As I was catching up on some reading/research this weekend I came across an interesting story of how McDonalds is starting to employ business blogs inside the mega-corporation. There’s no plans to start marketing with business blogs anytime soon — but when a corporate giant like this starts to incorporate the technology, you can bet there’s some serious research that is backing their moves.

Kevin Newcomb in a recent article sheds some light on the moves McDonalds is making in response to today’s online marketplace. The company is apparently slipping slowly into the waters of the blogosphere by starting with internal blogs (behind their firewall.) Their first moves are intended to help improve internal communications and stem the tide of management “surprises” and misunderstandings.

But it looks like McDonalds will quickly move to external blogs for marketing, PR and customer relations. Here’s a quote by Steve Wilson (senior director of global Web communications for McDonalds) that caught my attention:

“We showed them that there were already members of our crews blogging, operators blogging, and customers blogging,” Wilson said. He then showed the executives results of a blog search that found 675,000 entries by McDonalds employees, franchisees, or customers talking about McDonalds in one 90-day period. “That got their attention very quickly,” he added.

Clearly the ease of blogging, the viral nature of the blogosphere, and the increased weighting of blog posts by search engines has had a direct impact on the McDonalds name — good or bad — without any attention from the company. McDonalds cannot afford to ignore the World Live Web. It’s only a matter of time before the company starts to develop a marketing strategy using business blogs.

More momentum behind business blogging

This is just another news story in a long line up, about big money being put behind efforts to “catch up” with the blogosphere. When huge publicly traded corporations get involved in business blogging (internally and externally) it’s clear that they have significant market research to justify these moves to shareholders. As we’ve talked about before on our Marketing With Business Blogs coaching calls, this is just another indication that blogging has moved beyond a “fad” for teens and political pundits, into mainstream society and today’s marketplace.

The advantage small business owners and professionals have with business blogging

Many large corporations are just starting to catch on to the power and impact of business blogging. They’re big ships that turn slowly. New technology, communication, and marketing strategies get implemented slowly.

You on the other hand as a small business owner or professional, have the “speed boat advantage.” Unlike McDonalds, Google, Kryptonite Locks, or Toyota — you can move quickly and beat your closest competitors to the punch.

More importantly, by starting to business blog and Market with Business Blogs — you’ll position yourself at the top of your chosen niche. You’ll make it easier for your ideal prospects to find you, and more difficult for your competitors to catch up.

Remember an important fact about today’s marketplace. It’s no longer the big that eat the small, it’s the fast that eat the slow. You as a small business owner or professional are the “fast.” Don’t give up that advantage.

If you’re already business blogging, learn better ways to get traffic and build your prospect list. If you haven’t started business blogging yet - learn how you can use business blogs internally and externally to build your list, boost your business, and increase sales. You can do the research on your own, or you can get started here with free coaching on how to put business blogging to work for you.

John-Paul Micek is a published author and weekly columnist for the business section of the Honolulu Star Bulletin. He’s known as the “Click-and-Mortar Business Coach” by business owners around the world thanks to members of the Business Owners Coaching Club™.


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