Comments on: Why aren’t more businesses blogging?

By: Ellee

Ellee — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 14:40:21 +0000

Maggie, I’m in total agreement, and blogging certainly doesn’t suit everyone, either personally or professionally.

By: maggie fox

maggie fox — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 14:31:39 +0000

I agree with Simon (Heather made some excellent points as well). Companies have to be prepared for a certain degree of transparency in order to blog well – otherwise it’s just a press release; at best you’ll be ignored, at worst you’ll be vilified.

Part of my task is educating companies about the power of blogging – and what I get mostly is fear. Fear of opening the floodgates, fear of time and resources required to manage social media (1% of 200,000 is still a lot!). However, by explaining the numbers and the changes that are taking place online, I generally find that sensible firms (those who should be blogging, and that’s not everyone) realise they can’t ignore Web 2.0 any more – and that they can enter the space kicking and screaming, or in a planned way on their own terms. Smart companies choose the latter.

By: Simonsays

Simonsays — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 19:08:55 +0000

UK …

A report comparing the levels of business blogging in the US and UK concludes an interesting conversation I was having earlier this week with Maggie Fox over at Social Media Group. Via email Maggie suggested that the UK was far…

By: Simon Collister

Simon Collister — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 10:48:36 +0000

“I would argue that companies need to know what their consumers feel and they should be able to respond professionally – and transparently.”

You’ve hit the nail on the head, Ellee. Far from low levels of business blogging being down to lack of Exec buy-in I think the real problem is that most companies aren’t prepared to go for full transparency.

If you look at the companies whose blogs really work (Innocent smoothies, Dell (now!), Microsoft) they are prepared to engage and be up-front about products and service.

That requires a major step change in businesses’ attitudes, but one that I reckon most will have to make in the future.

By: james higham

james higham — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 20:14:26 +0000

This is precisely what Apple are about to do over here and I saw a mock up of the possible site. So perhaps businesses are tentatively dipping the toes in the water. However, certain well known figures are only blogging because they feel they have to and don’t regularly update.

By: Ellee

Ellee — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 20:02:59 +0000

Buster, This is what is already happening. Isn’t “word of mouth” the best form of advertising? Well, as we have seen from Thresher’s experience, word can get around very quickly in blogsphere.

By: Buster George

Buster George — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 19:57:12 +0000

Ellee

I stand corrected. It would be a brave company that launched a product this way. It would however probably mean more reliable products and services if they were to be reviewed by the customer first.

By: Ellee

Ellee — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 19:34:45 +0000

Buster, The idea of the product reviews via blogging is to get members of the public sampling products and writing about them objectively, such as Vichy sending out face creams, and other bloggers writing about new cars, cakes or Christmas trees.

By: Buster George

Buster George — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 19:27:50 +0000

I think that the idea of companies blogging is a good one. I would however be wary of believing company reviews on thier own products.
After all, Microsoft have been saying for years that Windows is a stable and reliable platform.

By: icedink

icedink — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 18:34:29 +0000

Got mixed feelings about this. My starting point is that these things are tools of free expression (within limits) and that, therefore, anything pushing a company point of view is to be distrusted. However, some of the journo blogs I read are good – Ben Fenton, Christopher Howse, Colin Randall etc.