I shared this observation at an internal meeting, as well as at the roundtable on Corporate Blogging, one of the many roundtable discussions at Blogout 2007 last night.
Jeremiah Owyang (who will be in Singapore in June) was spot on last year when he said 2007 would see many corporations attempt to use new media as a platform for communicating with their customers.
2006 was a lot of talk about the tools. 2007 begets the question: how can corporations use them?
The term “corporate communications” is an oxymoron in new media space because:
- Corporations exist to alienate customers from business owners
- The democratisation of the online medium demands human-to-human connections
The evolution of business has led to the establishment of the modern corporation. The corporation exists as a separate entity, absolving business owners from the risk of personal loss. The corporation takes on an identity of its own, with its own voice and character attributes. The corporation has an indefinitely lifespan that isn’t tied to that of its founders.
Corporate communications involves having this intangible person speak to real living breathing human beings.
The democratisation of the medium. The power of the press has shifted. Everyone now has a voice, no single entity owns the internet, they can’t silence us all - you know the pitch. What is more important is that the expectations of individuals have changed when it comes to communications, and I think most corporations have not grasped that.
We are no longer satisfied with press releases, automated emails or anything that sounds bleached by robots in legal. I think we have grown a thirst for human-to-human interaction. We want to hear from Tan Kin Lian’s blog, written by his own hand, not his more corporate website. We do not care for officiousness. We want sincerity.
Let’s start a corporate blog
The typical meeting inside of the corporation goes as follows:
“We shouldn’t allow authors to put their names in the byline. It’s a corporate blog.” “We need an editor to ensure that the tone of the blog posts is consistent. The blog is a reflection of the organisation. We need to be mindful of that.”
These corporations weren’t really out to hire people when they did their recruitment. They actually wanted robots, but had to draw a compromise.
Personally, I’m not sure corporate blogs work. There’s probably a way to do this right, but I think companies should look at being open to allowing employees to blog about work. As a reader I’d much rather read the blog of a guy working at your company than your official blog. I’m still waiting for Doug Bowman to tell us how life in the Googleplex is. I keep an eye on, but don’t care as much for the official Google blog.
Blogging builds personal brands tied to real people. The corporation needs to be made up of real people - a multitude of voices, sometimes dissenting - to speak.
Comments
I think the question about corporate blogs has been as old as blogging itself. Its a case of damned if you do and damned if you don’t.
Instead of developing corporate blogs, my own take is that organisations can actually develop interest-based ones instead. These could revolve around issues or agenda items that are close to the hearts of the company. That way, blog readers who are interested in particular topics can gravitate there (eg Volvo starting a blog on driving safely to go with its brand positioning).
Of course, for this to work, you will need that human face and also be transparent to avoid that Edelman- Walmart debacle.
Posted by: Walter | May 28, 2007 12:48 AM