According to IBM it is. Beth Bulik from Adage detailed IBM’s excitement about blogging as a marketing technique in her November 10th article title, "IBM SEES BLOGGING AS MARKETING’S NEXT BIG THING."
More than 2,200 IBM employees maintain external blogs and the company is using Wikis and RSS feeds for internal communication and collaboration.
“This is a way to get our expertise out there, not by shoving it down people’s throats, but by just starting conversations,” Mr. Barger said. “It expands our reputation, perceptions and reach of IBM, at the same time expanding the number of people we can learn from.”
Read the full article here (oh and you will need to register – I hate that too).
Students from Northeastern University describe corporate blogs as:
"Synthetic transparency involves using blogs to give the impression of openness, honesty, and transparency but without really doing so.
This notion is based on Norman Fairclough’s* idea of "synthetic personalization"** which he defines as:
… a compensatory tendency to give the impression of treating each of the people ‘handled’ en masse as an individual. Examples would be air travel (have a nice day!), restaurants (Welcome to Wimpy!) and the simulated conversation (for example, chat shows) and bonhomie which litter the media…"
From Debbie Weil via Fredrik Wacka. Note to Weblogs Work clients – don’t do that…
Two days ago we noticed that Weblogs Work was ranked 24th out of all PR blogs and blogged about it here. Moments ago I read on Alex’s blog that Weblogs Work was ranked 6th – I figured he must have misread the rankings, but he didn’t! According to PubSub, Weblogs Work is now the sixth highest ranked PR blog. Imagine if we had the time to really start blogging!
Another project I am involved with is the production of a HD television series called MotorSport Ranch. I blogged about my experience producing the pilot on a TypePad blog found here. I have decided to continue the project "The making of…blog" and started posting again detailing the production of 13 additional episodes for VOOM.
Interestingly, I barely had time to close the TypePad editor on my second post before my phone rang. The calls started coming in from the talent who appear in the pilot asking to appear in the series, the original director, the director’s agent, prospective talent, the track owner and so on. Make a TV series is a lot like beating yourself over the head with a hammer – no one is happy until the final tape is in the can.
Why? It seems like communication is the hardest part about production – everyone wants to know, "what is going on." I think 50% of a producers time is taken up explaining the current situation. Now I just point everyone to the blog.
As usual, Josh Hallet is pumping out some good stuff on companies should think about blogging. Today he offers up a continuum of 4 approaches to take relative to corporate blogging. Here’s a sample:
Ignore:
You’re smarter than this, but surprisingly many companies aren’t paying attention to what’s being said about them on blogs. For most it’s not a conscious decision, it’s out of ignorance.
Listen:
Listening to the blogosphere is easy. Tools like RSS and keyword watchlists allow you to monitor every mention of your brand on blogs. Being aware and ahead of the curve of any potential issues or good news is always good.
Participate:
What’s great about most blogs is that anyone can comment, even you. Does a blogger have the facts wrong about your company/product? You can leave a comment and set the record straight. It doesn’t always have to be about your company though. Many times a comment on a non-work related blog can lead to the right connection.
Lead:
Running your own blog allows you to lead the discussion about your company. You set the topic and tone of discussion. If successful, your blog can become ‘the place’ to discuss issues related to your organization. One PR professional called it, “Home court advantage.”
We love this line by Business Week’s Stephen Baker in a piece on startups & blogging:
Done right, blogging is like setting up a booth in the biggest trade show on earth — every single day.
We couldn’t agree more. Kudos to John Wagner (who totally gets Get Small Fast), whose client Qtags is the focus of this article.
Article in Search Engine Watch about using search programs & blogs as part of a larger brand reputation management program. These stats bear out our impression that corporate blogs are really effective tools for driving relevant search results. We alsl agree with the assertion below that blogs are an ideal way to extend information you are already developing in other areas. Not that we recommend ‘straight-to-blog’ repurposing, but often there is great stuff that you could make more available via your own blogs.
According to Converseon’s study of the top 20 search engine listings for the BusinessWeek 100 brands in July 2005, 39% of the top search listings were derived from consumer-generated media such as blogs. Based on this study, Converseon estimated there are 16,000 flame sites web-wide and growing. Blogs are giving "the people" a voice, and it’s not always happy.
So use blogs to fight blogs. Because blogs can rank better than corporate sites, Dawkins suggested that a corporate blog could be used as part of a public outreach strategy. She added, "Make life easy on yourself; repackage relevant content from your existing materials. Blogs are a great place for this information."
Great piece in Network World on companies deploying blogs to speed internal communication for operations, including an example of a bank that shrunk their processing time from four weeks to three days. The telling quote from iUpload’s Robin Hopper:
Blogs are a drop-dead simple way to get content from people who we couldn’t get content from otherwise. What is important in terms of corporate adoption is to stop thinking about blogs as a technology or blogs in and of themselves, but think of them as a tactic to empower a whole new level of authors in or outside your company. And through the aggregation process, you have the ability to deliver the right content to people at the right time and in the right context.
Brian and I have been talking about ‘event’ driven blogs and how businesses can use them in conjunction with traditional marketing/pr promotions. One great example of an event driven blog is the GM Smallblock blog.
GM started the blog to talk about the 50th anniversary of the Corvette’s small-block engine. Now that the anniversary is over, so too is the blog. According to Debbie Weil GM did consider turning it into a powertrain blog, but one astute reader suggested, "Keep to one topic… don’t try to take on too much in one blog."
