Encyclopedia Britannica has been in the knowledge distribution business since 1768. Despite its age, Britannica is leveraging the distinctly “Web 2.0” tactic of publishing provocative blog entries to promote its high-powered entry into the blog wars.
Are Britannica’s challenging, high-powered blog entries really provoking reader engagement? Is this a model for other brand blogs?
Old Doesn’t Mean Boring
Visit the Britannica Blog and you’ll find challenging posts in an extremely impressive range of topics. Posts cover strategic military concepts rub shoulders with political topics, pop culture, science, medicine, literature and more. It’s a smorgasboard of contemporary thought, a concept that seems oddly out of place in today’s tightly targeted blogosphere – until you consider the source.
You’ll also find something you might not have expected from this staid old brand, a series of highly provocative posts on subjects like Web 2.0 morality (or lack of it). Some have even accused the Britannica Blog of deliberate linkbaiting – the very modern practice of using controversial topics to inflame readers and draw traffic.
The U.K.’s Guardian Unlimited site had this to say:
And as Britannica standard-bearer bloggers proceeded to press every hot button of internet culture – Google, Wikipedia, copyright, even hoary complaints about the youth of today – it turned into an impressive demonstration of the contradictions of putting a style in the service of a contrary cause. Like fighting for peace, this was flaming for scholarliness.
Lively? Yes. Boring? Never.
A model for other brands looking to engage readers via blogging? Quite possibly. But only under certain circumstances.
Provocative… And Smart.
Provocative posts certainly draw crowds on the Internet, but the resulting “toxic” atmosphere often repels readers instead of attracting them. That’s why the Britannica Blog’s tactics merit close attention; they’re deliberately provoking conversation with controversial subjects, but doing so in a refined way.
Personal attacks, name-calling and other testy behavior are specifically outlawed, and the posts themselves are placed within a framework of an intellectual marketplace of ideas:
Britannica Blog is a place for smart, lively conversations about a broad range of topics. Art, science, history, current events – it’s all grist for the mill. We’ve given our writers encouragement and a lot of freedom, so the opinions here are theirs, not the company’s. Please jump in and add your own thoughts.
By disallowing many of the online world’s least savory behaviors, the Britannica Blog avoids linkbaiting’s biggest drawback – the rapid (and seemingly inevitable) downward plunge into name-calling, personal attacks, and sarcasm.
Remember, engagement marketing is all about connecting with a customer’s values and passions, typically in the spaces surrounding a brand. If Encyclopedia Britannica is looking to engage with intellectuals, they’ve certainly set out some tempting bait. Not only are their posts thought provoking, they’re also written by a long, long list of intellectual heavyweights.
Regardless, the blog’s eclectic, wide-ranging nature – which would seem a strength – could easily work against it. Despite its provocative nature, the Britannica Blog could simply overreach itself, losing readership to more narrowly focused (if less intellectually rigorous) blogs.
Still, one of my rules of engagement is that you engage with readers by being authentic – that hype and corporatespeak don’t fly. With that in mind, the Britannica Blog – founded in late 2006 – remains true to the company’s intellectually rich brand.
Tom Chandler is a copywriter and marketing consultant with 21+ years of experience. He authors blogs on Engagement Marketing and Copywriting.
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