The fear of technology or public opinion may hold companies back from entering the blogosphere.  Some companies may worry about the HR or legal ramifications of open two-way communication.  These are real considerations; however, if they do not join or understand blogging and Web 2.0 technological revolution, they may be left behind in a quickly growing and transforming technology era.

Blogging involves thought, a purpose, and a commitment to communicate often.  What blogging provides is invaluable – open, honest, transparent two-way communication with employees, customers, and stakeholders. 

Don’t be afraid to jump in the blogging pool and take a swim.

Here is a list of other companies in the blogosphere!

Adobe, Coca-Cola, Craigs List, Dallas Mavricks, Dell, Edelman, General Motors, GoDaddy, JetBlue, Kodak, Marriott, Microsoft, Pitney Bowes, Southwest, Sun Microsystem

Retrieved from http://ngiinvestments.com/partners.htm

A positive example of corporate blogging is that of Microsoft. 

Meet Microsoft, a powerful company too smart for its knickers. B)

Meet Robert Scoble, a techonolgy guru that believes himself a year ahead of everyone else when it comes to technology.  ;~)

Meet Microsoft’s image, an soul sucking evil empire. :O 

Scoble starts a corporate blog, follows it with a video blog of Microsoft employees, and BAM the company goes from evil empire to Santa Claus, well maybe the grinch, but after his heart grew three times that day. ♥♥♥

Microsoft improved their extremely negative brand image by use of unregulated employee blogs and a corporate video blogs.  Positive consumer reaction shifted the Microsoft brand from negative to positive/neutral.

(Thanks for Natasha Spring and William Briggs’ article,  The Impact of Blogging Real or Imagined, and Naked Conversations for the Microsoft info!)

Retrieved from http://ngiinvestments.com/partners.htm

During my search for blogging examples I found an article in the Journal of Mass Media Ethics…exciting reading, eh…that detailed a Wal-Mart blog that went bust.  While this blog was not at the CEO level it dramatically underscores the need for TRANSPARENCY. 

The basics of the story are:

In 2006, a PR firm set up an RV, a freelance writer, and a newspaper/freelance photographer, to travel across America, park in Wal-Mart parking lots, and interview and blog about interactions (positive) with Wal-Mart employees.

This is a good concept and should be solid PR.

The RV went down the wrong street when the PR firm, writer and photographer, said nowhere on their blog their relationship to Wal-Mart.  They didn’t mention that their trip was paid by Wal-Mart.  They forgot to mention that Wal-Mart was paying them.  They failed to tell folks that their professions were professional writer/photographer.

This lack of transparency caused an uproar about proper ethical actions by everyone – especially the PR firm, who volunteered to take the blame for this.  The blog was shut down, everything removed and deleted. 

My two sense: This all would have been avoided if the touring RV stated on their blog their relations to Wal-Mart.  They could have said Wal-Mart is sponsoring our trip; however, we are going across America to tell our accounts with Wal-Mart employees – positive and negative.  We abide by the journalism ethics first and will share our experiences with no bias for or against Wal-Mart.  It is my opinion that this type of open communication could have made the 2006 trip a fantastic blog.

In Public Relations Quarterly, marketing guru Andy Marken talks about the fear of blogging. 

There is the obvious fear of the unknown and companies that stay in the unknown but go forward in the blogging world often do it wrong.  Blogs are not for advertising.  They are not to sell a product.  Blogs shouldn’t be used to post company press releases either, and companies that blog for these reasons are treading water and not learning how to swim.  Marken argues that blogging can be a useful PR marketing tool, but that using it as a main advertising format is a horrible idea.

To better elaborate this idea, watch the YouTube video I posted I titled Make Corporate Blogs Personal. 

Blogs should humanize a company, not provide another avenue of corporate jargon.  If jargon is what you want, stick to current PR and communication methods.  If a discussion is what you desire, blog from the heart not from speaking points.

It is impossible to stop a moving train, unless you’re a superhero, and while I’ve seen many strong CEO’s in my life I’ve never wanted to see one in spandex and a cape.  Companies just have to face the facts – blogging is out there and people, yes your people, are doing it. 

Marken recommends that companies take a proactive approach in employee blogs, such as having employees read the blogger guidelines provided by the Electronic Frontier Foundation.  Corporate leaders can also start their own blog (after reading the guidelines, of course) and be part of the conversation, rather than just monitoring employee blogs. 

Marken also states, which I’ve read over and over again, that blogs must be UPDATED!  You can’t start a blog and forget about it in a couple months.  If a CEO wants to be a source of credibility for the company and industry, they must provide their credible blogs often…”Management should look at their blogging activities as a long term communications effort with their stakeholders.”

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]]> http://melkifinal.wordpress.com/2009/04/15/cracking-into-the-digital-age/feed/ 0 melkifinal reply-count http://melkifinal.wordpress.com/2009/04/14/the-reason-for-the-blogging-season/ http://melkifinal.wordpress.com/2009/04/14/the-reason-for-the-blogging-season/#comments Tue, 14 Apr 2009 20:11:06 +0000 melkifinal http://melkifinal.wordpress.com/?p=61 ]]> I wished everyone a Merry Christmas on my Facebook site today.  It is only April, but Christmas is in me all year .  I think I could blog about Christmas everyday all year too.  My company could be Christmas with a  purpose to spread holiday cheer.

You see, a blog, corporate or otherwise, should have a purpose.  A reason to write and a reason for people to read.  I would find it interesting to read about what Bill Gates had for lunch, but perhaps not everyday.  If I were interested in IT, I would seek blogs that talk about IT.  Christmas – Christmas and so forth. 

I ran across an April 2008 Advertising Age journal article that talks about this.  The author, Beth Snyder Bulik, said that just because over 11% of fortune 500 companies are blogging (it was 4% in 2005), this doesn’t mean a company should just start a blog on a whim.  She argued that there should be diligent thought  into the purpose of the blog.

There needs to be a reason to blog.  When Microsoft started their blog it was to change their image from evil empire to something a little less evil.  Dell started a blog to make the company more open.  Southwest started one to make their brand image fun and happy. 

When companies and leaders start their blogs, they need to think about it the reason for the blogging season.

Retrieved from http://www.marketingtom.com/2005/11/santas_blog.html

Retrieved from http://clubs.ca4h.org/losangeles/pvp/

The once popular band Smash Mouth sang, “Hey now you’re an all star, get your game on go play…get paid…only shooting stars break the mold.” 

Now that I have that song stuck in my head, I think about my company’s CEO and his all-star mold-breaking abilities.  He is smart, well spoken, a big picture thinker, relates to everyone, and a powerful motivator.  This is the type of all-star is the exact type Steve Rubel, big-wig marketing strategist for Edelman Digital, talks about in his Advertising Age article.

Rubel says that for these all-stars to be successful they need to balance their role as “semi-independent thought leaders while maintaining a clear connection to their employers”.  The article says that the best blogging all-star situation is “when the individual’s and company’s goals are aligned, the subject matter overlaps, and transparency reigns.”

In Groundswell I read about a company that spent 8 months planning a blog – not actually writing one.  When they presented leadership with the idea, it was quickly deflated.  The team thought long and hard about next steps and turned to the company’s founder, who no longer worked on the company’s day-to-day activities.  The founder was a definite all-star.  His ideas aligned with the company, he had great insight in the industry, and he had the time to blog.  Success!

Andy Marken, president of Marken Communication, published an article about public relation companies having difficulty keeping up with these all-stars.  The speed that blogs have grown, the ability of bloggers to be influential, the passion of the blogger for the industry they represent or discuss, all put the PR companies behind in terms of education/knowledge on an issue, and in influence their companies can have.  His article says the company blog all-stars are “passionate about their product categories and have quickly become credible sources of positive and negative news and information.”  Marken says by 2011, 20% of US adults will be sources of influence — accredited to blogs, podcasts, and other Web 2.0 technologies.

Who in your company is the next Michael Jordan of the industry?  I bet when companies think about it they could have a huge list of underutilized talent.