Corporations are now
using blogs to communicate with the marketplace.  Are
they affective?  What are the risks?

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Note: This story is available on both
href="http://news.thomasnet.com/IMT/">Industrial Market Trends style="font-style: italic;"> and the style="font-style: italic;"
href="http://www.iaocblog.com/blog/_archives/2005/6/26/975853.html">International
Association of Online Communicators Blog style="font-style: italic;">. We will share comments from both
audiences in order to open up the dialogue and share ideas in true blog
and wiki fashion.

In a recent article in InformationWeek href="http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=164300603">Corporations
Entering Brave New World Of Blogs, we find the Vice Chairman of
General Motors addressing rumors that would have a negative affect on
the company. Companies like General
Motors, Boeing, href="http://www.microsoft.com/communities/blogs/PortalHome.mspx">Microsoft,
and Sun Microsystems
all have blogs available on the open Web.  These are just four of
what InformationWeek says is over one-hundred corporate blogs open to
the general public.

It seems corporations have found a way to bypass the traditional press
and journalists’ interpretation of what they said and directly talk to
the marketplace to expand their reach, generate interests in products
and build customer loyalty.

When blogs are done well they create a relationship with
customers.  The blogs can help in creating positive word-of-mouth
or good reactions in other blogs.  They are a way to highlight
specific messages to the marketplace as well as create
quick-to-the-market responses to negative press and information.

The opportunity to create a dialogue with customers is both powerful
and fraught with pitfalls if not done well.  Blogs are
conversations with the Internet user.  You do not want to talk at
them as if they are mindlessly watching television and are opened to
whatever advertising message you have.  If a blog is self-serving
and used a PR vehicles with no real desire to engage and benefit the
user they can backfire.  They can become the topic of many angry
bloggers who share negative reactions and eventually hurt the
reputation of the corporation.

One of the many characteristics of a successful corporate blog is a
candid honesty.  Customers appreciate this approach and are likely
to share their candid and honest opinion.  This dialogue can
provide insight to the perceptions of the marketplace that can assist
in future business decisions.

Successful corporate blogs includes a “no-holds-barred” href="http://blogs.sun.com/jonathan">blog by Jonathan Schwartz,
President of Sun Microsystems.  Schwartz, who encourages his
employees to blog, receives about 300,000 visits a month to his
blog.  He uses the online journal to reach out developers and turn
around cynical readers. Schwartz is not beyond taking on market
analysts and competitors.

Corporate blogs do not have to be controversial to create an
audience.  Companies such as href="http://www.stonyfield.com/weblog/">Stonyfield Farm, a New
Hampshire organic yogurt and ice cream company, has informative blogs
for parents with babies and dairy farmers.

Blogs are here to stay.  The key is how you capitalize on this new
opportunity.  What do you think?

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