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I saw the SB blog today and it is definitely a step beyond the average web hosting company blog. They seem to be getting a lot more popular. Lunarpages does a good job at providing a bit of behind the scenes look and useful information. Their updates don't seem to be as frequent as before, though.

A corporate blog I like is the one for the web IM service Meebo.com. Check that one out - they do a great job with it.

I think this is definitely a step in the right direction.

I agree that ThePlanet and others should start blogging because they seem to be a little out of touch with there customers. I know they do surveys, and I am sure that is helpful you never know if the issue is going to be address where with a blog you know it's open and if they say they are going to address it the odds are they will.

I did read about The Planet's survey. It's a great idea, but why not use something like Zoho Polls, which displays results in real time? A closed feedback system doesn't show participants that they've been heard. It also doesn't give customers the opportunity to build on each other's ideas and give The Planet even better suggestions.

Who really cares if a dedicated server company has a blog?

As far as I am concerned, I would rather see them spend there time working.

Some people do have a LIFE!!

Scott,

I see corporate blogs as a sign of accountability. It indicates a company's willingness to communicate authentically and directly with customers, instead of glossing over problems with PR-speak. It also gives prospects some insight into the kinds of people they'll be working with, so that they aren't buying on the basis of generic mission statements ("we're committed to customer service!").

I don't see blogs taking up time that employees would otherwise spend working or living their personal lives. Just about every company writes press releases, sends out newsletters, runs ad campaigns, etc. You probably don't care whether your vendors use these forms of marketing communications either, yet they're an important part of business. Blogs serve a similar purpose.

Of course, not every customer will subscribe to every vendor's blog - but I'll bet the average ServerBeach-quality blog post reaches a wider and more interested audience than the the average press release.

This actually isn't the first time Peer1 Networks (which owns ServerBeach) has used a blog. They had one back in 2004-05, which is still online here:

http://blog.peer1.net

I think hosting blogs have value and provide a personal touch. With all the automation in the hosting industry, customers like to know that they are dealing with human beings. That goodwill evaporates quickly if the customer's support call/ticket is bungled or goes unanswered. Blogs can be effective in crisis management, as DreamHost demonstrated during its data center outages last year.

Back in the 80s I covered Johnson & Johnson and interviewed Jim Burke, whose handling of the Tylenol poisoning crisis has become the textbook example of corporate crisis management. A key point was that Burke himself spoke directly to the public, making it clear that J&J's accountability went to the very top of the company. A blog provides a way for key executives to speak directly to customers and the public.

Thanks, Rich! Great examples!!

Speaking of which, I think an important factor in RackShack/EV1's success was Robert Marsh's visibility. He didn't have a blog, but his was the loudest voice in the customer forum. Instead of official announcements, he posted his personal thoughts on where the business is headed, how he planned to address various complaints, what new initiatives he's excited about etc. Over time, readers came to feel that he's a guy they can count on. After the GI Partners acquisition, I remember seeing a forum post asking what the company will do if there's a hurricane, now that Robert's gone.

I really think that by being real, companies can build a wider, stronger customer network than through professionally choreographed communication.

There's a few really great things about blogs that really make them important for companies, hosted services-related or not, to consider.

If your business needs to be able to communicated effectively with your customers on a regular basis (outage notifications, service upgrades, new features, etc.) there is nothing better than having a central place like a blog for your customers to go to.

In addition to being able to view it via the web your customers can subscribe to an RSS feed and get notified automatically of important information that may affect THEIR business. Customers HATE having to hunt down their vendors to find out what's going on when a problem impacts them.

Not everyone has the time, energy, or disposition to do a lot of "fun" blogging like the ServerBeach folks, but that doesn't mean it's not important to your customers for you to have a blog. Even if it's relatively dry information it's still the easiest way to keep in constant contact with your customers and to make your business more transparent to your customers.

We've been using blogs for the HostingCon tradeshow since the beginning and each year we've made a little more effort to put more into it. This year we'll be using it A LOT, including adding podcasted interviews before the show.

We also just launched a blog for our Easy Antispam service where we talk about upcoming features and post any outage or maintenance information. This has been a big hit with our customers.

Great article Isabel!

This reminds me of an EV1 staff meeting, where we debated whether to offer a systems maintenance mailing list. Since not all maintenance affects all customers, we didn't want to bombard people with more notifications than they need to see. On the other hand, it's extra work for customers to have to come to our forum for updates. We didn't think of it then, but the right answer would have been to put updates in blog form. RSS would deliver the info right to customers' desktops/browsers/phones without cluttering their inboxes or getting spam-filtered.

BTW, can't wait for HostingCon!!

I'm looking forward to it too! We're going to be adding a lot of new stuff this year. :)

BTW, I've posted a couple entries on the HostingCon Connect Blog referring to a couple of your posts here, including this one.

This is the first I had heard of the ServerBeach blog, and reading the first couple of posts I'm greatly enjoying it. As you said, it really gives a different kind of perspective on the company, and those employee's that the customers only know as "technical support/total nerds", where now you can find out about the true person who helps you out each time you need it.

Even as a competitor I really enjoy reading the Dreamhosts blog, and before it was shutdown, the numerous blogs that the folks at Site5 maintained. It not only can help me understand my competitors better (and think of vicious marketing campaigns!), but it can also help me prepare for future issues that I might come across, as they talk about them in their blogs.

I think it would really be great if RackSpace in particular would start a blog for their employees. I don't know how many follow the HR scene, but RackSpace has won awards for about the past 5 years as one of the best places to work. It'd be very interesting to get an inside look at the people who make up the company, especially given their explosive growth. Not only that, but many people question the ethics behind their pricing game of having no list pricing. The blog could really help offset those thoughts as the employee's are able to show how their services are a true value, no matter what the pricing of them is.

I don't care so much about blogging, as their idio