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Truly Outrageous? On Creating Controversy With Your Blog

During the Q&A portion of the If You Build It, Will They Come? event this week (which was a really good event, incidentally), speaker Frank Warren (of PostSecret fame) mentioned that when it comes to creating the weekly narrative from each batch of 20 or so posted secrets, “Controversy can be good.”

Controversy gets people’s blood going. It goads them into action. And nothing says “engagement” like somebody wanting to rip your head off (figuratively, hopefully).

People pay attention to controversy. It’s noisy and messy and interesting, especially when people are under attack — they either clam up, or are forced to approach something close to honesty because they don’t have time to finesse something. (See the current slapfight between Dan Lyons (the Fake Steve Jobs) and CNBC over their coverage of Apple.)

In the political sci-fi novel Interface by Neal Stephenson and George Jewsbury, we see another take on using controversy:

“All the same,” [political operative Cy Ogle] said, “they all react the same. The hunchback, the shooting, the pornography, and they all reacted differently. But when they’re pissed off, they all look alike. And that’s why self-righteousness is the most powerful force in politics.”

To that, I would also add that the blogosphere runs on righteous indignation.

However, generating controversy for an ongoing art project or a talking head TV show is one thing. How can small businesses use controversy to generate attention, traffic, and conversation?

Very carefully.

Generating controversy for the sake of generating controversy is kind of transparent. And not the good kind of transparent — the other kind, where people see right through you. This is especially true if you’re bad-mouthing your competition to try and make yourself look better, or jumping into an area where your business has no business being.

Another thing about controversy is that it’s distracting. Instead of being known for your business, you might be known as that person who got into a nasty blogfight with so-and-so. This may be good if you’re a gossip columnist or social media consultant, not so good for everyone else.

And of course, blog controversies always run the risk of spiraling out of control, especially if they’re of any import at all  — damaging the reputation of participants, and alienating people who fall on the other side.

Assuming you don’t want a knock-down, drag-out fight (save that drama for your personal blog — if you can), here are a few ways you can use controversy to generate some heat and light for your blog and business:

* Keep it real: Find a real issue that’s relevant to your business, that you can weigh in on with your informed expertise. Depending on your field, it could be anything from the effect of the DC ban on single-serving beers on craft brewers, to the superiority of the Robertson screwdriver.

* Be the referee: You can acknowledge a controversy without having to take a side. Use the opportunity to listen to people, and be an honest broker.

* Lower the stakes: People may still have strong feelings on things that ultimately don’t matter that much. A case in point: Pop vs. Soda maps out what people call fizzy carbonated beverages (Pop, Soda, or that whacked-out outlier, Coke). These and other oddities of regional language generate a lot of talk because it’s interesting, not because it really matters.

* Don’t burn your bridges: Don’t alienate people who’d you’d mind missing. If you’re a car dealer who sells Fords but not Chevys, maybe you can afford to pick a side in that eternal debate. Otherwise, tread lightly.

And of course, the Big Daddy of them all:

* Disagree without being disagreeable. This isn’t politics — the people on the other side from you aren’t necessarily bad people, and knowledgeable people may have honest differences of opinion.

What hot-button issues have you taken on in your business blog? Am I being too much of a wuss here? Leave a comment and share your examples of controversies you’ve harnessed to boost your business… or ones that have blown up in your face.

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