Advantages and Disadvantages of Corporate Blogging

There are many advantages and disadvantages to corporate blogging.  If you are not careful, blogging could even cause your company to close.  One major concern is, the risk of getting fired.  If the CEO is doing the blog, this isn't a concern.  On many blogs, you can receive comments and even posts from employees and other people wanting to participate.  If the employee says something that offends the supervisor or high-priority customer, the employee is at risk for getting fired.  A survey found on Enterprise Blogs stated "over 57 percent of executives at 332 large companies said they were concerned about blogs as a source of trouble for their companies."  It is easy to post on a blog, but is a lot harder to remove it.  As stated in our Business Communications textbook, if you respond to a memo, whether on a blog or personal, when the readers emotions are running high, they may say something that they regret later.

Another disadvantage is the time it takes to maintain a company blog.  If you hurry through any post you do, the company may be at risk of sounding unintelligent, uneducated, and worse, unreliable.  Poor writing and preparation could affect the way the reader thinks about the company.  You want to have a good impact on your reputation, and poor blogging could interfere with your reputation.

After reading through multiple disadvantages of blogging, I still believe the advantages outweigh the bad.  One of the biggest advantages I believe, is the free publicity.  Facebook is the largest social network online, and spreading news on the internet has become extremely efficient.  If you link your blog to Facebook, you can easily get thousands of people to read your link.  It depends on the attractiveness of the link and the blog, as to whether the consumer actually clicks on the link, reads your blog, and continues reading your blog.  Another advantage is connecting with your employee's and customers.  Corporates have are impersonal, but if you create a blog, you can bridge the gap of communication.  Your employees and customers will feel more connected and in turn, you will have better employee moral and more satisfied customers.  It is up to the corporation whether they want to invest time in creating a blog to connect with employees and customers.  In my opinion, I think blogging is a great idea.  Especially, if you want to keep up with the computer age.


References

"Corporate Blogging Disadvantages." Enterprise Blogs Info. 2011. Web. 29 Mar 2011. http://www.enterpriseblogs.info/corporate-blogging/disadvantages

Thill, John V., Bovee, Courtland L. Excellence in Business Communication. 8th Edition. Pearson Education, Inc. 2008. Web. 29 Mar 2011. http://media.pearsoncmg.com/pcp/pcp_81963_bus_comm_ccco_wct6/

Two Examples of Corporate Blogs

37signals created a blog in 1999 called Signal vs. Noise.  This blog has become a leading weblog about "design, experience, simplicity, the web, culture and more."  Along with current blogging, 37signals uses humor, interesting topics, and pictures to attract readers.  Kirkpatrick lists Signal vs. Noise as one of their "Nine Company Blogs That are Fun for Anyone to Read."  Kirkpatrick also tells readers that, Articulate is a popular fun blog about e-learning.  There are more than "20,000" active bloggers at Articulate's blog. The one big difference about the two company blogs, is that 37signals publishes the entire post for view on the main page, while Articulate posts a summary of the post and let's you click on it to view the entire post.  I like this better because you can easily glance and see what topics you would like to read.  Since 37signals posts every day, and even sometimes twice a day, this can really make it harder to find a specific topic you are looking for.  Articulate doesn't nearly post as much as 37signals, which may become a downfall for their blog.  There is constant competition in the blog market.

References
Kirkpatrick, Marshall. "Nine Company Blogs that are Fun for Anyone to Read." 23 May 2008. Web. 19 Mar 2011. http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/good_company_blogs.php

37 Signals, LLC. "Signal vs. Noise" Web. 19 Mar 2011. http://37signals.com/svn/

Kulhmann, Tom. "The Rapid E-Learning Blog." Creative Commons. Web. 19 Mar 2011. http://www.articulate.com/rapid-elearning/

Companies Using Blogs

What is the statistics of how many companies use blogs?  According to Ann All, 16% of the companies she researched use blogs.  This is a total of 81 companies.  Because this research was done approximately two years ago, I decided to continue my research.  I believe this number will increase dramatically, as most companies are getting internet-based and are wanting to connect more with their customers via online channels.

Fortune 500 stated that 15.8% of the Fortune 500 are blogging as of December 2009.

Paul Verna published a recent statistic stating that 34% of US companies blog in 2010.  This is more than half of the companies that blogged in 2009. This number is expected to rise to 43% in 2012.  I knew this number would rise, and that the number will continue to rise.  The more companies realize the connection between the market and their companies can increase with the use of the internet social network, the higher this number will rise.  The more connections the company has with the market, the higher the profit and reputation the company has.


References

All, Annie. "How Many Big Companies are Blogging?" 1 May 2009. Web. 17 Mar 2011. http://www.itbusinessedge.com/cm/blogs/all/how-many-big-companies-are-blogging/?cs=32283

Verna, Paul. "Corporate Blogging: Media and Marketing Firms Drive Growth" eMarketer Inc. Oct 2010. Web. 17 Mar 2011. http://www.emarketer.com/Report.aspx?code=emarketer_2000730&AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1