Betty’s Little World ^_^

Now, think of only three questions:                                  

Do you really think a corporate blog can help achieve certain company objectives?

Do you have the confidence to run a corporate blog as a long-term task rather than something that will be abandoned when the fun wears off?

Have you read tons of blogs? (You can start from my page about Fortune 500 corporate blogs)

If the answers are all yes, then, let’s go blog!   

“If you’re going to blog, you need to have a relatively thick skin.”(Rick E. Bruner at Business Blog Consulting)

Facing negative, sometimes even malicious comments is part of blogging. It is a big challenge for corporate bloggers to equip themselves with skills on responding to negative feedback. More than that, though, they need to be capable enough to turn “negative” into “positive”.

I found a good example of how to do this at Fastlane Blog:

Someone called Steve G left eleven question marks in the comments part with a very obvious intention to disparage GM’s products. One day after that, Bob Lutz wrote:

“Steve G asked several frank questions about my post yesterday. First of all, thanks for your candid feedback. That’s what this blog is all about. And it also gives me a chance to respond when I see something off base, which I’m going to do right now!”… “I wish I could share pictures and details on what is in the pipeline and close to market, but I won’t. I just hope you will continue to watch what happens with as much interest for detail as you obviously are doing, and that you’ll be surprised at how much GM is at war — and not with itself anymore!”                                                                                

Kind of magnanimity, which notched up Lutz’s and GM’s reputation by a few points, isn’t it? Sometimes, it’s good to keep your enemies close.

I was shocked when I saw at Lynn’s blog that there were attacks in the blogosphere at the moment. So I think only “etiquette” is not enough, we need to be prepared to defend.

To think of this question, I firstly had a skim over my favorite folder. There are many personal blogs in it. They can be briefly categorized into three kinds:

First, the author has some special personalities. (A member of a music band, an art designer, a rare beauty…)

Second, there’s wisdom between lines.

Third, it is like an artwork rather than a blog.

Then I concluded that blogging is no longer cool. But only the cool blogs catch eyes. I think what makes a blog cool is personality.

Now let’s turn to the business context. Voluminous journals emphasize one subject: drawing up guidelines for corporate blogs because the blogger, as an individual, they are a media outlet whose word may influence a brand’s perception. That’s right. It’s secure and productive for companies to establish some basic ground rules to support employees who wish to blog. I pick some useful guidelines out:

Robert Scoble, technical evangelist at Microsoft, creates some tips on corporate blogs:

(Simon Young 2004)

•1.        Don’t be stupid. (Don’t reveal company secrets, privileged information, or disguise opinions as facts.)

•2.        Read tons of blogs first before starting one.

•3.        Show your passion for your company and your products.

•4.        Help others share their passion.

•5.        Try to answer any concerns bloggers might have.

•6.        Take some risks. But know the consequences.

Michael Gartenberg (2007), vice president and research director for the Personal Technology & Access and Custom Research groups at JupiterResearch in New York, gives some suggestions according to their own mistakes and the mistakes of others:

•1.        Post early and often.

•2.        Link and converse. Part of the essence of a blog is the fact that it’s a conversation. Don’t be afraid to link to other folks and engage with them.

•3.        Once it’s out there, it’s out there. So think really hard before you hit that publish button.

•4.        Better to be late and right than first and wrong. Keep private things private, and skip reporting on rumors.

•5.        Politics and religion don’t mix with corporate blogs.

•6.        Comments are optional.

Some other guidelines can be found at

http://www.ozzie.net/blog/2002/08/24.html

http://www.eff.org/bloggers/

http://michaelhyatt.blogs.com/workingsmart/2005/03/corporate_blogg.html

http://www.snellspace.com/IBM_Blogging_Policy_and_Guidelines.pdf

But I don’t think managing or monitoring blogs by so many rules is a good way of using it. “Once you get to the point where lawyers review everything in a blog, it is not a blog anymore,” said John G. Palfrey, executive director of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at the Harvard Law School (Thom Weidlich 2003). As I said at the beginning of this post, a corporate blog must exhibit some personality too. Blog is a human voice, as long as it is in line with the corporate voice.

Once again, I want to mention Jonathan’s wisdom. He always uses short and humorous sentences. He always leads his readers by interesting imagery. And he is not always that famous CEO, sometimes he is just himself. Among lots of posts focusing on Sun’s products and policies, there’s one exposing five things about the author that most people don’t know:

•1.      He once worked as a security guard in a museum.

•2.      He is one quarter (Asian) Indian, one quarter Welsh, one quarter Hungarian, and one quarter Russian.

•3.      He was a passenger on a train that crashed outside of Chase, Maryland in 1987.

•4.      He loves to cook. 

•5.      He sincerely believes technology improves the world.

Maybe posting this is just the CEO’s gimmick to be closer to his audiences. But it indeed makes his style of blogging more participatory, open-sourcey, human and conversational. There’s an excellent blend of individual and corporate voices in his blog. And this may be a very useful guideline for any type of corporate blogs.

 Reference:

Michael Gartenberg 2007, “Lessons of a Corporate Blogger”, Computerworld, Framingham: Jan 8, 2007. vol.41, lss. 2, pp. 14-16

Simon Young 2004, “Communication; Laying Down The Law; Great Corporate Blogs Need Great Guidelines. Here’s Food for Thought When Setting Up a Blog “, Marketing Magazine, Auckland: Dec 2004. pg.20

Thom Weidlich 2003, “The Corporate Blog Is Catching On”, New York Times, New York, N. Y.: Jun 22, 2003. pg.3.12

I think all the weaknesses of corporate blog can be attributed to one of its characteristics: it is an interactive forum. The prerequisite of obtaining any merit of a corporate blog is there are various audiences. But when you have your boss, subordinates, clients, shareholders, media, analysts and folks all in one space, there will be a big problem of communication inconsistency.

Let’s look at a case of inconsistency.

Click this personal blog by Michael Hanscom: Eclecticism

Then read the post “Biography: The man, the myth…me” in the About the Author part. The author is unlucky because he was fired by Microsoft after he posted a photograph of some Apple Mac computers arriving at workplace. But to some extent, he is lucky because he became famous and got lots of hugs from his readers. To Michael’s and most of his audiences’ mind, it’s an innocuous post. But Microsoft treated it as security violation. This is a kind of communication inconsistency between human voice and corporate voice. I think this inconsistency is harmful for both parts. For individual, the misfortune of losing job may be just a click away. For the company, no “hug”, only “suck” from publics.

Majority of criticism on corporate blogs converge on one point: broad disclosure of important information. But I think the problem is what important information is. Company may treat it as a secret, individual may not. Ironically, there is also inconsistency between the corporate message and the investor’s message. Investors need more material information to make an investment decision. It is quite easy for a company official to be lulled into responding to their questions, which should be answered by no comment. Is there anyway to achieve consistency in blog communication? If the answer is yes, once the company sets up some rules for corporate blogs, will investors and other audiences accept?

Internal Blogs: I remember there was a very important assignment for the course Introduction to Human Resource Management last year. Dr. Diane wanted us to find the biggest challenge facing HRM in the next five years. I thought over two subjects: performance management and knowledge management. Finally, I combined both. 

The validity of a “knowledge economy” concept is accentuated with the wide acceptance that knowledge is the key element of an organization’s competitive edge in today’s radically global competition. But getting the best performance from knowledge workers can be challenging for HR managers because management in a knowledge economy requires different rules. One of the rules relates to the characteristic of knowledge.

Knowledge is a tacit value which rests inside individuals and can only be acquired in an unstructured and informal way. Many journals write about the difficulties of transferring knowledge from its creators to its seekers. Now, I think internal blog is an effective solution.

Yes. Let’s read this paragraph:

“As a knowledge management tool, internal corporate blogs allow companies to post content with a personal voice, manage content in a searchable archive, apply context to the content, discover users with shared interests, increase teamwork, engage in dialogues on a companywide basis, and build networks around shared themes.” (Susan J Leandri 2007)

Therefore, the biggest merit of opening an internal blog is it is an excellent knowledge management tool for info pros to share information and manage projects. Of course, there are some other benefits deriving from this one:

•l        It supports collaboration among employees and stimulates continuous innovation.

•l        It helps bring exposure to hidden experts, and the firm’s talents pool gets expanded.

•l        Employees’ morale and engagement will be improved.

External Blogs: Positive comments on external corporate blogs are plentiful. I have a summary after collecting information from different journals:

A good external corporate blog:

•l        Boosts the company’s image.

•l        Is a great outreach to potential customers and “provides a more organic and spontaneous channel to educate users” (Richard Karpinski 2003).

•l        Is a window of marketing.

•l        Is immediate dissemination of information.

•l        Is cheap.

•l        Provides customer evaluation on a company’s performance.

•l        Attracts prospective employees in a worldwide range.

In brief, external blog plays positive roles in company’s reputation, customer

relationships, marketing, information sharing, and HR management.

All the above comments are got from researchers or experts in business or economy area. From a normal audience’s perspective, I think what makes external blog special is it is “a truly human way” (Richard Karpinski 2003). I could hardly imagine I can have a direct talk with some famous supervisors in big companies. Now I have the opportunity. Gerald Baron of the public relations firm Baron & Company said:

“To me, blogging is similar to having a water cooler at the office, where people stop by to talk. You can either walk by the water cooler and ignore what’s going on, or you can participate in the conversation.”

This means you can participate in the discussion with the top talents in every area of expertise as long as you want. That’s the biggest part why I am attracted by corporate blogs.

Reference

Dave Gallagher 2006, “Blogs can shift public perception”, Knight Ridder Tribune Business News, Washington: Sep. 24, 2006. pg. 1

Richard Karpinski 2003, “Corporate Blogs Make Personal Connection”, B to B, Chicago: April 14, 2003. vol. 88, lss. 4, pp. 1-2

Susan J Leandri 2007, “5 Ways to Improve Your Corporate Blogs”, Information Outlook, vol. 11, lss. 1, pp. 15-19 

Jonathan’s blog may be the No. 1 corporate blog at google or technorati. When considering the three purposes of an external blog I mentioned in the last post (a company’s reputation, customer relationships and marketing), I think this blog is a trinity.

Reputation

Sun is an IT technology giant. Jonathan’s blog strengthens this image. Here are some of his interesting posts:

March 12, 2007    “Moving A Petabyte of Data”

Jonathan began this post by asserting it is faster to send a petabyte of data from San Francisco to Hong Kong by sailboat, than by the internet. At the end of this post, he connected this metaphor with Sun’s product Solaris. Solaris on DVD program will make this software product much more accessible.

Jan 22, 2007    “The World Just Changed”

Jonathan titled this post by “The World Just Changed” because Sun and Intel are “finally on the same side of the market”.

Posting these on a corporate blog is like saying: look, I can always be the thought leader!

Customer Relationships

I’m slow in reacting to technology. While reading Jonathan’s blog, for the first time, I feel it is not that boring to try to understand IT jargons. Two reasons:

First, there is a Chinese version. :)

Second, Jonathan is a good writer. He is capable to use some simple and interesting metaphors to indicate Sun’s innovation. 

Therefore, I think any kind of customer may feel comfortable to build up relationship with this CEO.

Feb 24, 2007    ”The Glamor in Mass Transit”

If you are interested in Sun’s Project Neptune, go to read this post. To understand this project, in Jonathan’s opinion, you only need to know sometimes “a double decker bus” is better than “an Italian sports car”.

Marketing

This is obvious. You can easily link to Sun’s products anywhere at Jonathan’s blog. What’s interesting is Jonathan makes this marketing goal not that markety. A corporate blog is after all different from commercials or ads.   

I noticed something very interesting in the week 4 extra reading material by Gray, Rodney. He thinks that tools or channels, which include communication media, do not normally contribute to overall satisfaction with communication in organization. But many professional communicators still spend most of their time on such area. The reason is “it’s easy, we do what we like doing”.

I actually agree with them. When a new technology, which is novel, fashionable, free and easy to handle, emerges and gradually turns into the mainstream. The first, maybe the only reason at first, of using it is your passion. I think once you get some benefits from it, passion becomes hobby.

When the hobby is located in the business context, it is bound to be connected with certain strategic goals. Now, it is hard for lots of companies to refuse corporate blogging because “most of your competitors do” (David Ranii 2005).

Internal Blog

Corporate internal blog is a good employee discussion forum. Simply, employees build up such blogs with the aim of knowledge and information sharing. I think that’s why internal blogging happens mostly in technology companies, where continuous innovation and team-based project dictate the overall development. There are about 2800 internal blogs at IBM at the moment, which cover almost every part of this company.

Usually every internal blog is pertinent to a certain subject. So the audiences of internal blog are mostly those who are searching for information in a certain area of expertise. Some companies use the name “project blog” instead of internal blog.

Decided by the purpose and audiences, the content of internal blog covers various areas, including “company policies, procedures, staff directories, project updates, suggestion box entries, meeting minutes, news, and announcements” (Susan J Leandri 2007).  All in all, internal blog must provide value to employee.

In brief, I think internal blog is a new tool of knowledge management.

External Blog

Dave Gallagher (2006) has a very concise summary of the purposes of starting an external blog:

“Blogs can be a useful tool for managing a company’s reputation, customer relationships and marketing”.

That’s right. If your company’s weblog address is on the top of google’s search results, you’ll win attention from mainstream media. External blog can make a company very visible. This kind of living presence on the web connects tightly with a company’s public image.

Secondly, having either a CEO or some employees write a blog helps personalize the company for the customer. By a more personal and casual medium of communication, customer’s perception of some industrial or technology giants such as Microsoft, IBM, Sun, GE etc. will change. Customers could actually engage with them.

Marketing may be the biggest purpose of external blogs. Services or products can be quickly and effectively put out through this new window of marketing. According to David Ranii’s article (2005), WebSource’d blog, Search Engine Lowdown, attracted more than $100,000 in ads from other companies. This is a good case to prove that blogs can generate revenue of their own.

Audiences of external corporate blogs are vast. Customers, employees, shareholders, media, analysts, developers can all be included.

The content of an external blog has to be tailored according to the specific purpose the company is trying to achieve. Mostly, external blogs provide company’s information about governance policies, products and other developments. What need to be mentioned is that many bloggers think a good corporate blog must be a mixture of personal, industry and corporate information (Tim Jackson).

Table 1.

Reference:

Dave Gallagher 2006, “Blogs can shift public perception”, Knight Ridder Tribune Business News, Washington: Sep. 24, 2006. pg. 1

David Ranii 2005, “Companies Begin to Recognize, Tap Marketing Potential in Weblogs”, Knight Ridder Tribune Business News. Washington: Dec 6 2005, pg. 1

Susan J Leandri 2007, “5 Ways to Improve Your Corporate Blogs”, Information Outlook, vol. 11, lss. 1, pp. 15-19 

Tim Jackson at The Diva Marketing Blog  , Corporate Blog Content, March 19th, 2007

Wish you enjoy going through the following blogs. I chose them as tourist guides not only because they are typical in their types but also because they blend some particular goals with the author’s personality.

Jonathan’s Blog is one of the world’s most famous and successful CEO blogs. His blog focuses on enterprise software issues by discussing with publics about future business strategies and products. I like his writing style. He can alway link some daily life issues with Sun’s products.

Bob Lutz’s Blog is a window for showing GM products. Different from Jonathan’s blog, which represents one of world’s most prestigious technology companies, Lutz’s blog is an industrial company’s attempt on this new medium.

Blogging at IBM has a screenshot from one of IBM’s internal blogs: Philippe Borremans Communications Blog. As Public Relations Manager / New Media Lead for IBM, and author of Conversationblog.com and a freelance Trainer, Philippe Borremans said internal blogs at IBM are written by their engineers, developers, communications, research, software… you name it, to cover specific topics in their area of expertise.

A Glimpse of the World is my favorite news blog. :) Partly because the author is also a good friend. Presently, this blog focuses mainly on China, my motherland. If you are interested in Chinese culture, politics, economy and people, go there. BTW, there’s a link towards the author’s Flickr photos, which will give you a more straight impression of China.

Blogging is on the top of the latest trends in almost every aspect of daily life. Some b-to-b marketers claim that blogs are bound to go popular and commercial because they offer real power to connect with increasingly “message-wary”-and- “message-weary” audiences in a “new and engaging way” (Richard Karpinski 2003).

Here is the definition of blog from International Financial Law Review (Security & Exchange Commission 2007):

“A blog is, in essence, an electronic forum for conveying information, exchanging ideas, posing and responding to questions, and commenting on specific topics, which might include any topic that comes into a blogger’s head.”

In my opinion, blogging is simply talking in a silent space in your own language on some certain subjects to a potentially huge audience anywhere in the world.

There are blogs on almost any subject area you can imagine such as literary, health, news, entertainment, travel, research, law, politics, religion, education and so on. Yes, that includes business. According to an article from Public Relations Quarterly (G A Marken 2006), news and politics oriented blogs get the most attention, the majority of blogs are personal, and importantly, more and more companies are wading into the blogosphere.

There are two types of corporate blog. One is internal, another is external. Internal blog is a forum for employees to share information and knowledge and for management to put forward company policies and activities. External blog is a good way to spread message about the company to the public.

The following post will illustrate blogs in different types.

Reference:

Richard Karpinski 2003, ‘Corporate Blogs Make Personal Connection’, B to B Chicago, vol. 88, lss. 4, pp. 1-2.

Security & Exchange Commission 2007, ‘The Danger of Blogging’, International Financial Law Review, London, Jan 2007, pg. 1.

G A Marken 2006, ‘Blogging…Look, Think Before You Leap or Push the Boss’, Public Relations Quarterly, vol. 51, lss. 2, pp.37-40

To be honest, I spend much more time on my personal MSN space for, apparently, that is about showing my happy life, while this is about convincing my teacher that I can critically think about corporate blog and successfully construct one.

However, during my research process on this subject, I find it is really a very new and attracting area because blogs are rapidly becoming a mainstream technology and a corporate fashion. Interestingly, just because it is a new communication media, PR (Public Relations) management hasn’t yet paid enough attention to the growth and influence of the blogosphere (G A Marken 2006). As a result, bloggers are left alone as long as the reporting about corporate blog is favorable, or blogging is ignored or prohibited when there are negative comments.

Many researchers think both of these positions are incorrect. Corporate management should look closely and think thoroughly before starting a company blog.

Hope my blog could be a useful window for studying corporate blogs. Posts here will be categorized into three subjects:

Information About Blogs: offers basic information and understanding of corporate blogs basing on academic journals study.

Blogs Observation:  focuses on some typical corporate blogs to exemplify.

Blogosphere:       offers some related links to other blogs.  

Reference:

G A Marken 2006, ‘Blogging…Look, Think Before You Leap or Push the Boss’, Public Relations Quarterly, vol. 51, lss. 2, pp.37-40