To blog or not to blog?
I had an interesting email last week from someone pointing me in the direction of a report showing that few ‘IT decision-makers’ placed much value in blogging as a company marketing tool.
The report notes that, without a sound business case, many Web 2.0 tools - podcasting, RSS, wikis, blogging etc - are being passed over by CIOs who don’t see the ROI materialising any time soon.
But, to me, perhaps the most revealing observation in the report comes from the firm which carried out the research, Forrester.
Their analyst G. Oliver Young notes: “Many business users still associate blogs with personal diaries, and some firms use blogs simply as a way to surface existing content, muting the effect.”
I think this indicates a telling disconnect between marketers, who are increasingly aware of the need to utilise these powerful new tools, and CIOs whose first thought is bottom line, bottom line, bottom line.
The CIOs are firefighters in this respect, the marketers are trying to build fire-proof buildings.
Moving forward, I’ll be blogging more on this, as, together with my colleagues, we hone some new media product offerings that we’ll be rolling out over time.
For now, this Wikipedia entry on corporate blogs details some of the potential benefits to companies in a really concise way.
And for those who doubt the potential of the humble blog to reinvigorate a flagging brand, here’s an interesting quote from Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer who was asked what blogging had done for the so-called ‘Evil Empire’:
“I think it’s been a great way for us to communicate to our customers – and, more importantly, for our customers to communicate with us. We trust our people to represent our company. That’s what they are paid to do. If they didn’t want to be here, they wouldn’t be here. So in a sense you don’t run any more risk letting someone express themselves on a blog than you do letting them go out and see a customer on their own. It just touches more people. Hey, if people need to be trained, we can do that, but I find that blogging is just a great way to have customer communications.”
September 6th, 2007 at 12:21 pm
I’ve often heard the concern that companies won’t be able to control what their employees will say about them on a blog. It’s refreshing to hear the Micorsoft CEO make this point:
“We trust our people to represent our company. That’s what they are paid to do. If they didn’t want to be here, they wouldn’t be here.”
If you’ve got a company that your employees are proud off - let them tell people!
September 6th, 2007 at 8:43 pm
Despite what Steve Ballmer says, I think that what stops people from blogging is trying to get a balance between the individual’s personal opinions and the ‘approved’ opinions of the company. It’s probably because a company’s marketing messages for traditional business media usually need to go through predefined approval channels.
Many people seem to be scared of talking on behalf of the company and this new-found freedom. Are you? We’d love to hear about your experiences!
September 8th, 2007 at 11:16 am
I was out at a medical industry client the other day. That’s one of the most secretive, conservative and safety-conscious industries around. They hadn’t thought of blogging, but really liked the idea they more they considered it. The big attraction was that it would enable them show a more human side to their business that could attract new employees or customers. If a company has good people who believe in its work, then blogging is a great way of bringing this to life instead of via static marketing statements on the website.