Have you heard? Corporate blogging may soon be pushing up daisies. Or so reads the provocative description for Corporate Blogging Myths & Realities, a session at Blogworld & New Media Expo, by Paula Berg, Manager of Emerging Media at Southwest Airlines.
“A recent report from Forrester suggests that corporate blogging has had its day, the craze has passed and, frankly, companies don’t blog very well. Corporate blogs can’t drop corporate-speak, they fail to build up an audience and they’re just plain boring.
Another new report says that 39% of the Inc. 500 are blogging. And nearly 12% of the Fortune 500 have blogs, double the number of three years ago. So which is it: Myth or Reality?”
It’s true that most corporate blogs are boring and nobody reads them. And that’s because many corporate communicators either don’t get blogging or, if they do, are having a heck of a time inspiring Glasnost in the executive suite. What’s the ROI? Who has time to blog? What will Legal say?
To be fair, I think it’s much easier for some companies to blog, particularly if they are in dynamic industries, such as consumer electronics (see Garmin), travel (see Southwest), Web services (see Zillow), technology (see Google) or consumer goods (see Zappos). But what do you do if you’re a bureaucratic beast like Exxon or the U.S. Postal Service? To my knowledge, they don’t have blogs, which might be an indication of just what a challenge it is!
What would you do if you worked at a large, blogless corporation and were tapped to head up the company’s blogging effort? How would you make it a blog worth reading? Who would contribute? Would your blog have a marketing or customer service focus? How would you if you were being successful?
If I were in your shoes, I’d start here:
- Find out which of your fellow Megacorps are blogging by visiting Fortune 500 Blogging Wiki.
- Read Dawn Foster’s helpful tips for corporate bloggers.
- Memorize Marshall Kirkpatrick’s Ten Common Objections to Social Media Adoption and How You Can Respond.
August 25th, 2008 at 5:10 pm
Hey Don – Thanks for listing Southwest among the more dynamic industries! Can you guess which side of this debate I’m on? (wink).
Paula Berg
Southwest Airlines
September 3rd, 2008 at 7:12 pm
Hey Don,
I’m blogging corporately for Network Solutions at http://solutionsarepower.com. We’re trying to keep it interesting.
It’s not hard if you have a purpose to connect with customers, provide another connection point for people to interact with people in the company. A blog can also be used to gather information on products. The person has to sincerely want to represent the company & share the story.
Then it’s an exciting opportunity.
Connie
September 3rd, 2008 at 7:13 pm
also, I followed you on Twitter – great to meet another Minnesotan!
April 30th, 2009 at 7:18 pm
We have our software engineers be our bloggers; that way they are intimately knowledgeable with the subject matter, and they sound real – because they are. Our communities surrounding our blogs are huge now because of this intentional interaction.
Intel Software Network
http://software.intel.com