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Friday, April 11, 2008

Kodak Nominates First Chief Blogger


According to Internet Retailer earlier this week, Kodak recently announced they've just appointed their first chief blogger.

10-year veteran Jennifer Cisney was promoted from within Kodak's team of bloggers and is responsible for overseeing Kodak’s two official blogs, “A Thousand Words” and “A Thousand Nerds.” The first is about creative projects and life at Kodak, while the second is for about new developments from Kodak scientists and aimed at a much more technically-saavy audience.

A self-professed "nut" about photos, projects, and active blogger, Cisney will be able to build on Kodak's year and a half's worth of blog postings to help keep Kodak on top of the social media world. For a company that's been criticized in the past for not staying on top of the digital revolution, Kodak's put quite a lot of work into their blogging capabilities, and have clearly segmented their audience.

What Other Businesses Can Take Away From This:

1) Great blogging comes from (surprise!) avid bloggers. You're looking for someone who lives, breathes, and dreams in blogs, and is ready and willing to put finger to keyboard and fuse together content and creativity to engage your audience. It's not a race to the top but a slow, methodical journey in a single direction. When it comes to blogger, you're in it for the long haul. As you build up your audience, you've got to play to their expectations that you can provide something valuable to them on a regular basis. This takes love and dedication; Kodak's move to hire someone internally who's already in this space and loves what they do is clearly a smart way to go.

2) Blogs help give your customers a backstage pass to life at your company Through Kodak's A Thousand Words blog, I can see what it was to be backstage at Kodak events (this morning, Kodak's CEO annnouced it would be giving another $10 million to University of Rochester, keeping the vision of George Eastman alive. On a less serious topic, Cisney was at the Celebrity Apprentice afterparty, catching up with several celebrities. She's bringing us into her world, and, of course, providing some good photos to go along with her stories. Think about how blogs can provide you the opportunity to reach out with stories and images to help build your personality and brand online.

3) Lastly, blogs can showcase your new development and innovation. I can go to the 1000 Nerds blog and read up on technology developments, plus find out how to build myself a pararamic pinhole camera. While you're certainly not giving trade secrets away, what better way to showcase new developments in your business or trends in your industry and inviting commentary from your audience?

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