May 1, 2008 12:00 PM, G.A. “Andy” Marken

Think of it. A cheap, direct means of working one-on-one, one-to-many with customers, partners, prospects.

The ideal means of educating … informing … persuading.

That's what management sees when you mention one of the hottest communications tools available: blogging.

The Web 2.0 blogosphere is one of the fastest growing communities today. New blogs are launched nearly every second … 120,000 times every day.

Technorati, a research firm that tracks Internet and Web 2.0 activity, reports that it currently tracks 70 million blogs, which is up from 35 million blogs less than a year ago. According to their research, 22 of the 100 most popular Web sites in Q4 of last year were blogs.

Technorati states that bloggers searching for company/product information rely on:

• other bloggers (63%)
• company Web sites (26%)
• corporate blogs (6%)
• company press releases (5%)

Blogs have proven invaluable in generating word-of-mouth marketing. They have become an effective means of resolving customer problems, issues and questions before they become major problems.

Organizations around the globe have official and unofficial blogs being developed and read every day. Sun, GM, Ford, IBM, Microsoft, Intel, GE and nearly all the Fortune 500 firms have thousands of blogs that are being updated. Even employees in small firms have some type of blog. Whether the individual blog has been officially sanctioned by management or is in fact written by management, blogs are appearing.

According to a recent Harris Interactive poll of Fortune 1,000 executives:

• 77% believe they should have corporate polices addressing company-sanctioned blogs

• 40% believe they should have corporate policies regarding blogs unrelated to the company or its activities

• 30% really understand the term

• 21% actually read business-related blogs

• 15% believe someone in the company is currently writing a blog

• 12% have taken legal action in response to a blog

• 3% changed product, service, policies because of a blog

Communication folks' knee-jerk reactions to such “unauthorized” contact is to have the blog shut down and/or the individual fired.

Most corporate blogs come up short because they are used as marketing rather than two-way communications tools. They should be used primarily to acquire and keep customers, not for lead generation and brand awareness.

Keep in mind business blogs are not a new form of company advertising but a means of reaching your most important audiences — employees, partners, customers. Executives who have embraced the blogosphere have found the effort has significantly enhanced the organization's and individual's credibility. They also receive feedback they may not want to read.

Investment and commitment to Web 2.0 activities such as blogs, wikis and other collaborative technologies have to be entered into cautiously.

Collective intelligence, which tries to tap into the wisdom of crowds to make decisions, can be immensely effective. But firms also have to consider the stakeholder return on these investments.

Being right sometimes doesn't matter in the Web 2.0 world.

Monitoring blogs is mandatory. Management blogs are optional!

G.A. “Andy” Marken is president of Marken Communications Inc., a marketing and PR company. He may be reached at andy@markencom.com.

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