Official and Unoffical Company Blogs

Blogging has become a popular way for companies to reach consumers in a more personable way. Blogs allow users to interact and connect with corporate leaders. This type of communication allows users to feel more connected as companies issue statements and solicit feedback about their company and products. Large corporations have also jumped on the blog bandwagon with good reason. Bloggers are somewhat like constantly circulating guests at a very large cocktail party: They don’t all talk directly with one another, but each of them talks to many others, thus forming a richly interlinked network. This ability to engage with others is what gives blogs their power. According to David Sifry, founder and CEO of blog-focused search engine Technorati, “Blogs are all about conversations.” A corporate blog allows a company both to keep an ear to the ground to hear what’s being said about it and, if necessary, speak up with a correction.

There are sixty-plus blogs produced by large corporations—and many more if, for example, you count the approximately 2,000 individual blogs written by Sun Microsystems employees that are then aggregated into one group blog at www.blogs.sun.com. Besides General Motors and Sun Microsystems, companies that encourage blogging activity include The Boeing Company, Google, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Microsoft, Red Hat, Edelman, Stonyfield Farm, and Yahoo. These blogs are part of a constantly expanding blogosphere that, as of the end of 2004, had some 32 million readers, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

What Lutz and other executives recognize is that a blog is an incredibly effective yet low-cost way to:

• Influence the public “conversation” about your company: Make it easy for journalists to find the latest, most accurate information about new products or ventures. In the case of a crisis, a blog allows you to shape the conversation about it.
• Enhance brand visibility and credibility: Appear higher in search engine rankings, establish expertise in industry or subject area, and personalize one’s company by giving it a human voice.
• Achieve customer intimacy: Speak directly to consumers and have them come right back with suggestions or complaints—or kudos.

Google along with many other companies such as GM, introduce new offerings and ideas via company blogs.

This You-tube video is shown on the google blog demonstrating the new google custom search engine.  What are some of your favorite company blogs- official or unofficial?

 

“The Blogosphere Beckons: Should Your Company Jump In?” Harvard Management Communication Letter, Vol. 2, No. 4, November 2005. Retrieved November 12, 2008 from http://hbswk.hbs.edu/archive/5111.html