BlogWorldExpo Liveblogging: Yamaha Motor Case Study

Liveblogging from BlogWorldExpo, we're in the Yamaha Motor Corporate Case Study, a session describing the way in whichYamaha used a product blog to get in front of snowmobilers.

Snowmobilers live on forums, talking about what they like and dislike about the snowmobile world. Yamaha Motor went in with the intention of harnessing that passion, and decided on a blog for message management. The session is being run by Maggie Fox, who is a Canadian, eh?

Four reasons they wanted to start a product blog:
Support product launches
Platform for Yamaha online
Business Intelligence Gathering
Affecting customers before they engage in the product purchasing cycle.

How To Get Corporate Buy-In

Sell directly to corporate management
Cover risk management
Ask the question, What's the worst that could happen? Discuss this honestly.

Look of the Blog:
SledTalk, the blog

The Number One Concern: Comments.
What happens if people are nasty? A: Clear terms of service on the page, you can delete them. They've had to delete one. Only 8.5% negative comments.

What if we get too many comments? A: You should be so lucky

Results: 8 weeks post launch. Indexed in google immediately - traffic increasing. Results are so good, they are launching a second blog - one for Yamaha Bikes. Higher engagement from blogs than from forums (engagement measured as 100 readers, three commenters, equals 3% engagement). That's a good metric.

Lots of Anecdotal evidence about good things that have happened.