Introduction To Corporate Blogging

Introduction Importance of Blogging Corporate Blogging Types of blogging Corporate Blogging Strategies How to make a Successful Blog Micro Blogging Some Do’s and Don'ts Limitations of Blogging Effectiveness of Blogging through real life examples

Flow of Presentation

Blog is an interactive platform which is a part of website in which individual maintain their

regular entries of commentary. descriptions of events. other material such as graphics or video. More personal online diaries.

Blogging

MEANING

A blog is a mixture of what is happening in a person's life ,on the Web, a kind of hybrid diary/guide site.

People maintained blogs long before the term was coined, but the trend gained momentum with the introduction of automated published systems, most notably Blogger at blogger.com.

Thousands of people use services such as Blogger to simplify and accelerate the publishing process.

Blogs are alternatively called web logs or weblogs. However, "blog" seems less likely to cause confusion, as "web log" can also mean a server's log files.

The importance

of blogging

Blogs are the fastest growing media on the planet.

Blogging challenges the concept of privacy and it has so often sought to differentiate itself from other marketing activity.

Blogging highlights the current Web 2.0 focus of the rational exchange of information.

They are new research modalities that can be utilized to measure and understand complex consumer decision making.

It is a mutually beneficial exchange of their insights for our creation of a record of their journey.

It allows us to go beyond the traditional models created using group discussions and cluster analysis.

It looks at the ways that the population is building its own world and how it is referencing.

This new window is the dataset of a ‘virtual ethnography’

CORPORATE BLOGGING

In 1990’s, most corporate home pages were used as a platform to push mundane advertising messages.

Difficult for “official” home pages to handle thousands of customers

Alternative to the existing formal communication channel.

Corporate Blogging

Types of corporate blogs

Employee blog

Executive blog

Promotional blogGroup blog

News letter blog

Employee blog

• Personal blog is maintained by a single rank and file employee

• Hosted on company-owned domains and are sponsored by companies

• E.g., employee blogs of Sun Microsystems can be found on a public blog aggregator, Planet Sun

Types of corporate blogs

Group blog

• Operated by a group of rank and file employees

• Focus on a specific topic, with expert authors

• Started under employees’ own volition. For instance Oracle Apps Blog

• Many are driven by strategic plans crafted by management and hosted in companies’ official web sites, e.g., Dell’s Linux blog

• Play an important role in personifying monolithic

corporations to internal and external stakeholders

• Current business environment requires much more transparency from the top-level executives

• Also, a high level of confidentiality is essential to run their companies effectively

• That’s why many executives, CEOs in particular, are reluctant to be open and candid on the web.

Executive Blog

Featuring the writings of high-ranking executives

Can be an effective tool to establish a direct connection with stakeholders

E.g., Marc Cuban, the owner of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, is also using his blog to communicate effectively with fans of his team

Contd….

Promotional blog

• To generate buzz about products and events

• Somewhat controversial-lack of an authentic human voice

• A classic example, Dr Pepper/Seven Up’s Raging Cow blog, which was supposedly written by its cow mascot

Newsletter blog

• Covers variety of topics such as company news and product information e.g., Google Blog

Corporate

blogging

strategies

Employee blogging phenomenon

A “blog” – short for “web log” – is a web page that serves as a publicly accessible personal journal for an individual.

Control versus

autonomy in

blogging

Conflicts

involved in

employee blogging

Net generation in the workplace

Net generation in the workplace

Net-geners growing from 14 percent of workforce to 21 percent over past 4 years.

They, with high technical skills and better education, are regarded as an important corporate asset.

They not only “demand independence” but also “seek meaning and community in their work place”.

They are a source of competitive advantage because they can be “brand ambassadors”.

Net-geners can play an important role as passionate online evangelists for their organizations.

Conflicts involved in employee blogging

Due to the lack of rules governing the blog sphere, often called today’s “Wild West”.

The nature of Blogs lead to conflicts. some employees were even fired over their blogs. Examples of employee bloggers confronted.

A Microsoft contractor was fired after he posted pictures of Apple G5Computers.

A Delta Air Lines flight attendant lost her job after she posted photos of herself in uniform on her blog.

Control versus autonomy in blogging

In order to achieve larger goals of an organization, individuals who participate in it must surrender some autonomy.

To work through this dilemma, an organization requires ongoing“processes of negotiation in which various strategies are developed”.

organizations engage in “processes of negotiation” – mechanisms that balance between control and autonomy.

Corporate blogging strategies

Bottom-up

Top-down I

Top-down II

Top-down III

Top-down IV

Tabular presentation

Is Social Media for every Business?

There are times when businesses should think twice about using social media

When you’re in a high-ticket business- If only a few clients bring in most of your revenue, the in-person approach is still best

If you are in conflict with your employees-It’s a potential disaster if employees use blogs to trash management

If there is management skepticism-Social media can make an organization more transparent, accessible and accountable

Blog is an interactive platform which is a part of website in which individual maintain their

regular entries of commentary descriptions of events other material such as graphics or video More personal online diaries

Introduction – Blogging

Findings

We identified that organizations adopt blogs mainly for:

• Product development and customer service.

• Thought leadership.

• And promotion.

Bottom-up blogging companies tend to focus on product development and customer service

Most top-down blogging companies tend to prefer thought leadership or promotional content strategy

Most of the Fortune 500 firms that use blogs appear to prefer a top-down blogging strategy

Such firms try to maintain high levels of control

Some top-down blogging companies, such as IBM and McDonald’s, apply bottom-up blogging strategies

Microsoft and Sun Microsystems, are using a bottom-up blogging strategy.

Such firms seek to maximize the capabilities of blogs by supporting employees who are highly productive and efficient.

Findings

HOW TO BUILD A

SUCCESSFUL

BLOGGING

Leaving Comments

Bloggers put a lot of effort into their blogs and they will be happy to correspond with you if you would like to talk about their blog. Leaving comments is part of the foundation for starting a blog community.Comments are fundamental for all blogs for several reasons:You can get discussions going on a blog post.It makes it easier for customers to directly comment on what is being discussed in the post.There is a field in the form that allows you to fill out your website address. This shows other people that you, too, have a blog, and people are likely to click on the link to hear what you have to say.

Trackbacks

It is a system that notifies a blogger that another blog has written an article about one of their blog posts. Trackbacks are also important. You can find a trackback link down at the bottom of a post, usually next to the permalink and comments link. It is a great way to see what kinds of other blog posts your posts have inspired. They are also an excellent way to start a community.They highly beneficial for the traffic you see on your blog.

T a g s

They are category names and people can select keywords for their posts.

It makes it easy to navigate a blog and find what you're looking for.

If someone finds their blog and wants to read all of the articles about product development, tags will make this very easy.

Tagging is recommended, especially if you write about a variety of different things.

Mistakes Bloggers Make

Not linking to other blogs.

Not having an email link or contact page.

some blogs do not allow the readers to leave comments.

This sends a bad message to customers.

Not having an RSS feed. Not updating often enough.

Micro Blogging

Meaning

It is a broadcast medium in the form of blogging. Micro blogs "allow users to exchange small elements of content such as short sentences, individual images, or video links".

Micro bloggers post about topics ranging from the simple, such as "what I'm doing right now," to the thematic, such as "sports cars.

Some micro blogging services offer features such as privacy settings, which allow users to control who can read their micro blogs.

Micro blogging for organizational usage

Users and organizations can set up their own micro blogging service: free and open source software is available.

It has the potential to become a new, informal communication medium.

It is expected to improve the social and emotional welfare of the workforce, streamline the information flow within an organization. It can increase opportunities to share information.

It help realize and utilize expertise within the workforce, and help build and maintain common ground between coworkers.

Issues with micro blogging

PrivacyUsers may broadcast sensitive personal information. Micro blog platform providers can also cause privacy issues through altering or presetting users' privacy options.

SecurityPotential for sensitive work information to be publicized on micro blogging sites such as Twitter.

IntegrationThe hardest issue to overcome, since it can be argued that corporate culture must change to accommodate micro blogging.

Dos and DON’Ts

of blogging

DO

Monitor what others are saying on the blogosphere.

Think beyond the press release and present in appealing way.

For blogs to be used as marketing tool, use key words and phrases as blogs’ titles.

DON’T

Don't post press releases or slick, use your personality as a differentiator.

Don't be afraid to make mistakes.

Don't lie. The blogosphere is self-correcting.

LIMITATIONS OF

BLOGGING

Blogs will not completely replace newspapers, radio and TV stations or even standard web sites.

Blogs do not talk; people do, once they have practice in the language or style of conversation that is needed.

Blog interaction requires formal direction until new habits are acquired.

It is rare that a blog author will edit the original posting to summarize what has been learned from the feedback comments.

Putting personal information in a blog can be dangerous.

comment links open to all readers can lead to blog site vandalism by those who insert foul ideas, language and web links to trashy web sites such as pornography or hate promoting sites.

comment links open to all readers can lead to blog site vandalism by those who insert foul ideas, language and web links to trashy web sites such as pornography or hate promoting sites.

EFFECTIVENESS OF BLOGGING THROUGH REAL LIFE EXAMPLE

Ken Dyck, a customer of Microsoft, noticed a spelling mistake in the windows

update function

Ken decided to contact Microsoft to inform them of the spelling mistake

Ken tried to inform Microsoft by looking around the Microsoft support site

Thought of calling product support services and register an incident at a cost of $25

Finally, decided to blog about the bug on this own blog

A Microsoft employee, as Ken hoped, read the blog entry and the error is being reviewed

Implications A better mechanism for customers to

contact Microsoft employees Realization of the impatience with the

official path to report issues They may just give up and complain about

the issue with friends Customer may have their own blog and the

complaint is broadcast to the whole world

If Microsoft does not monitor such issues on blogs and forums they lose the customers

Microsoft is discussing on automating this process

Ideas include have a point person in each product group