OPINION! Uwe Knaus, Daimler Blog Manager: "Dialog is the icing on the cake!"

Among the DAX 30 companies, Daimler is considered a pioneer in cooporate blogging. Uwe Knaus, who created the Daimler blog, talks about this in an interview Set and opportunities for blogging and social media in companies.

Since the beginning of 2007, Uwe Knaus has been involved in the conception, launch, moderation and strategic further development of the Daimler blog. Since mid-2009, the graduate business economist has also been responsible for conception and Strategy responsible for the use of Twitter for corporate communication and has been managing the strategic use of social media since the beginning of 2010.

Mr. Knaus, how did you actually get to blogging?

In the middle of 2006 I dealt for the first time professionally with the media change and with the changes that the Web 2.0 brought about. So it made sense to deal more intensively with the topic of “blogging”. In order to better understand the blogosphere, I delved deeper into the subject and read numerous well-known blogs, including comments. Because dialogue is the salt in the soup and is what makes blogs so interesting!

In the course of time, I became acquainted with and appreciated numerous blogs that were connected to one another. I became more and more involved in the dialogue and began to comment on contributions. In the beginning 2007 I discovered Twitter and started with Microblogging. My first experiences with my own blog contributions, however, I collected, after the start of the Daimler blog, in October 2007.

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Why was the Daimler blog launched and what are Daimler's goals with the blog?

Our communication department has been dealing with media change and the associated changes for quite some time: falling circulation of print media with a simultaneous increase in online use, changed communication behavior through Web 2.0 functionalities, increasing popularity of social media platforms or mobile Internet use are just a few examples.

This means that growing target groups are less and less accessible via classic forms of media and we therefore had to think about how we could support this generation of "Digital Natives” can still achieve. That's how it came about Concept for a corporate blog.

Can a large corporation such as Daimler be made transparent with social media at all?

That's right, companies are difficult to understand as they get bigger act thereby inhuman. Corporate blogs are an important tool, especially for large corporations, in order to appear human and manageable despite their size. The readers no longer experience our company as a black box, but see the individuals who work at Daimler. The more freely our employees write, the more authentic the external impact. Transparency is the main goal.

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Who blogs at Daimler?

Apart from a few guest contributions, the Daimler blog is devoted exclusively to employees. To date, 220 authors have published 350 contributions.

Do you have visitor statistics?

Of course we want to know who our readers are. We use common statistical tools such as etracker. The Daimler blog has up to 40.000 visitors per month, of which well 40 percent employees are. In addition, we carry out a survey once a year, where we ask for information that can not provide us with statistics.

And who are your readers?

The latest survey showed that 76 percent of our readers are male and that the 38-XNUMX age group makes up the lion's share at XNUMX percent. The spectrum of readers ranges from shareholders to customers up to the journalist.

We also polled Forrester's Social Technographics profile and found a surprisingly high level of activity from our readers on the social web. The proportion of “creatives” who are actively blogging, uploading videos, and podcasts draw up is at 40% and thus clear above the German average (9%).

The number of "critic", the Online-Writing reviews and leaving comments on blogs is 46% and therefore also very high. With the results we are high satisfied, especially since they show that we reach the group of investigative multipliers very well. More about the results of the reader survey can be found here: http://blog.daimler.de

What is the advantage of readers reading your blog? Daimler finally releases a lot of press releases.

PR or public relations is the conscious, planned and ongoing effort between organizations and parts of the public for mutual understanding and Trust to build and maintain: working with the public, working for the public, working in the public.

On the Daimler blog, every employee has the opportunity to take part in Daimler's public relations work. However, this form of PR is not planned and is also dialogue-oriented thanks to the comment function. Our readers, whether journalists or employees, stay between five and seven minutes per visit and deal intensively with the company. It gives you an insight into our group, including impressions, feelings and thoughts of Peoplewho work at Daimler – unembellished and uncensored. In other words: authentic Communication on eye level.

Speaking of authentic communication: How do you react to critical issues with your blog?

Once we identify critical issues, we also think about a possible response to the blog. We had such situations several times.

Zum Beispiel?

When short-time working and working time shortened at Daimler, the head of personnel and work politics blogged to bring clarity into the public discussion.

In October 2009, some companies were in the headlines because of the issue of "blood tests as a requirement for employment". Back then, we were the only DAX company that could do it via blog fast and centrally to this negative and sometimes one-sided reporting. The senior group doctor answered the most important ones in an interview Ask already on the same day that the topic hit the print media. In all cases we drew attention to ourselves. From the point at which we had a say, the debate became more objective and the decentralized discussions on the Internet died down.

And how do you deal with unpleasant comments in the blog?

Violations of our commenting policy will result in moderator action. If a commenter misbehaves, they will be held accountable for their misconduct I aufmerksam made. If there is one insult acts, the comment will be deleted immediately. Depending on the situation, we only delete the corresponding passages, but sometimes the entire comment.

How often do you use one?

This has happened eight times since it started in October 2007. When we need to delete, we always indicate which comment was deleted and why. Here, too, transparency is the be-all and end-all. Criticism is generally desirable, especially if it is constructive.

And does it work for a group like Daimler?

With corporate blogs, the “fans” are the Company usually outnumbered the critics. They usually deal with the company and its topics in more depth and over a longer period of time. That's why discussions usually regulate themselves within comments. Black sheep who don't know how to behave are often caught by other discussants even before you intervene to moderate them.

All in all, we have found that cautious moderation, transparent commentary guidelines and the double opt-in procedure for commenting are a good basis for a positive discussion culture.

Do you see the blog as an alternative or even as a competition to the classic company PR?

Through social media, the classic PR is extended by the possibilities of the Web 2.0, ie: interaction and collaboration. PR becomes PR 2.0, so I see social media communication as a useful addition to the classic PR.

How do you use Twitter in connection with your blog?

We have integrated our Twitter activities into the Daimler blog. Daimler's tweets are integrated in the right column of the blog. Conversely, blog posts are also automatically published on the @ Daimler_News account on Twitter.

Does the blog help me if I'm looking for a job at Daimler?

The Daimler blog gives you a first impression of our corporate culture - open, authentic and uncensored dialogue is an indication of this. They also get access to the topic category “Introduction and Career” an insight into the opportunities that working life at Daimler offers, but job offers can still be found on our entry and careers website.

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