Blogs and Blogging

1.0 INTRODUCTION

A business blog refers to a well organised journal or catalogue describing a company’s products and/or services. Additional information such as specific news, statistics, new products in the market and any other piece of information that is related to the company is given to potential customers through the blog. This is specifically to drive potential customers to the business website. It can be considered as an addition to a website and is seen as a powerful promotional tool that can be used in branding a company.

"Business blogs attach a personal touch especially to small and medium scale businesses."

Business blogs are important in the corporate world as they are used to communicate with customers and/or employees especially to share knowledge and expertise. Blogging is fast emerging in corporations as a means of engaging with stakeholders.

Blogging - A New Cultural Phenomenon

Of late, blogs have become a global cultural phenomenon. In the past, blogging was the preserve of the technology-oriented individuals. With the number of blogs increasing every day, blogging is now changing important areas of society like journalism and politics and is even competing with e-mail as a means of communication. Business can now acknowledge the presence of blogs with many companies such as Google using them internally for project and knowledge management. Due to the purpose of enhancing public relations, blogging is now opening up as a corporate job. Blogs are pretty affordable in terms of finances and technical know how and hence are not limited to any body.

"Today, traditional marketing and promotional methods are no longer appealing in the fragmented marketer’s cynical customers eyes and as a result, there is increasing interest in blogging."

Marketing methods such as relationship marketing, buzz marketing, word-of-mouth marketing, one-to-one marketing, opt-in marketing, guerrilla marketing and viral marketing that were practiced in the nineties are no longer the in thing. In 2005, Susan Gardner produced a book on blogging- ‘Buzz marketing with blogs’- it was the first. Usually, prospective companies are the first to adopt. The New York Times posted its blog which was a regularly updated list of news headlines across the globe in mid 2002. Similarly, Macromedia, the Flash and Cold Fusion software makers started using blogs during the times when there were multiple software releases to be able communicate with developers and customers. Other companies such as shell have blogs on the environment, security, technology and society, whereas Jupiter media pioneered blogs for individual research analysts. More and more companies are now allowing their staff to create their own professional blogs thereby encouraging free range business discussions on the web.

Today sales people are creating blog-based communities involving customers, resulting in better salesperson-customer relationships.

A customer who is interested in participating in the author’s discussion can be contacted through e-mail or by posting an event notice on the company’s main site. Blogs are advantageous to company’s especially those that use a lot of money in paper communication, and as a result blogs have saved companies millions of dollars in this area. Authenticity, transparency, honesty and openness are four important qualities that have become synonymous with some blogs. Blogs are also proving handy in publicity campaigns, generating word of mouth and in some cases media attention. Authors, publishers and conference or teleseminar producers or any other person or entity who values ease, speed and low cost can use blogs to market an/or promote their products and/or services.

Through business blogs, small and medium scale businesses can share their knowledge and skills with the larger audience. Whether a small scale or medium scale business is online or offline, they can use blogs to market or promote their products and/or services.

Blogs = increased traffic to a website = sales boost.

When a company posts valuable content on a business blog, its credibility and business reputation are enhanced. By using a business blog, your company can be projected as an expert in a particular business area. More often, customers feel at ease when they do business with a reputable company. When introducing new products and services to the market, a business blog can be of value. Blogs are not used to sell but to introduce new products and services to the market as well as drive traffic to the company’s website hence generating more sales in other products and or services. Of interest though is the fact that some advertising programmes for instance Google Adsense allows companies to give their business blogs a monetary value and hence generate extra revenue.

2.0 BENEFITS OF A BLOG TO A BUSINESS

Your business can benefit from a blog in a variety of ways

Giving your business a 'human' face

Blogging is giving a company’s interaction with the customers a new face by its ability to allow a company communicate with its customers. This is the strength of blogs since it allows the establishment of dialogue with readers. Since blogs are informal compared to other websites, they allow users to write articles in their own voice hence giving the business a human face. In blogging, one gets to track and monitor what his/her visitors are reading and then respond to the comments the readers post. This helps companies to develop and improve specific content and promotion for highly interested audiences and then deliver it in a lower cost compared to conventional offline and online marketing. The potential customers are made at ease by the fact that a real person exists who will meet their needs. Further, blogs do let you give your online business a touch of your own personality as compared to your main sales sites.

PR and media relations

Search engines tend to pick up on regularly updated, keyword rich content such as blogs. Blog dialogues are important because you can get a clear picture of what your customers need, and it also helps build trust. It is also a way of 'involving your customers.

Improve your customer service

A business blog creates a kind of interaction between a customer and a business where the customer gets to ask questions about the business, its products and/or services and they get to be answered. In addition customers are provided with product updates, how- to-articles and any information that is relevant to the company required by the customers. This will be seen by customers as a form of commitment by the business. When a business blog is used in a productive manner, it improves customer service because customers get instant feedback through the comments posted on the blog. For a business blog to be truly effective, it should act as a central knowledge base of articles, tutorials, products and/or service development status and any other related product and/or service information.

Increased product involvement

Just like an advertisement, a business blog activates ‘personally relevant knowledge’ about what a potential customer needs, their aims, objectives and values and already available knowledge about features of a product and design a motivational state that energizes consumers transparent and accountable behaviour. An example of this behaviour is the continual writing of more comments in the blog.

Automatic archiving feature

If you have a blog, you don’t need an e-library which at times can be quite cumbersome. Archives can be searched by publisher or by topic. The most valuable thing about blogs is that they have turned stagnated knowledge in a distance server to real time, versatile exchange among certain groups. A blog manages content in a very effective and reliable way especially when you employ the feature of catalogue based on date and category. A regularly and frequently updated blog is a company’s reliable resource and helps create a following of loyal readers who depend on the content. Research has suggested that trust is engendered by conversations.

Conduct Research

Sometimes blogs can be used to carry out research and especially so in marketing organisations. Usually, small focus groups of about 5-10 people are called to give their reactions and share what they think about everything ranging from product ideas to advertising campaigns. With blogs, a live discussion can ensue without having to gather participants in a central place. This saves on cost as well as ensuring more thoughtful and honest responses. When blogs include the in-depth analytics available in other forms of online marketing, they increase their value as critical marketing and/or promotional tools. When what a viewer is reading is tracked and monitored, a database of very important customer information is created. This is both individual and group behavioural trends which are based on interest in particular issues. The information can also be used in the development of products in the future.
Drive traffic to your website

In a way, blogs play a major role in driving traffic to your website. When a blog receives new visitors, they are directed to your main sites through links and special offers. Using strategic keywords and links to specific sales pages greatly improves the rankings of the search engines to your blog and main website. You can also use blogs to access niche audiences that are so reliable to small businesses.

Build your reputation and establish yourself as an industry expert

If a business wants to demonstrate expertise in a particular area, they can make use of blogs. Business blogs manage public relations of a company by creating and managing an online profile which gives the company a good reputation and assists the company and potential or existing customers to transact in a way that is trustworthy to both parties. What is imperative for a company is to make sure that it doesn’t lie or withhold information from its prospective customers since this could cause it to loose credibility that it might never regain. Regular posting of valuable, relevant and verifiable information on your blog enhances your reputation and in this way you can get to establish yourself as a professional in your field, hence keeping your visitors at ease when they buy from you.

Generating extra income

Blogs can generate income for a business by:
1. selling keyword based advertisements through sites like Google Adsense
2. making use of a subscription model hoping that the users and/or readers will pay for the content
3. being taken over by a big company like Gawker and Weblogs Inc.who are the major stakeholders in the niche publishing sector. This is because Gawker and Weblogs blogs have huge traffic to their sites and they generate income by advertising.
4. promoting and/or marketing your products and/or services through blogs
Products can be sold directly from a blog or if they are new, they can be mentioned to potential customers.

What do you expect from a successful blogging campaign?
1. Corporate blogs are used basically fro product branding and they enable companies to provide correct information on their products and/or services
2. Marketing blogs give strength to market messages. Blogs provide information ranging from commercials to promotional coupons to instructions on how to use the company’s products and/or services
3. Employment blogs enable one to be connected directly to online communication hence increasing the people who are qualified by finding out communities of interest and building a loyal talent pool.
4. Public relations blogs put a human face to corporations in place of “corporate speak”. By making use of pictures of employees, CEO blogs and instructions on how to interview, public relations blogs always makes readers aware that your company is staffed by real people.

3.0 TYPES OF BUSINESS BLOGS

A business can make use of a blog either internally or externally.

INTERNAL BLOGS

An internal business blog can be accessed only from within the company’s network. Through internal blogs, executives or managers can share their insights with other workers. In addition, readers are allowed to make comments on posts and may also give feedback regarding another workers post. Also anyone may be allowed to begin a new post, hence enabling employees to start new conversation thread for each other to read. When only one or some particular members of management post new articles that can quickly bring to date the whole workforce on company initiatives, policy changes, coming events and even complete important tasks.

"Blogs provide central place where members of an organisation can converge to quickly bring themselves up to date on what is happening in the company."

When executives and mangers share their insights with the workers, it ensures validity and makes sure there is a sense of community. Workers may be happy to be hearing from management regularly but this does not encourage open communication.

When employees are allowed to post comments in response to top management blog entries, a link is built between the groups. Executives know what is going on in the workplace and managers get responses on projects and ideas implemented. A ‘flatter’ corporate hierarchy is hence created, in the fashion of most modern corporate structures. However, blogging mishaps may occur once you allow employees to leave messages on the blog. Chances of posting content that is inappropriate increase significantly; hence clear rules should be set and the boundaries clearly delineated to avoid such situations. The HR and IT departments should take it upon themselves to do this.

When an employee is allowed to begin new posts, it becomes probably more risky and potentially more rewarding. This encourages collaboration among workforce. When an employee has a question to ask, he/she may do it by posting it on the blog. In this way an answer may be gotten from any body in the organisation with expertise in the topic. The correct architecture can bring together employees across the globe for resource and idea sharing. Team mates are well informed on project progress and managers get to let the whole organisation know when impressive tasks have been completed by their employees. Similarly the blogs assist employees to keep in touch on a personal level. Use of blogs can be made in the organisation of extra curricular sports leagues or other events. Facilitation of ticket and garage sales can also be done with blogs. Announcement of important dates such as births and marriages can also be facilitated by blogs.

In essence, internal blogs are used in:

• Knowledge-sharing
• Internal communications
• Project management
• Personal knowledge management
• Event logging
• Team management

EXTERNAL BLOGS

External blogs are accessible by the world. They are basically meant for marketing and/or promotion and for developing a community based around your products or brand. Using external blogs, company representatives can communicate to the wider public. Using blogs, executives and important corporate relevant news, developers can share product documentation, employees can know what is going on in the company and marketers can dialogue with their target markets. The latter may be appealing but poses enormous risks to the corporate. Just like internal blogs, the external blogs implements systems based on privileges given to different user classes with the same risks and advantages. However, if the policies are strict and safer, more legal friendly blogs can be created, whereas less stringent policies create larger and tighter communities.

External blogs are basically used for:
PR marketing
Demonstrating thought leadership
Improving brand recognition
Outside communication
Enabling customer feedback
Generating income
Improving search engine position

4.0 KEY TIPS FOR STARTING A BUSINESS BLOG

Great content

Blogs only work for interesting and relevant content. If you want to write about something, it will just come. You could write on a variety of topics ranging from news articles about your industry to product updates, interviews and much more. It is important that frequency and consistency be achieved and the post should have valuable information that your target audience requires or needs. It is primarily the strategic use of keywords.

Regular updating

The survival of your blogs depends upon regularity and consistency. Adding fresh content to your blog regularly enhances your rankings with the search engines. Experts think that your blog will benefit if you post no less than three times a week or more than one per day.

Your own distinctive voice

There is no place for formality and corporate speak on a blog and it is imperative that you write in your own voice. A blog’s ideas grow and are shared and topics of current interest discussed. It doesn’t matter whether you can write brilliantly or not, what matters is, can you relate to your audience and how good is your content. All corporate lingo and legalese is left at the office. When you blog in a conversational way, readers feel like the corporate cares for them and their needs and not just their money. If you make a good job out of your blog, the blogging community gives you publicity by sharing yours posts, linking to your blog and sharing your words of wisdom all for free! Consistency is very important in blogging and the posts should be focussed. Make sure you find out who your customers are and avoid fluctuation. The policy is that you can never please everybody.

Outreach

Blogosphere refers to the community of blogs and blog readers. Reaching out to bloggers in your area of interest makes you a part of a larger community and connects you with many people. You should keep advertisement as minimal and as non-intrusive as possible. You may want to earn more money for your organization, but bloggers will always frown on blogs that read like commercials. The major objective of your blog should be making friends. If a person feels that he/she knows your company, then he/she will definitely buy. Sharing out links that are relevant without apprehension really helps. When a visitor is linked to other bloggers, websites and resources, then his/her experience is enhanced. This gives your readers an impression that you don’t fear competition and that you will make them happy and well informed in whatever circumstances.

Design

Your blog should be designed in such a way that it is easy to use by visitors. When you have too many widgets, or the wrong kind of things in the sidebars, you confuse and distract your readers. You should adopt a simple and uncluttered design in which you maximize the blog for its use. Photos are good because they drive the point home and make the blog feel more personal; hence having them with every post will not hurt. Asking for feedback, ideas and comments from your readers should be kept at a minimum. Readers should be involved and you should refrain from withholding your contact information, because this makes the company look like it is dishonest and cannot be trusted. The comments feature should always be on because what fascinates readers is the ability to be able to communicate with the blogger. It also assists you to find out more about your customer, his/her needs, likes and dislikes. This to a business is invaluable.

5.0 TO BLOG OR NOT TO BLOG: KEY QUESTIONS FOR BUSINESSES?

1. Can you engage in dialogue with the public?
2. How do you become an advocate with your consumers?
3. If your company has a blog policy, are the employees aware of it?
4. Are the company’s employees able to contribute to blogs on the company website? On their on website? Does your company allow employees to author their own blogs? Are the employees aware of such a policy?
5. Does your company’s communication agency have a blog strategy and if so does the agency seriously consider the blogs? Has any policy been designed for or presented to your company?
6. Do people pay attention to the number of hits your company blog receives and who links to it and the type of comments it receives?
7. Are you aware of the number of times your company or brand was mentioned in blogs and in communication forums in the last year, quarter, month?
8. Does your company tracks and monitor blogs and online discussions to know what is being said? How often is it done and who handles the task? Do you know the kind of information collected and who receives it?
9. How does your company respond to any negative information it finds and who does it?
10. Does your company know whether existing customers or critics are active bloggers or influential bloggers?
11. Do you know the difference between credentialed media bloggers and consumer bloggers?
12. Which blogs do financial analysts, media representatives and other outsiders researching your company consult?
13. How does your company present information to bloggers especially when they are launching a new product, event or campaign?
14. What are some of the elements of the blog publishing format that can easily be adopted for your company website?
15. Are you willing to take up the challenge of blogging with honesty, frankness and humour?

6.0 TAKING THE FIRST STEPS

1. Have a short explicit plan on what you intend to do
2. The right publisher should be identified, preferably a top salesperson. The person should be articulate and committed to the blogging idea.
3. Identify a blog template and brand your company logo
4. Have a set of blogging standards provided to each internal blog publisher. The standards include confidentiality policies, product disclosure guidelines and basic dos and don’ts
5. Find a way to always track the content and topics of blogs. This information helps pollinate sales and marketing initiatives, helps the company to prioritize subject matter and guide future blog themes.
6. When you request someone in your company to publish an internal blog, you are expressing your confidence in them and it makes them know that the company believes in them and their thinking.
7. Always seek to know why participation in a blog grows or drops dramatically and learn from it.
8. By allowing the blog to have a distinct voice, you are using it to strengthen the bond with the client and allowing new voices to be read.
9. When you read business blogs, you get a sense of tone, voice and content. Get to know more about blog search engines and monitors. Similarly, check out the blogrolls and trackbacks
10. Liaise with your communications counsel to decide the use fro your blog. For instance, if you want your blog to raise the company profile by putting you as thought leader or create buzz.
11. When publishing a blog, you have to be yourself. Trying to adopt a character that is not you will eventually reveal itself and the blogging community will shun you. It is IMPORTANT to make use of many links to relevant information, because as a blogger you are seen as a tour guide.
12. Choose wisely when selecting a publishing platform. According to Graves, commercial and web-based services like live journal, Xanga or MSN Spaces are not appropriate for a corporate blog. For corporate, one should use a professional service such as Typepad, Moveable type, Word Press or Radio useland.
13. Discussions and briefs between your team and the communications counselor are paramount so that everyone can understand the key points, goals and objectives, the rules and standards set and the risks involved.
14. Search engines and other blogs can be used to market your blog. Networking in the blogosphere can be enhanced by mutual links or blogrolls.
15. When influencing key bloggers, do it with a lot of caution and openness because you stand the chance of being punished by the blog world for engaging in top-down tactics or undisclosed co-opting of bloggers

When operating a business blog, one should think like a top salesperson. Adopt most skills used by a top salesperson such as knowing the product well, establishing good rapport with their prospect, and asking questions in a skilful way so as to get to know more about what their customers needs. A top salesperson knows how to use the sales presentation in order to match the prospects’ preferences. They can tell between a customer who needs facts to assist them in deciding from those customers who are seeking a comfortable area to help them decide. Top performers in sales have sequence of steps to follow when selling and are convinced that by leading a prospective customer through these steps, the prospect will eventually sell themselves to the product and/or service. In a sales conversation, a sales person thrives to build credibility making the prospect to know, like and trust the top salesperson. Top sales performers calls the potential customer to some kind of action and to know exactly what they want the prospect to do. They expect objections from the prospect and makes use of them to let the prospect sink deeper in sales conversation. A top sales person knows that a sale is the beginning of a relationship that will give him/her more opportunities as well as referrals. The possibilities are immense:

• Type: Ask [The name of your company]
Tagline: Expert Advice On [The Product/Service you company has]
Content: Q&A Format. Every response includes information on of your products/services including the product picture and link to the buy page. When necessary, a response will include a link from outside to industry news, and websites or blogs that can add depth to the response.
• Type: All About [Your Product/Service]
Tagline: Something attractive to match your product or service.
Content: Say anything and everything relevant to your product or service while trying to strike a balance. Always give links to authority sites and tie each entry to one of your products/services followed with a product photograph and link to the buy page.
• Type: Genre Related [i.e. Teenagers on Drugs]
Tagline: say something appealing to connect your product/service into that specific genre.
Content: Mention about the challenges of being an individual in that genre in this era. Give a solution using your product/service as an example with a photo of the product (preferably "in action") and link to the buy page.
• Type: Customer Focused
Tagline: Make the customer feel important by probably saying "without the customer, the product/service would be meaningless".
Content: Here you can have a Q&A section with customers from all walks of life, success stories, etc. Including before and after images and tying each post into one of your products/services followed with a product picture and link to the buy page would be important. Customer appreciation should be included where those profiled in the previous or current years are entered in a draw to win a prize
• Type: 250 Word Tips
Tagline: A Tip A Day Keeps ____ Away or anything that can be used to drive
your point home.
Content: A tip a day related to one of your products/services.
• Type: Projects
Tagline: Weekend Projects, Day Projects, Projects In Under An Hour, etc.
Content: A how-to catalogue, broken up into several days. (Projects may need step wise photographs; meaning that the company will need to purchase materials and pay for time to bring the project together as well as pay for the writing time. Similarly, a company can make use of an employee to assemble the project, take photographs, then submit to blogger to organization and authorship.)
• Type: Celebrity Tie In
Tagline: ____ With The Stars
Content: Your Company can showcase celebrities using its products or services, add content about your products/services along with a product picture and link to the buy page. (This will necessitate the buying of celebrity photographs and requesting permission to make use of images from a magazine layout or cover.
• Type: [The name of your Company] News
Tagline: Get information the Latest Scoop On [Your Company]
Content: It is necessary that information on sales, awards, events, workshops, speaking engagements, trade shows that your company will participate in, where to find your latest advertisement, publications your company is mentioned in etc are constantly updated.
Finally, the success of your blog depends on the publicity it gets; it is therefore necessary that you attract the right potential customers by considering the right audience.

7.0 THE DRAWBACKS OF BUSINESS BLOGGING

1. Firstly, there is concern about the importance of blogs when you compare them to other promotional means like email, e-zines and websites. The latter is deemed as a better way for publishing information to showcase one’s expertise
2. The general feeling is that there is no return on investment
3. Blogs have been found to be easy in starting but difficult in maintaining. Writing in a coherent way can be quite challenging. Blogs eat up time resulting in lack of updates, thereby soiling the reputation of an organisation.
4. Monitoring the blogosphere for references to the company or brand can be quite difficult
5. It is necessary for companies to have set guidelines for official corporate blogs. This is because in most cases employees personally blog but then identify themselves with the company for which they work for. Hence a policy should be put in place for un official employee blogging as an area of concern
6. Some companies design fake blogs or use blogs to advertise. However, these have tended to meet with ridicule in the blogosphere. The word adverblog is used to refer to blogs that vigorously market on a particular brand, product/service, usually using fictional personae as the blog authors.
7. Blogs are used collaboratively to open the inside thinking of the corporate to customers and those competing with it. If a company is not comfortable with these risks, the full potential of the blogs will not be realized. Sometimes blogging can create a wrong impression. You can imagine that you are in communication with the world, only to realize that the conversation is just between a few individuals talking to each other, creating the illusion of amplification. This is referred to as the echo chamber (Scoble and Israel, 2006) and it can deceive a company into thinking that it is very successful than it is in reality, because a few individuals are rattling away.

8.0 CORPORATE POLICIES AND BLOGGING

A company should really think hard about allowing employees to blog. Sometimes bloggers are really embarrassed or worse still fired. Gartner’s blogger, Charlene Li gave a set of guideline to follow when allowing employees to blog, viz.
1. Never represent the views of your employer; they should your and yours alone.
2. The company’s confidentiality and propriety information should always be protected and respected at all times
3. Always liaise with the manager, incase he/she has anything else appropriate to add in your blog
4. Accord respect to the company, the entire workforce, customers, partners and competitors.
5. When the company requests that the content not to be discussed for reasons of confidentiality and legal compliances, you should understand that.
6. Your blogging activity should not come between you and your work. What is necessary is to try to allow for the cander needed of bloggers while not compromising the company.
Some examples of corporate blogging policies can be found at the following sites
• Sun Microsystems policy: http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2004/05/02/Policy
• Groove Net (Lotus Notes inventor Ray Ozzie): http://www.ozzie.net/blog/2002/08/24.html
• Harvard Law School: http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/terms

Some corporate blogging policies for instance, Sun and Groove can be quite controversial requesting workers to use common sense whereas some like the Harvard Law School policies are button-down and legalistic. A company blogger may be required to comply with sensitive matters such as IPO quiet periods, and it is imperative that they understand them.

9.0 THE CORPORATE WEBLOG MANIFESTO (BY ROBERT SCOBLE)

1. It is imperative that the truth be told. If there is a better product in the market, you are better off linking to it because it will be found whether you like it or not.
2. Any news good or bad should be posted fast. If somebody soils you’re your product, link to it before any other site does it and try to answer in the claim in the best way possible. Likewise if the comment to you is good. In doing this, you are building trust. When you don’t respond to comments about your product, a feeling of distrust is developed.
3. Always adopt a human voice. Corporate speak has no place in the blogging world. It also slows you down and it is not a good idea to be the last to post
4. You should always be in touch and support the latest software/web/human standards and if you don’t know about a new terminology in the market, Find out.
5. Be resilient, because people are bound to say bad things about your product. Never author a corporate blog if you cannot respond to comments in a nice, professional and fast way.
6. Never ever ignore Slashdot.
7. Do your ground work; this is because the main-stream press is exploring weblogs searching for stories and people to make use of in quotes. If anyone who knows about a particular story can’t be found by a main stream reporter, they will author a story similar to a press release and this does not sit well with the blogosphere. Press releases are never trusted.
8. Always admit you mistakes and give a plan of how you intend to correct them and then do so
9. A good thing is to under promise and over deliver. People will begin to trust you if you deliver in a shorter period than you said you would.
10. Live by the word of Doc. Searls (author of the “Cluetrain Manifesto”)
11. Know the keepers of information. If you don’t know that Sue Mosher reaches more Outlook users than everybody, you should be no where near the Outlook’s PR team. Not knowing all of her phone numbers and IM addresses should earn you a sack. Always call on the gatekeepers during a crisis, if you can’t, forget about keeping a corporate weblog.
12. The URL of your weblog should never be changed because this will cause you to lose your readership, one that you have worked so hard to achieve.
13. Never write when you are under psychological/emotional pressure or stress.
14. It is human not to have answers when they are required. However, you should look for them and deliver
15. When you lie you loose credibility; it can never be regained.
16. Refrain from withholding information. This will eventually cause you to loose credibility
17. Any information that is likely to cause you a lawsuit warrants a lawyer and you should be very fast about it! If you take too long to respond to a comment or question because you are afraid of a lawsuit, you will be out maneuvered by your competitors.
18. Saying nice things about your competitor doesn’t hurt. You are part of a larger industry and if it grows, you grow as well. Outperform your competitors; it is never lost to both prospective and existing customers.
19. Bend Over and Grease Up (BOGU)! Always remember to treat people the way you want them to treat you. You never know when someone beneath you will rise. If you were nasty to them then, what will you do?
20. You want your corporate weblog to thrive? Be the authority. If you are writing about your company, know your product/service and company than any one else on planet earth. If somebody knows more than you do, have links to them, because you are screwed if you don’t!
21. Get to find out who is talking about you, whether good or bad.

10.0 CASE STUDIES – GOOD

Macromedia (http://weblogs.macromedia.com/ )

This gives a perfect example on how to use blogs beyond just marketing. At Macromedia, comments are used in the external blogs to stay in touch with end users. Information about new features in their products and how best to utilize these features is disseminated through the blogs. Feedback on current and future initiatives in their products and how best to utilize these features is received. This enables them to respond to bugs users and allows the development of product features their users want and need. Developers can discuss their daily thoughts and activities. Users can get a window into the company hence fostering trust and friendship between company and customers.

Google

Google has an internal blog that enables the workers to share ideas and work on projects collaboratively. The workers can answer each other in vary fast way. The blog also functions as a searchable database of knowledge. It allows employees to post personal content such as classifieds, invitations to extracurricular activities like softball and bowling leagues. Google blogs create a tight-knit community both at work and play.

Sun (http://blogs.sun.com/roller/page/jonathan )

Sun has successfully blogged both inside and out. The internal blog manages information for researchers and developers, whereas the external blog is a forum for Chief Operations Officer Jonathon Schwartz to discuss his views on the technology industry. The blog is regularly updated and it includes Mr. Schwartz’s way of thinking on what is happening in the industry, Sun’s ideas, and any other relevant news. This blog’s popularity arises from its being able to give a one on one look into the mind and job of an executive at a major corporation.

IBM (http://www.128.ibm.com/developerworks/blogs/dw_blog_comments.jspa?blog=351&entry=81328)

IBM has several blogging activities. Employees are encouraged to blog both internally and externally. A set of blogging guidelines is developed to coincide with their support of the technology. The rules were initially developed by employee bloggers using an internal wiki. The method ensured that the dos and don’ts of this technology were defined by the people with the most expertise in the subject. There was much consultation with the legal fraternity and a lot of attention was paid to the policies of other successful blogging organizations like the Sun, Microsoft, and Google.

11.0 CASE STUDIES — BAD

Mazda

The blogging of Mazda is a perfect example of being open and honest. In what has come to be known as the Halloween M3 debacle, so named for the poster “Kid Halloween,” a blog was made on Google’s Blogger weblog hosting site in November, 2004. The blog was supposed to have been designed by a 23 year old who had immense interest in car videos and contained links to Mazda car commercials and to a pair of car chase scenes featuring the Mazda M3. The blogging community was immediately agitated and questioned the legitimacy of the blog or if it was just an attempt to advertise Mazda. The credibility of Mazda was totally ruined when copies of the car chase recordings were traced to the website of the marketing company that recorded them. This caused the blog to be removed immediately. Mazda could not defend themselves to what the blogosphere termed as unethical marketing practices, hence their wrath. Mazda could not be accountable and transparent and forgot that the blogosphere can go to great lengths to authenticate posts.

Kryptonite

Bloggers completely crippled the credibility of Kryptonite bike lock company when they found out that the company’s locks could be picked with a cheap, disposable writing pen. Videos and testimonials very fast moved around the blogosphere. Kryptonite took time to before responding to the posts because they had no staff dedicated to blogs or message boards. To make it worse, they responded with comments defending their products’ credibility. The blogosphere showed its trademark fervor for news about exploits in this case, and Kryptonite showcased the need to be prepared in blogging industry. Here, the issue was not in how a company manages its blogs, but in how they handle blogging in general. The same rules apply, though. Kryptonite was not prepared for the media attacks and tried to cover their shortcomings initially even denying them. They had to replace their bike’s faulty locks in a very expensive way and also suffered humiliation on the web as the bloggers ripped them apart in terms of their practices and policies. This extended into the main-stream media. There is no saying how much damage was done to the company’s bottom line as a result of mishandling the situation in the blogging community.

Delta Airlines (http://queenofsky.journalspace.com/)

In Delta Airlines, their blogging woes emanated from mismanaging events in the blogosphere. In October 2004, an employee at Delta Airlines was sacked because of posting photographs of herself in her uniform on the employee’s personal blog. According to Delta, these photographs were “inappropriate,” but Delta never pointed out which photos were inappropriate or why they thought so. Maybe Delta was justified in firing the flight attendant but their improper handling of the situation is what classifies them to the “Bad” category of case studies. For starters, Delta did not have a clearly defined policy regarding employees’ online behavior meaning that they could not support their decision to fire the employee. Secondly, the blogosphere interpreted the firing as a pick on the blogging world in general. They engaged in negative publicity of Delta with unpopular campaigns around the Internet. Delta could not deal with such campaigns, and any attempts to defend themselves only made it worse.

RESOURCES

• Weblogs: Realigning Business, Technology & Communication www.imninc.com
• Building Trust with Corporate Blogs Paul Dwyer pauldwyer@tamu.edu
• THE VOICE OF THE BLOG: THE ATTITUDES AND EXPERIENCES OF SMALL BUSINESS BLOGGERS USING BLOGS AS A MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS TOOL Jeffrey Hill
• Blogs As Marketing Tools http://thedabblingmum.com/
• Blogs As Marketing Tools For Small And Medium Sized Businesses http://www.chauy.com/
• Blogs as Marketing Tools? NO! Well... Depends. http://brandandmarket.blogspot.com/2007/01/blogs-as-marketing-tools-no-well.html
• How to Harness the Marketing Power of Blogs http://www.entrepreneur.com/ebusiness/ebusinesscolumnist/archive158792.html
• Business Blogs – Beyond the Hype http://marketingtoday.com/
• http://www.blogsquad.biz/
• Marketing Information With Blogs http://www.marketingstudies.net/blogs/diary/archive/cat_the_different_marketing_approach.html
• Corporate Weblogging Best Practices www.uwebc.org/opinionpapers
• Responding to crisis using social media Updating the “Dell Hell” case study are Dell turning opinion round? www.marketsentinel.com
• Blogging in the Enterprise A Guidewire Group Market Cycle Survey October 2005 www.guidewiregroup.com
• Trust “MEdia” How Real People Are Finally Being Heard By Edelman and Intelliseek • Spring 2005 www.Intelliseek.com www.Edelman.com
• Deutsche Bank Research. Blogs: The new magic formula for corporate communications? www.dbresearch.com