There are some things you should know but would probably rather not. That's how I classify stories like this most recent one, which reveals something you'd rather not know if you secure your laptop with a Kensington lock. Apparently, anyone who has scissors, duct tape, and just a little ingenuity can open one of these things, much the same way it's done with a Kryptonite bike lock. You'll remember last year's big story about the discovery that Kryptonite locks could be opened with a mere writing utensil. Hearing the Kensington story, my immediate reaction was "it's happened again," but I wasn't referring to the security issue. I was thinking of the other story; that of a company caught without a blog in a moment of crisis. It's the kind of story that doesn't have to happen any more.
By now, the pattern is familiar. Someone somewhere discovers some little known fact -- whether it's a security hole in some system or a bit of private dirt on a politician -- and posts it on a blog or an online forum. Then the blogs get hold of it and flog it until it froths into a mess that corporate media can't help but notice. The blogs are all over the Kensington story right now. It hasn't yet bubbled up into major news outlets, but it's probably only a matter of time. A glance at Kensington's press release web page reveals that it hasn't shown up there either. Again, it's only a matter of time before it pops up there too, once the noise reaches a level at which Kensington has to respond. By then, however the damage may have already been done.
Why? Well, because the people blogging and posting about this are Kensington's customer base and audience. (Ever walked away from your laptop in a coffee shop or a Kinko's? Then you're one of us too.) It's an audience Kensington isn't talking to at present. If the audience isn't listening to Kensington, you can bet the audience is talking amongst themselves, and talking about Kensington.
Problem is, Kensington hasn't joined the conversation yet. And even when the company issues a press release, which probably has to wind its way through the corporate approval process, it still won't have joined the conversation so much as it will have dropped a little note into the whirling maelstrom. It will be whipped around and hardly noticed, because a press release comes from a corporation, not a person. Those bloggers and forum posters are talking to each other, getting their information from human beings with whom they've developed relationships and some degree of trust. The inevitable Kensington press release will be a drop in the ocean of online chatter; barely perceived and quickly forgotten.
I
t
doesn't have to be this way, though. If Kensington had a blog -- and a blogger
its audience and customer base could relate to and trust -- it would
have already been a part of the conversation when the
toilet-paper-roll-opens-lock story inevitably broke. A company blogger
would probably have been reading various related blogs and come across
the story, if not first then at least before it became a raging
blogfire that threatens to burn through some company profits before it
dies out. (Remember, Kryptonite lost about $10 million in revenue after
its own blogosphere debacle. See the graph for details.)
If Kensington had a blog and a good blogger, it might have known about the story and gotten a head start on communicating with its costumers/community and devising a solution to the problem. That is part of the blogging advantage; not just having one in case of a crisis, but also developing trust and open communication with your core community of customers, users, or stakeholders, so they'll be more likely to stick with you if a crisis does occur. And if there is no crisis, you've still built relationships that can prove instrumental in building on future success.
No matter how you look at it, blogging makes sense for business, both as a means of keeping up with what people are saying about you, and as a low-cost means of making high-trust connections with a valuable community of customers. Like we've told you before, you should be blogging. Like, yesterday. Don't believe us? Take a lesson from Kryptonite and Kensington.
