Corporate blogging

I read two posts on corporate blogging today, both stemming from Chris Anderson's Fortune 500 blogging project. The first argued that corporate blogging should go beyond marketing, and Stowe Boyd also posted about the phenomena of corporate blogs using the more catchy "clogs" label.

Both posts are on point and I'm living each side of this coin. Corporate initiatives should definitely go beyond marketing, but the problem is that marketing groups are most often chartered with public communications and all they know is marketing. Duh. I am working this problem at SAP by focusing not on blogs but on "social media" and strenuously avoiding anything that smells like traditional marketing. We're really going after influence and thought leadership not by proclaiming it, but by reaching out to people and opening up to them with the hope, and that's what it really is, that they will be positive in their appraisal of what we are doing as a company. Make no mistake, what I am interested in is a marketing objective, but I am a believer in enough of the non-traditional marketing tactics that I am "betting the farm" on them. SAP has some pretty vibrant communities outside of marketing, like SDN, but they are already well established and proof positive that there is value in doing it.

I've also stumbled on the "20% Theory" whereby you build street cred by being critical of your employer at least 20% of the time. Scoble does this, and I am sincere in pointing to him as I think he better than anyone else has walked this fine line. I try to adhere to the 20% Theory but in all honesty I don't come near as close to this ideal as I would like, and more often than not I am likely to give praise to a competitor without using it as an opportunity to be critical of SAP and maybe that's something I should reconsider for the new year.

The 20% Theory is where Boyd's piece comes into play. The simple fact is that companies don't like their employees criticizing them publicly and they certainly don't like their employees blogging about anything other than company business. I am a case study on this point, it never ceases to amaze me how many times I find out that someone is sending around a link to a post I made about something not related to enterprise software (and that is quite often) as evidence that blogging is baaaaddddd. Another fairly predictable scenario is whenever I use "colorful language" and some yahoo gets all up in a twist as if it's some crime against humanity, or at a minimum I am sullying the corporate brand by using the word fuck in some random post. Ooops, now I've done it.

Personally, I think the state of corporate blogging is pretty sad and will continue to be. Younger companies will embrace it and figure out that they can actually benefit, but the majority of established companies will fumble around with this media and then ask their ad agency whether or not they should be "doing blogs". However, not all is lost because like most things in the real world they just don't happen in an organized top-down manner, those companies that have employee populations with something to say, a critical ingredient for any blogger, there will be communities that develop where conversations can take place.

technorati tags: blogging corporate anderson clogs

Comments

[Jack Moore]

There will be many human sacrifices along the way. I would rather you not be one of them. There is ample evidence that freedom of speech comes at a price. Many prices, actually. One, relevant here, is that you will be held to your words.

[Chris Selland]

I concur with Jack on all points - Jeff you sound frustrated. I've come to believe that blogging is culturally antithetical to how most large organizations (and in particular the people within them) behave. Not sure how long it will take for that to change but it's going to be a long battle. Hope you keep fighting the good fight.

[jeff]

Thanks Chris, and also to you Jack.

I'm not as frustrated as it may appear as I have a long held philosophy that I can only worry about the things I can actually control. We're making good progress here at SAP by focusing on what is achieveable and putting off for the future those things that are big hairy monsters. Success builds on success.

[Brian Phipps]

I think what you’re doing with “social media” is a major step in advancing the SAP brand. Brands operate at ground level, and should deliver value customers can use. Blogs, wiki’s, podcasts, et. al. are part of the value delivery mix.

[mbhave]

An Year and a half later, greetings from India. The situation more or less remains INACTIVE here. There are instances of Corporates getting kicked up about the idea and then fall back for needs of backend, what to blog? how to? inspite of instances and sending links like yours to them to study. Its more a FEAR FACTOR than anything else. You have to be honest and nothing else. Anything else will be trashed by these individual creators.Amazing read though.
Its like are they WAITING THE TIME? or TIMING THE WAIT?
Regards,
M Bhave

[mbhave]

An Year and a half later, greetings from India. The situation more or less remains INACTIVE here. There are instances of Corporates getting kicked up about the idea and then fall back for needs of backend, what to blog? how to? inspite of instances and sending links like yours to them to study. Its more a FEAR FACTOR than anything else. You have to be honest and nothing else. Anything else will be trashed by these individual creators.Amazing read though.
Its like are they WAITING THE TIME? or TIMING THE WAIT?
Regards,
M Bhave