There's an interesting article on BusinessWeek online about the pitfalls of corporate blogging. The author, Jacqueline Klosek, is an attorney who practices in intellectual property and privacy.
While Klosek's warnings to corporations about corporate blogging are justified, and companies do have to be careful what they say and how they say it when it comes to business issues (particularly regarding their competitors), blogs are a powerful marketing and communications tool that shouldn't be ignored. Companies that don't have blogs are missing out on a prime vehicle to promote their product or communicate their message to the masses on the Internet.
Check out the article and let us know what you think about corporate blogging.
The writer in the Business Week article makes excellent points about how to do business blogging well, but misses the biggest one: every one of the "legal liability" issues she discusses have nothing to do with blogging, as such. Blogs are only a medium for communication.
If the employee (or CEO) wrote the same things in a print newsletter, or broadcast email, or letter to the editor in Business Week, the potential consequences would be the same.
That said, she is entirely correct that, "Blogging has quickly emerged as a powerful tool of the modern enterprise." Blogging provides an interactive tool that enables companies to speak and LISTEN to customers and, if they're smart, respond publicly to both kudos and concerns.
BTW: Congratulations on your selection as a finalist for the 2007 Best of the Web award in the blog category! We're proud to have helped you get started and to see how you've taken off from there!
Tom & Yvonne
WME Blogs
Posted by: Tom | January 06, 2007 at 11:09 AM