A few folks, after reading yesterday’s post on the Blog Council, thought I was being too hard on them for not accepting comments on their own blog. But that wasn’t the prevailing sentiment. More people felt that I was expecting way too much—corporate types don’t know how to blog and never will, and setting up a council with a fancy logo won’t change any of that. While I understand the skepticism behind that opinion, I don’t agree.
Sure, it can be harder for a corporation to tolerate blogging’s free exchange of ideas than it is for a solo blogger. And yes, far too many corporations have had rocky starts in the blogosphere. I know that Wal-Mart, Sony, and others have been caught creating “flogs” that purported to be from customers that instead were written by their ad agency. I’m aware that Dell began its blogging life with a happy-talk item about the tenth anniversary of its Web site, only to be pummeled by bloggers demanding better customer service. You can look elsewhere to be regaled by the tales (or maybe “galed” by them if you haven’t heard them before).
I won’t even argue that these stories are the exception, rather than the rule, when it comes to corporate blogging. I won’t tell you that most corporations have jumped into blogging with both feet, as the PR team and the lawyers lock arms in a jaunty dance down the road of marketing openness.
But I can cite examples of corporate blogging that is working. My company, IBM, has thousands of bloggers, as does Sun, Microsoft, and many other large companies. They help our customers understand technology directions, industry goings-on, and strategic issues. Robert Scoble, while he worked at Microsoft, helped humanize a firm that the mainstream media only demonized. Sun’s and IBM’s blogger have likewise been a huge advantage to their respective marketing programs.
Many other companies use blogs to connect better with their customers through blogs. Blogs that are written by living breathing employees, not the PR department.
I know that’s still news. I understand that successful companies using blogs are still relatively small among all companies. But the fact that they exist at all means we can strive for that level of success for many more companies. Corporations are not all the same, so it’s ridiculous to expect that blogging will work for all of them.
But it’s equally ridiculous to lampoon the Blog Council because all corporations are clueless types who couldn’t blog if their lives depended on it. Corporations can blog. And some corporations’ lives probably do depend on it. If corporations don’t learn to connect better with their customers (regardless of whether they use blogs or other means), they are apt to be left behind by smaller companies that do connect.
