Back in December I picked up a great post by LJ Jones on why you should separate your website and your blog. I agreed, and you can see why here. There are exceptions to every rule of course and even as I was writing that particular post my mind was on one particular website I considered an exception to the separate website and blog rule.
Look outside your industry for inspiration
If you’re looking for inspiration for a different way of doing things… or perhaps just a few new ideas, one of the best places to look is outside your industry. My example comes from the music industry – Coldplay.com. Even though I intended to write this post a couple in December, the fact that Coldplay have been nominated for 7 Grammys tells me I’d better get a move on and write it.
First up – I’m an avid Coldplay fan and have been for several years.
Even so, I saw them live only for the first time last July on the Viva La Vida World Tour in Toronto. A chance mention, a good friend and suddenly I had tickets! It was an amazing experience – and one of the best live performances I’ve ever seen. If I had any complaints, it was that I wished it was longer. Anyway, from then on I curious to find out what Coldplay’s online presence was like. It’s pretty impressive. I started with Facebook.
Coldplay’s Facebook fan page has 1,436,468 fans (of which I am one).
They have an equally popular MySpace page (I am not on MySpace so didn’t spend too much time there)… and the official Coldplay website is very cool. The longer I spent on it, the more I admired how their site works. Fans want to interact with the artists they like and admire, and while it might be harder to have a traditional blog/comment there is plenty to do through video, text or other multimedia.
On the site you can find all the latest news, gigs, blogs, interviews, pictures and videos.
The Blog’s in the site… somewhere
The “blog” is actually in News and the posts are tagged blog and blogged by Roadie #42. The blog items are a work of art… primarily about the happenings on tour, with a lot of heart. The posts bring home the Viva World tour experience with a unique perspective for the fans – or indeed for anyone who’s interested in following the group as they play in different countries. Posts read like a story (which they are) and I always come away looking forward to the next instalment and a feel for the experiences described in the posts.
There are 64 items at present and each post is a separate item in a separate page. The blog also gets posted into their Facebook page. Apart from the interesting posts, what struck me most was that there is no obvious “Blog” section. Instead “blog” is an integral part of the site. Now that I know were it is, I simply look for “News” and if I need to catch up on the latest posts by Roadie #42, click blog in the right side bar in “News”. This takes me to all the blog posts. To read all the posts however, you do have to click the “back” button to get to the main blog menu, something that took a little getting used to.
Interaction on the website
The blog is only one aspect of the Coldplay site. There’s a lot more going on. On the website fans can:
- Enter contests, which include creating videos for upcoming Coldplay releases…
- Submit their own photos from Coldplay concerts
- Follow the lads on tour around the world
- Enter video contests
- See new track videos first
- Vote on songs, tracks
- Win tickets to special performances
- Watch interviews with the group members
- Post their home movies
- Win tickets to special Coldplay events
- Get the skinny on new releases and latest videos
- Get news about appearances
- Listen in to special radio shows hosted by the group members ( this is quite fascinating)
- Ask anything about the group ( via “The Oracle)”
- Read accounts of live performances through the blog posts, video and audio
In other words, the full range of social interaction takes place on the website and is imported into various other social networking sites, such as Facebook, You Tube and MySpace, where most of the chat takes place. They also have regular news letter… and we’re going to see how Coldplay does on Twitter.
The result is the website itself is interactive rather than static, the blog forms part of the whole so there’s really no need for it to be a separate entity. Everything is in one place. I found it an interesting concept. Check it out for yourself.
You may not have the same time and resources to invest in your website as Coldplay. However there are many transferable ideas that would work equally well on any blog or website. I looked around for another example of where a blog forms an integral part of the website in the same way, with little success. Most seem to follow the more traditional separation of website and blog – which is fine.
Whatever works for your audience is the way to go.
If you know of any that are blog and site combined (perhaps your favourite artist?) please share the link.
Comments?
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Hi Nicky,
Our agency blog is also our website – we lead with the blog (all about you) and our “website” (all about us) is made up of static pages in the back. Would love to get your thoughts on it.
Great post as always. I’m off to check out Coldplay’s site!
Lara Kretler’s last blog post..The Thought Leadership Challenge
Lara – I think it works! I like the way you lead with the blog… it made me feel I could read a post and add a comment, you’re kind of drawn into the conversation (and into the company?) right from the beginning.
Interestingly I found myself looking for the navigation… my eyes went straight to the top of the page – then I looked where you told me the Company info was. Very interesting. It’s actually nice the way the “me” stuff is away from the main site. Fascinating and a great example of how blog and website can work together.