Blogs: Powerful Communication Tools

Blogs are multiplying at a phenomenal speed on the web. In fact, according to Technorati, the number of blogs is doubling every five months. Current counts estimate that there are eight million blogs online. A blog was born every 2.2 seconds following the US elections and Rathergate last November, irrefutable proof of the strong link between current events and communication. That’s nearly 38,000 blogs per day. The greatest volume of comments posted on blogs tends to follow closely on the heels of breaking news stories, particularly American. In fact, the periods that recorded the largest number of blog postings coincided with recent momentous events: the US elections, the Tsunami catastrophe, and the Superbowl.

As a result of the interest stimulated by last month’s article, “Using Blogs as a Marketing Tool,” here is a sequel devoted to using blogs for both external and internal company communications.

Your best feedback tool

Whether things are running smoothly or horribly, all organizations want to maintain a tight relationship with their clientele. In addition to providing the organization’s spokesperson with a means to voice his/her opinion, blogs also make it possible to obtain precious feedback from customers and to react accordingly. Though some firms uphold a communications strategy that consists in ducking and hiding when faced with a crisis, there are managers who recognize that if they do not allow disgruntled customers to express themselves on the company’s platform, these customers will do it elsewhere and, consequently, the company will lose control of the situation and can longer react. Over and above its use as a powerful feedback tool that is convenient for perfecting products and improving services based on customers’ comments, a blog animated by a designated spokesperson gives a human feel to the organization and demonstrates transparency.

Take the example of GM whose Vice Chairman, Bob Lutz, animates his own blog so that GM can develop a unique relationship with car-loving Internet users. The success of this blog is undeniable. Whereas most blogs are content to receive a handful of comments per log entry, Mr. Lutz’s blog generates between 60 and 100 comments from Internet users per entry. Moreover, this blog receives between 4,000 and 5,000 visits per day, which is substantial for this type of communications tool. Charlene Li of Forrester Research confirms the extent of its success: “You couldn’t find a better evangelist for the GM brand. Corporate blogs work if you can attract and engage a community. This community is certainly engaged.”

However, most successful corporate blogs are still hosted primarily by organizations in the computer industry; these types of blogs represent a significant portion of active blogs. Microsoft alone accounts for nearly a sixth of all corporate blogs. [1] Before developing a blog, it’s important to examine the organization’s market since bloggers do not yet represent an accurate cross-section of the population. According to Forrester Research, bloggers tend to be men with average annual revenues of US$57,900. A quarter of them are between 18 and 24 years of age, which, on the other hand, implies that blogs will be a good long-term investment. They will also influence their environment to a considerable extent. Depending on age group, the proportion of Internet users who consult blogs varies between 28% and 44%. [2]

It would be safe to bet that due to the continually rising popularity and quality of blog authors, blog readers will represent a growing cross-section of the population and will soon appeal to organizations targeted to the public at large, such as Wal-Mart or the Charest government, who will find it beneficial to start writing and especially…listening.

Distributing information within your organization

For internal company communications, blogs are proving to be a reliable complement to the traditional Intranet, without revolutionizing your system. Actually, if there’s any revolution taking place, it’s happening on the distribution level because in addition to online publishing (secured or not), blogs can be used to transmit modifications or comments to members in real time.

For general information, blogs can replace a firm’s traditional newsletter, informing the entire organization of recent news, upcoming events, the president’s word, employee of the month, etc. As well, the firm can easily collect employee comments and suggestions via blogs.

For collaborative projects, implementing a blog will improve communications between the various departments working on the same project or between collaborators located in different places. In all cases, blogs funnel information to a single location, which facilitates consultations in the short term since interventions are published immediately, and in the long term as well since comments are archived.

To conclude, regardless of your organization’s communications objectives, blogs can be of use. That said, it is imperative to define your desired level of transparency, to set a tone for the blog, and to choose a reliable spokesperson. By following these tips and selecting your desired information flux, you can profit handsomely from this powerful discussion and feedback tool.

Adviso Consulting’s expertise in blogs can help you: to efficiently develop a blog for your organization or upcoming event; to distribute your content to a community of users and targeted sites; or to automate your industry intelligence gathering. We also provide corporate training for this new phenomenon.

Consult our page devoted to blogs and RSS feeds.

[1] Technorati , Oct. 2004

[2] CNN, USA Today, Gallup Poll, March 2005.