Literally thousands of CEOs, marketing officers, analysts, engineers and other corporate employees are blogging….
Yet you’ll be hard-pressed to find most corporate blogs through the company Web sites. My guess is that lawyers or PR departments are a more than a little nervous about this whole new media, “listen to your customers” thing, so they said “Well, ok, we can try it, but don’t make the damn blog too easy to find.”
For example, you won’t find links to company blogs at:
The New York Times, despite Byron Calame’s recent article, “The Times’s New Blogs: More Information, Fewer Filters,” which lists the company’s blogs.
The Wall Street Journal, which has law and other blogs that are not listed or linked to each other.
General Motors, where GM vice-chairman Bob Lutz and others blog.
The New York Stock Exchange, which publishes Hybrid Talk
HP, where Vice President of Global Marketing Strategy & Excellence Eric Kintz blogs
Novell , kind of hard to find, but once you do, there are many here, plus one by CTO Dr Jeff Jaffee and Novell Open PR, which “gives Novell watchers information about what’s happening in the company that might not make the cut for a press release, but is still of interest to the market and Novell’s customers.” (Yeah, right.)
I agree. The blogging medium can create new exposures for companies and that can certainly hinder a corporation from widely promoting its blog. There is insurance for it though. The lawyers and PR depts. should get their risk managers involved. In the same way a company’s website is insurable for the content published online (cover for claims such as copyright/trademark infringement, personal injury, invasion of privacy and more), so is a company’s blog. Insurance can’t really fix a public relations nightmare of course. But companies should review their existing internet liability policies, and breathe a little easier.
I guess you have not gotten the memo? It is to the Beatles’ song:
Here I stand head in hand
Turn my face to the wall
If she’s gone I can’t go on
Feelin’ two-foot small
Everywhere people stare
Each and every day
I can see them laugh at me
And I hear them say
Hey you’ve got to hide your blog away
Hey you’ve got to hide your blog away
How can I even try
I can never win
Hearing them, seeing them
In the state I’m in
How could she say to me
Your Blog will find a way
Gather round all you clowns
Let me hear you say
Hey you’ve got to hide your Blog away
Hey you’ve got to hide your Blog away
I find that there are a lot of ambivalence about business blogging. Very simply: it is new and threatens the traditional power structure Plus, the rules are not clear. The legal limits are fuzzy. At the same time, we will see more blogs of different kinds. We needto understand their different roles in creating and facilitating conversations within and across companies.
Although I agree with Marcia that an Internet liability policy will not shelter a company from a PR nightmare, what kind of authentic PR does a company have when it gives the impression of transparency by sponsoring a blog and then hiding it away?
I think this very act does far more damage than a PR crisis which is, by its nature, an event.
BL,
Thought you would be interested to know that I am not hiding. You can actually find HP’s blogs on the HP Newsroom homepage right next to our press releases, feature stories and podcasts.
Eric
I completely agree with your assessment regarding the legal aspects. I’ve worked with both large and small firms to help with implementing blogging strategies, and I’ve found that the small ones are excited about it, but larger firms with their staff of legal advisors are far more worried about the legal implications than they are excited about the opportunities. Just another shame of how litigation-friendly a world its becoming.
Eric: I looked at the home pages of the sites, and that’s where I expect a blog to be found, not inside the site.
Unless your blog is meant only for the press, there needs to be a link from the HP home page.
Til then, you’re hiding. :>)
BL
Maybe it’s part of the strategy to keep it “hidden” on the website and only reveal it via other marketing channels (i.e. word of mouth, the blogosphere). Don’t underestimate these marketers!
Chad
PS: Why does it need to be linked from the home page? Is there a written rule? Remember, in marketing, anything goes.
The very smart Mack Collier joins the conversation in his “Viral Garden” blog with “This Is Why Companies Should Blog.” Read Mack’s post here:
http://moblogsmoproblems.blogspot.com/2006/05/this-is-why-companies-should-blog.html
Awesome blog. Peace out until next time TabathaOster