An example of how a corporate blog helped with community building and industry thought leadership.

Situation: In the summer of 2004, Yahoo! was entering a critical transition period - particularly in the Web search space. The company had just completed a multi-billion dollar acquisition of Overture and had announced that was dropping Google as its search engine provider in the interest of using its own search technology. To complicate the situation further, Google was generating a tremendous amount of momentum as it prepared for an initial public offering, meanwhile Microsoft was developing its own plans to launch a competitive search offering via its MSN property, plus it was promising tighter search integration within its new Windows Operating System.

The Yahoo! Search communications and marketing teams understood that to stay competitive in this environment, they needed to re-think how they engaged with the various constituencies that were actively shaping the industry marketplace. With this in mind, the company instituted several new forward-thinking projects including the development and launch of the Yahoo! Search Blog in August of 2004.

Strategy: The Search Blog was at its very core a platform for listening to and engaging directly with search industry enthusiasts. Various members of the product, engineering, executive and marketing teams regularly contributed content and used the Search Blog as a way to connect directly with users and cultivate a community around the search team and its products. While the initial audience for the Search Blog was (and remains) search industry professionals, the reach of the Search Blog quickly expanded to include the broader Internet community.

Results: In August 2005, Yahoo! celebrated the one-year anniversary of the Yahoo! Search Blog. Over the course of this first year the Search Blog has quickly become an integral part of the company's communication efforts by providing the team behind it with a platform for listening and speaking with its community. Product launches, personality profiles and industry commentary surface regularly on the Search Blog - providing readers with perspective and insight on the Yahoo! Search team and its products that wouldn't otherwise be available with traditional communication and marketing outlets.

Today, with a readership circulation that rivals some print publications, the Search Blog is poised to become a very powerful source of information and dialogue with a growing community of Yahoo! Search users.

Yahoo! Search: www.ysearchblog.com/