Monday, July 13, 2009
Corporate Blogging: A Marketing Communication Tool for Companies
Corporate weblog is a tool that organizations used and published to reach its organizational goals. It has grown from a popular teen pastime to needs for corporations. Most of the blogs can be categorized as internal and external blogs. Internal blogs are generally accessed through the intranet where every employee can view on it whereas external blogs are publicly published for everyone where they can see the employees, teams or spokespersons of the company sharing their views on the blog.
According to Ray Valdes, only less than 5 percent of the Fortune 1000 is using blogs strategically in year 2006, but he believes that the percentage will triple in the next two years. According to Socialtext’s research, 61 (approximately 12.2%) of the Fortune 500 are blogging as of 4th July 2009. Why corporate blogging become so popular nowadays?
Corporate blogging has been introduced as a new approach to marketing because companies can use it to polish up their marketing message indirectly through social interactions. Besides, blogging enables faster feedback rather than other customer communication avenues. It also provides a more strategic understanding of the current market trend. Moreover, blogging is telling the customers indirectly that the company cares about their products and customers.
Many companies not only using it for customer and peer support, they also use it for internal communications from the CEO, HR department, or as a discussion tool among the employees. Most of the leaders feel comfortable or safe to communicate directly to the customers without worrying negative corporate consequences such as being sued. On the other hand, it gives the writer an opportunity to answer critics in a controlled forum, but some of the critics may not seen by the writer because they might have post it somewhere else. It also brings new connections and generates trust within customers, employees, suppliers, investors and others which may lead to business opportunities.
Although there are risks such as revealing issues on financial results, with communication and guide within the organization, we believe that the benefits of corporate weblog will exceed the problems.
Labels: Task 5
1:52 AM