FAST Talking with a New Kind of Blog
2008 Groundswell Award Submission
FAST is an enterprise search technology company
(formerly known as FAST Search & Transfer and now a Microsoft subsidiary). FAST’s primary goal in creating the blog: to position search as a central technology element in Enterprise 2.0 strategy and itself as a key player in the Enterprise 2.0 space. Its second business goal: to build interest and participation in the company’s annual search conference, FASTforward.
The best way to do this?
To lead by example and create, in collaboration with Beeline Labs and Corante, a new and innovative social media model. To walk the talk and invite great minds and keen industry observers from outside the company to do the talking. And to host an independent and intense discussion in which – guess what? – thought leaders and others from outside the company come together to converse about the category. The blog and complementary activities are not about tired, top-down messaging about the company, but rather nurturing and supporting a vibrant and open conversation about the category.
Conceived and launched in late 2006, the FASTforwardblog aims to convene a diverse roster of
respected bloggers and talented commentators to share their ideas and observations and provoke discussion about Web 2.0 tools and culture change in the enterprise. And to discuss what companies must do to support the “user revolution” that’s at the center of the 2.0 shift. The blog has hosted and profiled many of Enterprise 2.0’s leading thinkers, doers, and companies since its launch and is a busy cocktail party of blogposts, video interviews, webinar events, and comment exchanges. It’s become an important hub of discussion about Enterprise 2.0, now averaging about 25,000 readers a month; is included in Google News; and is being piped into numerous corporate intranets as a news feed.
All of which has helped to differentiate FAST and its annual conference from its competitors, position FAST as an important thought leader in the rapidly evolving Enterprise 2.0 category, and the blog to become a significant marketing engine in its own right - contributing to FAST’s brand awareness, PR, and lead-gen priorities.
Hmm, that’s interesting. Tell me more.
Q. Who did FAST want to talk with through the blog?
A. Thought leaders in the emerging Enterprise 2.0 space – and those interested in what these folks are thinking. FAST wanted a seat at the category table and succeeded by not only attracting the participation of top flight bloggers but also the attention of Enterprise 2.0 gurus like Andrew McAfee (who is credited with coining the phrase Enterprise 2.0), Don Tapscott, John Hagel, JP Rangaswami, Safa Rashtchy, David Weinberger, and Jerry Michalski, and many others who got involved in the blog and with FAST - as speakers in webinars and at the annual search conference.
Q. What’s the value of all this talking to FASTforwardblog visitors?
A. FASTforwardblog has become a primary publication on how Web 2.0 affects the enterprise – new opportunities, bottlenecks, what needs to change, tools and technologies, cultural shifts, new economics. No existing online or offline medium provides this unique focus and mix of content. And, because the blog is editorially independent from FAST (blog contributors are recruited and coordinated by Corante, Beeline Labs’ sister blog media company), readers get diverse opinions that aren’t in lockstep with a corporate messaging machine. Yet FAST has a voice through their own executive contributors to the conversation and more traditional messaging elsewhere on the blog.
Q. How did FASTforwardblog impact FASTforward the event? (one of the two business objectives)
A. As a vehicle for promoting the conference, the blog serves three purposes: first, creating a lively forum of ideas that preview the topics and speakers that form the core theme of the conference (The blog made it clear over the months preceding the event that this would not be the usual corporate chest-beating or dull case study-laden conference). Second, the blog drives registrations by making it easy to get more information and/or sign up on the spot. And third, the conference experience was extended to thousands of people who couldn’t attend: the blog’s contributors all attended the conference to experience the live event first hand and weigh in on the conference with posts and interviews.
In the months leading up to the conference, the blog introduced many of the themes and story 
lines that played out at the conference, e.g. showcasing a Webinar discussion on Enterprise 2.0 between Andrew McAfee and Tom Davenport that was attended by 400 people, and was credited with attracting new registrants to the conference. Traffic and readership spiked up 20%+ this year during the conference and saw more than 40,000 video downloads. The commentary and content created there also of course helps to acquaint more people with the FAST brand, capabilities and ongoing FASTforward summit series which continued to bear fruit in the months following the conference.
Notable industry observers - David Weinberger in 2007 and Jerry Michalski in 2008 - were enlisted to create high-production-value video interviews - stimulating sessions with dozens of speakers, panelists and attendees for meaty conversations that were then quickly posted to the site. All of which provided a near real-time channel of posts, interviews and commentary from the conference floor as well as an ongoing resource for those who attended the conference to replay speakers, catch up on what they missed, and share what they heard with colleagues.
Q. What other impact (planned or unintended but welcomed) has the FASTforward blog had on FAST’s marketing results and efficiency? (And how do we know?)
- FAST, in collaboration with Beeline Labs, has been able to get more done at lower cost for lead generation, event marketing and thought leadership activities. The company produced three webinars – the first two of which attracted about 350 registered participants and the third of which attracted 550 registrants - with no additional promotional or list cost.
- The perceived authority of the blog made it easier to recruit high profile speakers to FAST’s annual search conference.
- Thought leadership: FAST has achieved substantive relationships with some of the top Enterprise 2.0 thinkers, e.g., Andrew McAfee, and people responsible for pioneering the best Enterprise 2.0 implementations, e.g., JP Rangaswami of BT.
- Interest in the blog during FASTforward helped drive a significant increase in downloads of a whitepaper that was being promoted on the blog
- In terms of new/traditional media coverage — we’ve seen over 3198 mentions of the FASTforward blog on other blogs (according to Technorati), and it’s had an influence on traditional media, directly triggering stories in InformationWeek, CNET, The Wall Street Journal, and numerous other prominent general and industry publications.
Bottom line: our ROI model (we use a customized version of Forrester’s “Blog ROI” model) estimates a more than 2:1 return, taking into account the value of traditional awareness and influence functions (PR, advertising, analyst relations), content creation, sales efficiency, market intelligence, and conference promotion.)
“Creating a destination site for thought-leading conversation about the user revolution is something FAST committed to early. As the players and the tools evolve, we’re continuing the engagement. We’re confident the best is still ahead. The conversation on the FASTforward blog helps all of us be better prepared to take advantage of it,” says FAST’s Hadley Reynolds.
Q. So what’s the downside, the bad news about this experiment?
A. This is not a good idea for companies still under the illusion that they can control everything said about their company. No big “ohmygods” have happened with the FASTforwardblog, and comments are moderated to police nefarious or wildly off topic comments. But of course there’s always the chance that a contributor or commenter will criticize the company, and that has happened. But responding honestly and constructively is what makes it a conversation and ultimately earns the company trust and greater standing in the marketplace.
Q. What’s next?
A. We’re on to FASTforward09 now and looking to involve the blog community in the planning process, helping to define topics and speakers, and helping people connect prior to meeting a few months from now. And now that FAST is part of Microsoft, we’ll be looking to expand the conversation to additional topics and people of importance to the huge SharePoint community.
