I recently interviewed Nikki Scoggins, the online communities development manager, to discuss Vans’ blog and participation in social networks.
Her fun, candid answers below give us an insight under the hood of Vans.

1. Why does Vans blog?

We blog to give us another way to connect on a casual level with our customers & fans. It’s a way to tell people about Vans-related phenomena (like sneaker customization) or random happenings that Vans actually has nothing to do with, but we find interesting. People do it on their own. Also, through the blog, Facebook, MySpace, & Twitter people can talk directly with us about their likes & dislikes….events & happenings in their world. I mean, people are online all the time anyway in social networks. Why not go where the people are, right? And anyway, of course, blogs are a great way to further our knowledge of how our products are being used. If a guy builds a giant chair made out of our sneakers I wouldn’t exactly put it on the front page of vans.com. It’s not the place for it. However, posting it on The Vans Blog and asking the artist why he felt he needed to make a giant chair out of Vans- getting the story about the person- is what I find most interesting and makes the best material to write about. (Is there really a giant Vans Chair? No, not yet. I am seeding. I need to see one. Haha!)

2. Who reads the Vans blog and why?

As far as I can gather, there’s not any particular type of person who reads the blog regularly.  I’ve connected it through all of our other networks so the range of person isn’t targeted at one audience. Certainly the majority of traffic is US, followed by Canada, the UK & France, but hey, I gotta give a big holler at my one reader in Azerbaijan, too. (I know where you are. What up, Google maps!) Some people could think that writing a blog about Vans would be boring and too restricting. You’d run out of content. In fact there’s so much out there, when you consider how many people wear Vans and have an emotional attachment to them, oftentimes I can’t keep up with all the material. Also, picking one topic & elaborating on it for more than a year certainly helps to understand the nuances of the culture behind it. I guess that’s why people keep coming back to it. It’s like looking under the hood of Vans.

3. How do you measure whether the blog is a success?

Ah! That’s a perfect follow up to the last question. I measure the success from two perspectives: connecting the people at Vans with the public & providing a conduit for the public to us. When people in my office learn something new about what one of our fans is doing with our product, they get excited.  When a fan feels more connected to us because we blog about DIY projects or something going on in their town, they get excited. That’s a success. That’s not supposed to sound all crazy altruistic, but maybe it’s not such a bad thing.

4. What’s your favorite Vans blog post?

Well, they aren’t terribly popular ones, but I really love finding the homemade commercials by kids on YouTube. They’re so sincere. They make up songs about Vans. They write bitchy skits about how nerds wear Sketchers and cool girls wear Vans and by wearing Vans you magically become Cinderella-awesome. Haha! I know I’m a sucker, but I used to make videos like that when I was little. It’s nostalgic.

As far as ones that readers like?

The Alexander Hamilton Vans

This one here where rapper Gata makes up his own slang

and the Coachella poloaROID RAGE! Study

5. In your “about” section on the blog you show a lot of personality. Do you feel free to be yourself on the blog?

Absolutely. The only things I stay away from are politics and religion. (I’m a Southern girl. That’s just not proper. Haha) Other than that, I am pretty down for whatever. Like I mentioned before, blogs are casual places. I can’t claim that I’m a versatile writer. I’m not about to win a national book award in my spare time. I write how I speak, but sans F-bombs as constant placeholders. Most people get my humor. Come on, I literally wrote about waffles this week. Occasionally, some people take me seriously. A while back I wrote about how a guy in a Facebook commercial for iPhone wouldn’t be my friend. Over the top sarcasm all over the place, right? After I’d written the post, I ended up exchanging emails with the guy in question. He works at an ad agency in Santa Monica, CA. We were quipping back and forth in the comments section, joking about adding each other on FB. Seriously, I wrote, “OMG LOL LMAO MAO ZEDONG” in the comments, so I figured it was pretty obvious that we were joking. Anyway this woman writes me back a long, “you need to respect yourself, honey” comment. It was hilarious! The moral of the story? Some people just don’t get it.

6. Have you used the Vans blog in any of your marketing efforts? If so, how?

Oh sure. Like I mentioned, it’s all part of our relationship marketing. When I post something, it goes on all of our networks. The Vans Blog is just one arm of the social networking program that I’m helping to build at Vans. No, I’m not making an ad, but I think the blog is something that rings true with our consumers. It comes from a sincere place.

7. What are a few blogs you personally enjoy?

For skate news: Skate Daily

Fecal Face’s NYC blog – Bryan Derbally & Todd Seelie are fantastic photographers. It lets me know what I’m missing and makes me want to move back east.

Design Sponge - Hooray to making things

Inspiration Resource

Music blogs: ah yes, the walrus & day trotter.

refinery 29’s blog

and of course I love the biggies like Gawker, Huffington Post, Buzzfeed, Mashable, and Cool Hunting is def a favorite.

Connect with Nikki on twitter.

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Richard exemplifies a social media entrepreneur.  When he first began Israeli Wine Direct, he used his blog as a way to interview and gain access to Israeli wine experts. And once the business was established, social media has opened doors to new audiences.

His approach to marketing is personal. Wine lovers across America, including Guy Kawasaki, invite him into their home to pour Israeli wine for friends and families. Speak to Richard for 30 seconds and you’ll understand why he gets invited. His passion for wine is contagious, and he shares it on his company blog, Twitter, Friendfeed, YouTube and Facebook.

As his business becomes even more successful, I look forward to seeing how Richard’s enthusiasm will translate into creating a company culture with an even greater impact.

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