Emerging Corporate Blog Models

The oft-linked auto blog examples in my last post brought me back to some thoughts on where blogs might fit into public relations strategies. So in honor of GM getting its blog on, here are my Big 3 Blogs.

Intranet Blogs: An internal blog represents one of the best ways to learn about blogging by doing, while avoiding some of the risks. It sits behind the firewall and you have a more forgiving audience if you misstep (hopefully). This is particularly the case for small- to medium-sized companies.

I’m creating one to disseminate marketing news to my company. It will be easy to maintain/update and it will eliminate the need for a print vehicle. I’ll keep you posted on how the project goes. Thanks to internal communications guru, Shel Holtz for his insight here.

Event Blogs: There are plenty of great examples of event blogs. And I have discussed their merits in the past. To which I add: After the event ends, all of the event blog content stays archived in the search engines. It is an excellent way to keep your hard-earned event content top of mind.

Product Blogs: Product blogs are a great way to engage your most passionate customers. Involving customers in the early stages of product development helps make a better product and creates customer evangelists that are more likely to continue speaking positively about your company.

The rise in automotive blogs is timed perfectly. Consumer demand for more in-vehicle electronics is on the rise and the established base of gadget bloggers should reward any automotive manufacturer taking product information out into the blogosphere.

CEO Blogs are Dead (and buried next to branding): Just kidding! A lot of folks are tracking CEO blogs right now and some of them are successful—particularly in the technology realm. But we are seeing mixed results.

CEO blogs did not make this list because I think they are too closely aligned with personal journals. By personal journals, I'm referring to non-business, personal diaries where the content ranges from the silly to the sublime. It can create a credibility issue as CEO style and blog style are often at odds. For that matter, this grass roots technology is often at odds with the CEO's top-down approach.

For now, the risks of a CEO blog far outweigh the rewards. The three models above represent better opportunities for Fortune 100 companies looking into the potential of "Blog Power."

Comments

[B.L. Ochman]

I don't think the big problem with CEO blogs is liability. I think it is that they tend to be boring.

The question with a blog or any communication is "Who will want to read this?"
BL

[Hans Henrik]

Hi Kevin

Thank you very much for your insights.

I’m wondering – your are talking about Corporate weblogs from a communication perspective. Do you have any examples or experience using weblogs in different business processes?

I’m especially interested in the area of R&D – Innovation in general!

Communication and PR is for sure important and has of course some low hanging fruits to pick in the use of weblogs – no doubt. But is it fair only to se on corporate weblogs only as a externalized tool for communication and PR departments?

Best Regards
Hans Henrik

[Kevin Dugan]

Hans - Using blogs for internal projects, research and development make perfect sense. Michael Schrage covered the topic in March issue of CIO magazine: http://www.cio.com/archive/051504/work.html

While there are clearly uses in the corporate realm outside of marketing communications, the posts; focus reflects my blog content overall. And while I think there are a variety of business processes that could be impacted, I still think the blog would serve as a communications tool to facilitate those processes.

Thanks for stopping by.

[Hans Henrik]

Kevin – thanks for a VERY quick respons :-)

I agree with you – weblogs are indeed very good tools for conversation and relationbuilding. No doubt.

When it comes to other business processes than PR and communication where companies of course are used to deal with “multi-channel-delivery” what happens then?

I agree with you that weblogs has a great future for knowledge- and project management on the internal side of a company. But what happens when you open up for conversations in business process areas where you maybe are used to be fairly closed? R&D?

The effect letting an architect talk to a musician or a dentist which effect would that have for future developments/innovations in the construction-area? Is that possible at all?

The point that I’m trying to make is about the use of corporate weblogs – is there any limitations for certain groups/processes in a company?

Any other perspectives?

Best Regards
Hans Henrik

[Jeremy]

Top readers' choice write-in vote

Winner: Strategic Public Relations

Woohoo!! Congrats Kevin.

[Neville Hobson]

Good commentary, Kevin. And it's great to hear that you're learning-while-doing with your internal blog. Will you be posting your thoughts from time to time on how you see your experiences with that blog?

To your overall theme of 'emerging corporate blog models,' I'd definitely add the subject of polices or guidelines on implementation and usage by and within organizations. The increasing urgency for developing policies is precisely illustrated in the ComputerWorld article that Steve Rubel mentions in the piece you linkied to on his blog. Probably a more empathetic example is the latest development in the 'Queen of the Sky' Delta employee case which has resulted in the employee now being fired (not for blogging but for posting a photo in uniform on her blog). I've posted commentary about that on my blog.

I've also posted a mini-essay on developing policies, to the Kitchen collaborative blog (http://itkitchen.info) and started a page on the Kitchen wiki that I hope might develop into a good start at a guideline on guidelines. Do stop by, take a look and add your views!

[Dee Rambeau]

Kevin,
we've had a lot of success with thought leadership blogs around specific product launches. Great way to build momentum for a specific campaign.
Dee

[industry model and talent, industry model and talent studios,]

Good commentary, Kevin. And it's great to hear that you're learning-while-doing with your internal blog. Will you be posting your thoughts from time to time on how you see your experiences with that blog?

[industry model and talent, industry models and talent, industry model and talent studios, industry m]

Good commentary, Kevin. And it's great to hear that you're learning-while-doing with your internal blog. Will you be posting your thoughts from time to time on how you see your experiences with that blog?

[Kevin Dugan]

Funny you should mention this. We're in the 2006 planning process and the B-Word will be part of it. Not sure how transparent I will be about the plans due to competitors, but post-launch I will most certainly share some insights.