Ten DBI Member Companies Blogging in 2010 (Out Of 50)

I reviewed all of the graphic design companies listed as members of Design Business Ireland on the DBI website and identified which have a link to a company blog on their primary company website. This does not preclude their being such a blog, but where none is visible on the company website an inference can be made as to how the blog is positioned within the company’s mix of corporate communications.

The DBI now has 50 member companies listed on its website (accessed on 31 March 2010). 44 of which were included in last year’s review. Three companies have left the DBI since 2009: Affinity, BFK and Design Factory. Four companies have joined the DBI since last year: Clickworks, Design Tactics, Janus Design and mxbrandcom.

Ten of the 48 relevant DBI member companies are publishing corporate blogs, an increase of four on last year’s six. Fifteen DBI member companies now have corporate Twitter accounts, an increase of 13 on last year’s two. Three DBI member companies are also now publishing corporate Facebook pages compared to none last year.

How Micro Is Your Ultra-nano Niche?

In researching blogging I have identified a frustrating quandary; a Blogger’s Dilemma. I can best frame it in this way.

For clarity I am going to discount blogging as a hobby here and just refer to ‘Business Blogging’. This is still a broadly-defined and imprecise term itself: one including both blogs owned by businesses and blogs written by individuals where their persistent topics are primarily concerned with their field of commercial expertise.

In my MA research the two relevant sets are the blogs of Irish graphic design companies and of individual Irish graphic designers.

While the aims and objectives of such blogs are as individual and unique as their creators, in achieving their aims they all have to address attention and reputation, which are the two currencies of the Internet.

To maximize attention and gain the best (reputational) return on their efforts, it is worth considering whether their best approach to go ultra-narrow in focus and become the recognised expert of a very unique and specific area. For example by become Ireland’s expert blogger on the design of corporate identity systems for Irish state agencies; or on designing literature systems for Irish third-level institutions; or on bilingual design conforming to Official Languages Act. The scope is endless.

If a substantial cohort of professional Irish graphic design bloggers adopted this approach, the end-state would be a deep reservoir of focused experts, all discoverable via the Internet. Given that most of the blogs reviewed in my research are generalist in their approach, being far more specialized may be a viable strategy for elevating Irish graphic design blogs out of obscurity.

Summary Analysis of the Uses of Business Blogging within the Irish Graphic Design Sector

Today I am releasing this summary report of the quantitative aspect of my Master’s research. This research analyses the uses of business blogging by graphic design companies and graphic designers in Ireland and evaluates that usage against current best practice.

Existing Irish graphic design blogs are surveyed, details of their activities and characteristics are collected. The data collected on each blog is categorised. The category data for graphic design companies and individual graphic designers is compared to identify any differences in emphasis and approach between them. The category information is analysed.

In conclusion the current state of the Irish graphic design business blogosphere is evaluated. Recommendations on policies and strategies for business blogging and micro-blogging are given. An increased focus on listening and engaging with stakeholders through blogging and social media is recommended.

Please feel free to share this report and pass it along to anyone you think may be interested.

Blogging in the Irish Graphic Design Sector

Online Behaviour of Irish Graphic Design Companies

Before analysing the blogging activities of Irish graphic design companies, it is useful to give an overview of the relevant norms of online communication pre-exisitng within this sector. How the form and tone of the graphic design company websites contrast with the norms of business blogging is relevant to this research.

Much marketing of graphic design services is still constrained within the paradigm of the portfolio. Websites predominantly feature images of the outcomes of the company’s work: brand marks, brochures, packaging and so on. Even on websites making the most use of explanatory text, this is invariably a condensed project summary of the brief and deliverables, with little explanation of the analytic thinking and exploration underpinning the creative work. This approach is symptomatic of the ‘Old Economy’ mindset characterised by Krishna De as being “too afraid of giving away their insider knowledge” (De 2009, interview).

There are examples in the international graphic design industry of business blogs delivering the benefits outlined in the literature review. They enhance the understanding of the initial creative thinking that informs the design work and the personal and organisational interactions that shape its eventual form. Although they are experts in visual communication, a review of the websites of Irish graphic design companies gives little real sense of the personalities of the individuals behind the creative services being offered.

Limitations of customised website systems
Client’s baseline expectations for interactivity and engagement constantly increase and arguably now include some level of participating, commenting and sharing. None of which have yet become common features of Irish graphic design company websites, many still being online portfolios with few inbound or outbound links. Research has shown that design companies still de-emphasise the kind of community or link-based functionality that can play an important role in the business utility of their websites.

This research has observed personal blogs hosted on free service platforms delivering a far richer media experience than professional design company websites, many of which are unable to easily embed RSS feeds and other media content and cannot easily be updated with social media tools or other methods of client interaction. Rather than using standardised platforms with large installed user-bases and active developer communities (such as WordPress) the majority of the websites reviewed are one-off builds incorporating Flash elements with little semantic value. This suggests that being constrained within bespoke-developed website solutions may be one technical reason limiting the adoption of business blogging by Irish graphic design companies.

Irish Graphic Design Company Blogs in 2009

This post is a detailed listing of all 24 Irish graphic design company blogs analysed during my research project in 2009, giving details about the nature and characteristics of each blog. Any additional blogs added after September are not included in the research analysis. The full 2009 list is after the jump.

[UPDATE: The 2010 list now has its own separate page in this blog, see the ‘Irish graphic design company blogs’ tab at the top of this page.]

Irish Graphic Designer’s Blogs in 2009

This post is a detailed listing of all 22 Irish graphic designer’s blogs analysed during my MA research project in 2009 giving details about the nature and characteristics of each blog. Any additional blogs added after September are not included in the research analysis. The full 2009 list is after the jump.

UPDATE: The 2010 list now has its own separate page on this blog, see the ‘Irish graphic designer’s blogs’ tab in the masthead of this page.

On Blogger’s Antipathy to Corporate-Speak

One interesting theme emerging from my literature review is the evolving etiquette and norms concerning the appropriate tone of voice for business blogging. There are many recurring lists exhorting bloggers to be honest, be yourself, be truthful, own up to your mistakes and such-like. This propagates a misconception that no companies ever communicated in these ways before business blogging arrived.

Dave Winer, one of the originators of blogging, is an anti-corporate iconoclast who believes blogs should only ever represent the unique voice of an individual (Israel et al 2006, page 59). His stance is indicative of the observed antipathy within the blogosphere to what is characterised as ‘corporate speak’.

Although prominent bloggers can draft, rewrite, parse and craft their words as obsessively as any author (or Masters researcher), many have an undisguised aversion to what they perceive as the inoffensive, committee-written, homogeneous language of much marketing communications. Particularly when it is used within the blogosphere.

These bloggers often self-identify with that idea of the ‘unique voice’. Le Meur relates this to blogging initially flourishing in cultures where people are “accustomed to expressing our thoughts as individuals out in the open” (Israel et al 2006, page 115). Silicon Valley software developers, engineers and technology entrepreneurs, or “religiously libertarian anarchists with ponytails” (The Economist 2003), brought a counter-cultural mindset with them which typified the early phases of blogging. Israel and Scoble also perpetuate this distinction between bloggers being ‘authentic voices’ in comparison with the majority of other corporate communications, which they denigrate as an “oxymoronic hybrid of cautious legalese seasoned with marketing hyperbole” (Israel et al 2006, page 14).

Any attempt to define one ‘true voice’ for blogging can only be an exercise in futility. Any more than saying that there is one correct way to use a telephone or to write a letter. Particularly any effort to establish a certain mode of blogging as ‘authentic’ based on the characteristics of the early adopters only highlights the cultural, social and even geographic characteristics of the first cadre of bloggers.

Three ICAD Member Graphic Design Companies Blogging in 2009 (Out of 48)

I reviewed the websites of all members of The Institute of Creative Advertising and Design listed under ‘Graphic Design, Identity Design and Packaging Design’ in the Member’s Directory on the ICAD website (accessed on 20 June 2009) and investigated which have a link to a company blog from their primary company website. IDI membership is individual, so I have aggregated this list by company name. This research does not preclude their being such a company blog, but where one is not visibly linked on the company website, then an inference can be made as to how such a blog is positioned within the company’s mix of corporate communications.

Nine IDI Member Graphic Design Companies Blogging in 2009 (Out of 71)

I reviewed the websites of all members of Institute of Designers in Ireland listed under ‘Visual Communications’ on the IDI website (accessed on 03 June 2009) and investigated which have a link to a company blog from their primary company website. IDI membership is individual, so I have aggregated this list by company name. This research does not preclude their being such a company blog, but where one is not visibly linked on the company website, then an inference can be made as to how such a blog is positioned within the company’s mix of corporate communications.

About My Dissertation Blog

This is the text from the ‘About’ page on my dissertation blog, explaining its purpose and content.

UPDATE: I have now migrated all of the content from that blog to this Thoughtport blog in March 2010.

About
As part of my Masters Degree in Professional Design Practice from Dublin Institute of Technology I have conducted research into business blogging in the Irish Graphic Design Sector for a dissertation submitted in Autumn 2009. I have established this site as a central location for those aspects of my research that may be of interest to a broader audience.

Research question
This research seeks to analyse the usage of business blogging by graphic design companies and graphic designers in Ireland and to evaluate that usage against current best practice. The study aims to usefully articulate potential strategies those companies can adopt to participate in business blogging in a more effective manner that will benefit their businesses, and ideally the whole Irish graphic design sector.

Hypothesis
The research starts from the hypothesis that business blogging is a beneficial activity for professional services firms and that it can play a significant role in enhancing the professional reputation and authority of Irish graphic design companies and graphic designers.

Aims and objectives

• To establish a working definition of business blogging and choose which sub-sets of blogging shall be included within the research.
• To identify the key potential benefits that business blogging can bring to the marketing of Irish graphic design companies and graphic designers.
• To discover what Irish graphic design blogs currently exist and collect data on their levels of activity.
• To categorise and analyse this data to identify whether those business blogs are effectively achieving any of the identified benefits.
• To compare the business blogging activities of the Irish graphic design sector against established international and Irish best practice.
• To identify effective business blogging strategies for Irish graphic design companies.

Site structure
I have divided this site into three parts,

• The Journal is where I write all my thoughts and analysis.
• The Blog Lists page has all of the primary data information that I have gathered on Irish graphic design blogs.
• In Assets you will find various online video and audio resources that relate to my research topic. For a list of text resources and links you can refer to my Del.ici.ous page in the sidebar.

Six DBI Graphic Design Companies Blogging in 2009 (Out of 46)

I reviewed all of the graphic design companies listed as members of Design Business Ireland on the DBI website (accessed on 05 April 2009) and identified which have a company blog linked to from their primary company website. This does not preclude their being such a blog, but where none is visible on the company website an inference can be made as to how the blog is positioned within the company’s mix of corporate communications.

Of the 46 relevant DBI members on the list, six had corporate blogs and forty had none.

Small Pieces, Loosely Connected

After a very quick scan through the blogs submitted after yesterday’s email request it strikes me that as yet there are no A-List or Go-To blogs in the Irish Graphic Design sector. Only a few blogs were mentioned more than once by respondents (in what was admittedly a very small and unscientific sample).

Where are the Seth Godins, the Hugh Macleods and John Grubers of the Irish graphic design sector? Given the small size of the Irish graphic design sector and the smaller subset one would expect to actively blog within that, perhaps small, ultra-niche atomized, personalized audiences are all that one can expect. Clay Shirkey’s power law analysis of blogging would suggest that one or two of these blogs should have gained a broader audience and expanded beyond their initial audience.

Actions: based on this analysis examine the sample blogs.
— Is their content very personalized, only of interest to friends and acquaintances?
— Is their content primarily of interest only to the author (diary blog, design reference for self)?
— Is their material published on an ad-hoc basis, with long intermissions?
— Does the blog promote the designer or their business?

Initial Call for Irish Design Blogs

I sent this email out to contacts in my network to gather some initial blog addresses for my MA research.

I am researching the uses of blogs by Irish design companies and by Irish designers.

What I need to do at this stage is pull together a quick list of blogs by Irish designers and if possible Irish design companies. So if you can send me on links to any that you know of, your contribution will be most appreciated.

This is very preliminary work, so go as broad and wide as you can — I will filter later. It is more important that I get a comprehensive sample to start off with.

I'll just be looking through them — at this stage this is not a call for people to interview or anything as involved as that.

The term ‘blog’ is wilfully elusive: so if you are not sure if something is bloggy enough or not, just go ahead and add it in anyway.

I am also interested in designer's personal blogs. Whether they are freelancers using their blog as part of marketing (Like Benny here) or designers doing their own thing quite separate from whatever design studio they work in. (Like Con here.)

Also the blogs don't have to be writing-orientated. Link-blogs or design reference blogs full of deadly cool visual stuff are just as valid. (Like this kind of thing.)

I am also looking for any Irish design companies or designers micro-blogging on Twitter (like this). In my research I will eventually need to focus on applied use of this for some defined aim: most likely marketing. But as this stage just seeing whether many in design industry are availing of this channel at all shall be productive.

I will aggregate all of the results onto a web page as some kind of shared resource listing. I will circulate that once I get it lashed together.

Also, do feel free to forward this email on to anyone you know who may be able to point me towards some relevant blogs. (That way I can tick the box beside Research Aim of “Leveraging the sophisticated network effects of online social networks to gather information”.)

Thanks in advance.
Aiden