Companies learn the value of blogging - Or do they?

In our book we talked about Bob Lutz of GM blogging at the Fastlane blog and Jonathan Schwartz COO of Sun Microsystems also a blogger.

Schwartz famously said

my 1000 bloggers at Sun have done more for this company that a $billion ad campaign.

And he talks about how Sun's bloggers have created a more transparent company, that appears more human as a result. This is the natural consequence of two way flows of communication. Something that many brand and advertising managers struggle with. Command and control should no longer be part of any marketing communications strategy.

We are at the very beginning now of a revolution in marketing communications. How businesses will engage with their audiences, how marketing budgets will be spent, and how marketing departments will be organised. These are topics I suggest thyat are on the tips of many CMO's and CEO's and perhaps even the odd board.

Not surprising then that a year and a half later the world this side of the Atlantic is catching up according to the Financial Times who reported on July 17th that BT's COO John Petter will start blogging following hard on the heals of Charles Dunstone at Carphone Warhouse who is now blogging. Read his blog here

However, Richard Charkin CEO at Macmillian the publishers has been blogging since December. Welcome to the blogosphere Richard. Launching an ancient industry into the 21st Century.

Dresdener Kleinwort, set up an internal blog to share ideas. JP Rangaswami, who was instrumental in the process, believes that internal blogs and wiki's increase and improve efficiency

There is no doubt in my mind that the transparent, addative, collaborative approach to these types of social software make a significant impact on organisations. Its quite a cool way for companies to start to learn to embrace the future.

Howard Rheingold decribes them as technologies of collaboration. About which we write about exstensively on this blog and in our book. Though Howard is without doubt the supreme font of all knowledge on this topic.

But interestingly, there are those out there that "dont get it" Reading Shel Israels blog about Jeff Jarvis and his fight with Dell came this post: Dell attacks Jarvis

Just when I thought Dell was beginning to understand blogging, an anonymous representative of Dell's Marketing agency, CGI, hurls this incredibly tasteless and inaccurate pile of shabby homework into Jeff's Comments and makes Dell look really awful, just when it seemed to me, to be moving in the right direction. Now, whatever direction Dell tries to go, it will be moving with each foot in a bucket.

Richard Edelman, whose agency competes with CGI, rightfully called it a " serious case of malpractice," which is pretty much on-spot, if you ask me.

As far as the anonymous comment poster, his footprints go directly back to CGI. Dude, if CGI has half a brain, you should look forward soon to a career in the restaurant service industry.

And this is the point that blogs, represent a completely different way of communicating and interacting. Clicks leave digital traces and so truth and transparency play a key and fundamental role in this new media ecology. In fact its not media anymore, its " social media. " Social media has a different language, framework and rules of engagement. Also read what's an Oxymoron? and blogs and trust

So its good to see corporate bloggers this side of the water - it will be the first step towards what we describe as the revolution of engagement marketing.

Comments

[Tom Chandler]

After poking around for a while, I've arrived at this conclusion: the Chevy "Fastlane" site is a blog like I'm Kermit the Frog.

They're simply delivering old PR cliches in old, stilted PR language. The only thing distinguishing their blog from a press release (and a bad press release at that) is the software underlying it.

You could argue that the simple act of communication is creating a community, but I see something different; a ghostwritten blog and room for folks to type "huzzah" in a box at the bottom of the page.

Collaboration? Communication? This is just another PR channel - where's the blog?

[alan moore]

Ask Bob Lutz