Why Should Companies Blog?

This week's discussion leads us down the road of corporate blogging. The challenge was to find an "unofficial blog", analyze the information, and interpret how this information could be useful to companies discussed within the unofficial blog. I had found an interesting blog about Apple products and all sorts of tips to use these products, but one question entered my mind this morning: "Why should companies blog?"

With over 230 million people in the US accessing the Internet, it is no surprise that companies want to infiltrate this new form of potential marketing (Top 20 countries with the highest number of Internet users, 2008). However, there are some negatives to the idea of company blogging. JupiterMedia CEO, and company blogger, Alan Meckler stated that blogs were generally not the best form of marketing in terms of revenue growth and estimates that up to ninety-nine percent of all blogs are useless in terms of marketing. He even went on to mention, "In any given day, I’ll get 20 to 30 comments. Four are valid, the rest are spam" (Baker, 2005). Besides the threats of spam and non-constructive insults, there tends to be a ton of regulatory hoops that company bloggers must jump through since public statements by one individual from the company can have a tremendous impact on the entire company. With all the work that press release teams, public relations staff, and other external relations committees place into building a company's image and reputation; it would take numerous trust from the company to rely on a person(s) to run a company blog without disclosing company secrets or creating harmful libel that competitors could use against the company (McIntosh, 2003).

There are risks to creating blogs, but there are also multiple benefits to creating a company blog. One of the most important factors into building a blog is to build trust between the consumer and the company. According to the co-founder of Nubricks, consumer confidence "is at an all-time low." By creating a blog, a company can build an online image and help to create trust by allowing the consumer to see the company as an open and informative company that will not keep secrets from their consumers (Samuel, 2007). There are many other reasons why blogging could be an effective marketing tool depending on what purpose the business has for the blog. I have listed a few ways that blogging can be beneficial for businesses (Wacka, 2008):

* Become the Expert- Create a company image portraying the company as a leader in innovation

* Customer Relationships- A company can build a more personal relationship between the consumer and the business. Blogs can be a quick way for the company to join customer discussion, divulge tips and information, or receive constructive feedback.

* Internal Collaboration- Blogs can be a great tool for internal affairs within the office. Having an internal blog means individuals can update one another about their progress without spending time creating long reports or filling up inboxes.

* Test Ideas- Blogs are considered to be a more relaxed form of communication. Businesses can use blogs to mention ideas and evaluate how the audience reacts. They can use the information to see how consumers may respond to the idea/product and what the company needs to change or enhance.

*Rank High in Search Engines- Many search engines tend to favor sites that "are updated often, that link to other sites and most importantly, that have many inbound links." By starting a corporate blog, the rise in visitation levels could boost the ranking of the site and allow it to appear more often or higher on search engine lists.

Interacting with consumers can be a balancing act for most companies. On the one hand, the company does not want to be seen as a secretive and distrusting, therefore creating less publicity and less sales. On the other hand, revealing too much information can give the competition the edge in creating a competitive product or the information could indirectly create libel if the blogger is not careful about what is said on the page. Either way, blogging can be used to benefit companies and this might be one of the reasons why companies have not attempted to shut down every single blog site that endorses their product. Even Meckler, who does not believe that most blogs have marketing potential, acknowledges that blogging can be "therapeutic, and beneficial for the company" (Baker, 2005).

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Baker, S. (2005, April 27). Who should blog at a company? Business Week. Retrieved November 6, 2008, from http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/blogspotting/archives/2005/04/who_should_blog.html

McIntosh, N. (2003, September 29). Why blogs could be bad for business. The Guardian. Retrieved November 6, 2008, from http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2003/sep/29/comment.business

Samuel, A. (2007). Creating an online personality to help generate sales. Global Edge. Retrieved November 6, 2008, from http://www.globaledge.co.uk/news/analysis/details/creating-an-online-personality-to-help-generate-sales/27543

Top 20 countries with the highest number of internet users. Internet World Stats. Retrieved November 6, 2008, from http://www.internetworldstats.com/top20.htm

Wacka, F. (2008). Why blog for business? Corporate Blogging. Retrieved November 6, 2008, from http://www.corporateblogging.info/basics/why/