Guinness is good for blogging
Companies are becoming more aware of blogs and how they can use them to interact with their customers. It has to be said that most are pretty dire but the new blog from Guinness could prove to be the exception to the rule.
The blog has a nice people feel with photos of the brand marketing team, and it avoids corporate speak. It aims to provide a forum where the team can talk with fans of the black stuff.
Guinnessblog: 'lets the GUINNESS brand team ask you what you think about various things. It lets you post comments telling us what you think about GUINNESS It lets you ask GUINNESS questions (and the most often asked ones will get answered).'
The main criticism of the blog is the ghastly initial page which asks for visitors' age and location using a drop down menu. The team excuse this by saying they need to know that readers are 18. But as there is no way of checking that anyone has told the truth, the data gathered will be virtually useless, and by asking for it, a potentially large number of visitors will be deterred.
The blog is written by the marketing team and the crunch question has to be: will they keep it up? When companies have good new ideas there is usually a burst of enthusiasm, but then participation falls away as the demands of daily work get in the way.
Let's hope it provides a lifetime of sensible drinking rather than a quick pint.
