications experience. He currently serves as a Senior Vice President with Edelman, the largest independent global PR firm.
He authors the Micro Persuasion weblog, which tracks how blogs and participatory journalism are changing the public relations practice.