A growing number of companies are stepping softly into the blogosphere, following a path blazed by Microsoft Corp., Sun Microsystems Inc. and others in the technology field. The Internet journal format, they find, lets businesses expand their reach, generate product buzz and encourage consumer loyalty - while bypassing traditional media.
It's hard to quantify how many companies, executives and employees are blogging but there are probably more than 100 official corporate blogs, with hundreds more in the works, said Pete Blackshaw, chief marketing officer for Intelliseek Inc., a company that analyzes and tracks blogs.
Companies that decide to enter the blogosphere should set up some rules. Key is making sure bloggers don't reveal proprietary or financial information - a lesson learned by former Google employee Mark Jen, who was famously fired after gabbing about life at the company on his personal blog, which was not sanctioned by Google. Jen, now a software producer at Plaxo Inc., helped develop the information management company's blogging policy.
He says that as long as companies are prepared to deal with the sometimes harsh comments left by visitors, corporate blogs are a great tool for raising company profiles.
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