I started monitoring the Boeing Blog the other day because The Book is going to be about business blogging and I wanted to keep an eye on some examples. Looks like Doc Searls is doing the same. He says:
Flight takes blogging I dig the bloglike Boeing Test Journal. Yes, it's PR; but the posts are written by actual workers inside the company, rather than PR people (although they may have to pass by PR, among other functions).
Still, leaves traditional PR in the dust... and about 40,000 feet below.
I couldn't disagree more. The actual workers are hamstring into boredom and I find the whole thing audience free.
Think about the kind of people who might be interested in the development of the latest version of the Boeing 777. This is not a new aircraft, its an incremental model. What is the readership of this blog?
Airline execs, pilots, FAA? Hardly. All those people have better and deeper channels for information. Journalists? Only those looking to recycle information-free PR sleeping draughts and pretty pictures of jets.
What about enthusiasts? The aviation equivalent of train spotters. People who actually go up on the roof at Frankfurt airport and watch planes take off and land. And what do they want? Pictures, lots of them, close-ups, long shots, action stuff, video clips and data. Lots of data.
They don't want to know that "the plane passed its tests". They want the number of runs, the average braking distance after engine failure simulation, point on the roll that it occurred, deviation from the centre-line, tyre temp, fuel burn, the works. Do they get it? Do they hell.
I'd love to know just who Boeing thinks its talking to and why they would login. And the reason I'm so critical is because I've seen how it can be. Have a look at the Butler Sheetmetal blog, called Tinbashers. This is a great business blog. It is written by people passionate about their work, about their lives and about business in general. Get a load of this post called Peanuts & Monkeys. Its clear, its smart and its deadly honest.
I’ve seen many a boss or business owner tearing their hair out over why things keep going pear-shaped.
Butler Sheetmetal has always surprised me as to how few mistakes it makes. Granted, they’re meticulous - from the checking of drawings to the fabrication - there are quite a few checks and balances in place. But, to be fair, any decent sheet metal worker would do the same.
However, you don’t get this cheap. But, if you want a job doing right, you either do it yourself or you pay the ferryman. You get all you deserve if you’re a cheapskate.
I couldn't have said it better, Boeing, eat your heart out and Doc; think again.
I couldn't agree with you more about the Boeing thing, not necessarily The Tinbasher thing. ;-)
In theory Boeing seems to have an insteresting blog infrastructure. In practice, it's nothing short of soporific.
If Boeing blogs were a medication they'd be valium.
Then you've got the prozac that is Bob Lutz and GM.
You'd simply love to get your hands on Boeing's blogs for a couple of months just to shake them up a little.
They could be brilliant.
[EM]
(Confession) I'm a plane nut, although half a million airpoints have cured me of standing on the roof at Frankfurt.
But yes, they are a huge business where audacious stuff is done with engineering and technology. Real people actually talking about that would be fascinating. However, in Boeing's case, I'd still woinder who the readership was supposed to be.
In Tinbasher's case, there is a brutal honesty and a passion for the work that I find really infectious, look at the piece on getting the caravan to tour the US. I'm a total handyman-klutz, but they almost make me want to put on my odd job gear. And anyone who can talk openly about foul-ups in their business gets my business.
Posted by: Paul Woodhouse | July 07, 2005 at 06:21 AM
And some people may think the exact opposite.
However, this is the choice that I make with The Tinbasher and I regard it as a way of sorting the wheat from the chaff.
If people enjoy its honesty, then good. If they dont, that's also good. It saves all that tire-kicking nonsense.
Boeing could write for plane junkies, the general public and shareholders alike.
The future of air travel, the history and whatnot. We all have some kind of vested interest if we fly, so make it viable. My Dad was an aircraft test engineer, so I'd also be very interested to read something with a little more gusto.
There's a world of difference between a blog having a focus and it being a one-trick pony.
I have to say that the day I found a couple of referrals from Boeing along the lines of 'sheet metal bending', I was slightly perturbed.
Posted by: Paul Woodhouse | July 08, 2005 at 02:08 PM