Spotstory has been a growth experience for me.  Sometimes I’m aware of this while it’s happening, while sometimes I realize, suddenly,  that I look at certain things differently.  This is a story about the latter.

So, last month I’m checking out the website of a new company from one of the industries in which I used to work.  I was simultaneously dumbfounded, depressed, and annoyed by what I saw.

I’m not going to bore you with details.  My intent isn’t to call out these folks in particular.  Plus, you’ve already seen this website replicated countless times: stock photos of impossibly earnest or happy, diverse, and well groomed people staring intently into computer screens.

Of course there’s the obligatory press-release in press-release-ese and the marketing copy that’s relevant to, I dunno, somebody.  You know, its full of proactive language that sounds positive, but in the end you’ve got no idea what they’re actually selling.

I’m looking at this and my immediate reaction is: “These people would be much better off with a blog.”

I was surprised by this! I said “Huh, I would not have said that half a year ago.”

Then, blogs struck me as somehow possibly useful, but also sort of superficial: window dressing for your site, in the same league as rectangles with rounded corners.

Today, I can’t image how a company can not have a blog.

Though our blog has its ups and downs, I love it!  It gives us a way to communicate what Spotstory is about, explain its features at length, and keep users appraised of new releases or upcoming features.  It gives users a way to easily talk back to us.

It also allows us to give back to the communities we’re a part of by helping to promote events, and as a vehicle for contributing technical information and source code.

It makes it very easy to talk with people without having to rely on industry press or a sales force.  It’s lightweight and agile. 

Plus, All of this information on the blog attracts search engine traffic.  A lot of that traffic then follows through to our main site, that is, our product!

This is how we’ve used  blogging.  In a lot of ways, we’re a very small fish dealing with a very large audience.  Imagine what a company in a niche market serving a well defined customer base could do.

I’m not saying a blog-only website is right for everyone.  Everything I’m talking about could probably done with a traditional web site.  In fact, I’m sure we’ll have one of those too some day, though I hope we manage to avoid the bad stock photos.

So, my friends out there in the old world, think about blogging!  Sure, issue your press release, but also write an accompanying blog entry in plain (BS-free) language that your customers can understand.  Write technical white papers, but also have an ongoing open dialog about how your product can be used.  Have a bug tracking system, knowledge base, and a product roadmap, but have a frank and honest conversation with your users about the strengths, weaknesses, and direction of your product on a daily basis.

Your customers will thank you, you’ll learn a lot, and you’ll have a lot of fun.

Aron and I attended the MIT Enterprise Forum’s “Software 2.0: Turn and Burn on a Dime” event last night to see and be seen. We ran into some old friends and got introduced to a few new. Which is a something of a feat given our miserable networking/schmoozing skills. (Maybe I shouldn’t be so quick to lump Aron in with me. He’s a real charmer and a pleasant young man.)

I’ve attended these events sporadically over the past several years. I usually come away with a few valuable pieces of knowledge, and cruising through Kendall Square always gives me a little warm, resonant technology buzz. I feel like I’m in the right place at the right time.

One thing we learned last night was that we need to hone our pitch. We’ve been heads down coding for the past little bit. It is probably about time we give our marketing a little love. (Still, the few words we stammered out were well received. So we have that going for us.)

The main take away from the panel was that there is actually a place in the world for small companies using minimal capital and leveraging open source, the internet, and offshoring in every way you can.

The bad news, according to the panel, is that capital markets haven’t quite figured out how to deal with these sorts of companies. However, with Charles River Ventures’ recently announced QuickStart Seed Funding Program, I think they’re probably just about to figure it out. (I bet another handful of top tier firms launch similar programs in the next six months.)

The companies on the board got to market in a year or so working nights and weekends. This is good info for us which we’re using to gauge the sanity of our own schedules.

Okay, this has gotten far too long. So, I will wrap up suddenly and without further fanfare!