Evolution of the TM Blog (or, "How to Kill a Blog in 4 Easy Steps")
As a social scientist, one of the most interesting things about the TM Blog is how it evolved over time. If I ever get the chance to compose it, the TM Blog would make an interesting case study. As I see it, there were four main phases:
- Introduction: This seemed to last a few months. Early posts were very informative, and encouraged participation. Excitement was high, and many posts were information-seeking.
- Growth/Golden Age: This seemed to last about a year. Growth in participation was fairly pronounced, with quite a few repeat-posters--but with relatively even participation (between old and new posters). Top management was engaged, even to the point of responding to posts--no matter how inflammatory they may have been. Somewhere towards the end of this phase, on-line e-zines and paper-bases magazines began picking up newsworthy information off the Blog, feeding a hungry secondary market for the information.
- Transition/Decline: As Blog responsibilities moved off the CEOs desk to the marketing department, the flavor began to change. Still a good source of news and events, the frequency of new posts and replies began to drop off somewhat. The marketing flavor was noticeable in the choice of topics (such as the posts outlining the initial test drives of early purchasers)--not necessarily a bad thing. Participation began to wane, and early heavy posters began to disappear, although of those that remained, there was a certain amount of territorial tendency--chastising new/ignorant posters for asking questions that had been asked a thousand times before (like the idea of mounting a solar panel on the chassis or adding a "windmill"). New posters arrived to take their place, but the sense of community on the site started to wane somewhat. Competitors arose (such as this site and ME's site), and began to siphon off the original regular participants.
- Death: Almost all of the initial regular posters are gone (perhaps still reading, but no longer willing to participate). The company message is now firmly being pressed, with little or no response from the online community (most recent post before EMs has 6 responses to date--4 from old posters, and 2 new). No new information on the Blogs (most new information preceded with a press release).
