Blogs and the corporation: managing the risk, reaping the benefits
The Authors
Joshua L. Cox, Mercy Health System
Eric R. Martinez, IBM
Kevin B. Quinlan, United Airlines Corporation, USA.
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of blogs in corporate communication and proposes general policies to help corporations effectively and ethically use blogs. Blogs are among the new communication media that are playing an increasingly important role in the corporate world. Most companies, however, are not yet taking advantage of this opportunity, nor do they manage the associated risks. We have developed a series of best practices to help companies address this issue.
Design/methodology/approach – We examine the evolution of the blogging phenomena and create a framework for characterizing the potential impact of blogs on the corporation. Policies are derived from data compiled from the literature, case studies, and existing proactive corporate strategies.
Findings – Most companies do not have well developed strategies for corporate blogging. As a communication medium, blogs represent a significant opportunity to further corporate marketing goals, particularly in light of the changing face of information consumption. The prevalence of blogs poses risk to corporations as a relatively uncontrolled medium.
Practical implications – This paper illustrates the need to develop proactive strategies for corporate blogging and provides guidelines for corporate blogging policies. Companies should integrate blogging policies into their overall corporate communication strategy as well as develop an approach for addressing the risks they impose.
Originality/value – This is the first paper to consider both the benefits and risks of blogging from a policy point of view.
Article Type:
Keyword(s):
Corporate communications; Worldwide web; Communication.
Journal:
Journal of Business Strategy
Volume:
29
Number:
3
Year:
2008
pp:
4-12
Copyright ©
Emerald Group Publishing Limited
ISSN:
0275-6668
Technological advances have led to a proliferation of communication media over the past decades. With very little overhead, individual publishers can reach a nearly global audience. Information is more accessible than ever before, but traditional methods of peer review and quality control can be lacking in electronic communications. People are therefore developing new ways of evaluating and filtering information. Corporations must adapt to this new environment by first recognizing that:
- new media is available to communicate with customers, employees and the community;
- external stakeholders can readily discuss corporations in outside forums;
- companies have reduced control over information flow;
- competition for audience attention is increased; and
- traditional communication media has become less important.
Because these changes happen quickly, it is difficult for companies to rigorously study the impact of new media before they form reliable policies. Companies must adapt their communication strategy dynamically as technology and social preferences change.
Blog history
Blogs are one of the most important new communication tools to impact businesses. A blog is “a web page that serves as a publicly accessible personal journal” (Blood, 2002) and can convey personal, public, political and commercial messages. Active blogs are frequently updated and can contain most media, including pictures, text, links, audio and video (Carmichael and Helwig, 2006a).
Similarities between blogs and other electronic communication tools such as forums, websites, and message boards can make classification of electronic media ambiguous. Although blogs can be collaborative and encourage participation; most are asynchronous, single-voice narratives. In other words, they usually have one author or sometimes a small group of authors who share a common agenda or point of view. Though most blogs allow comments from the audience, these comments are secondary to the blogger's contribution and are displayed much less prominently. This focus on the primary author distinguishes blogs from the decentralized “free-for-all” forums like web boards and discussion groups.
Blogs originated from the online diaries that became popular in the 1980s. Jorn Barger used the term “weblog” first in 1997 and the short form was coined by Peter Merholz, in the phrase “we blog” that appeared on Peterme.com in 1999 (Merholz, 1999). This phrase quickly evolved into a noun and verb. The occurrence of blogs has skyrocketed since the appearance of online diaries in the mid-1990s (Harmanci, 2005). Now about 1.3 million posts, and 100,000 new blogs appear on the internet each day (BBC Online, 2006). By the end of 2006, Technorati (a blog search engine) was tracking more than 57 million blogs (BBC Online, 2006). The popularity of blogs can likely be attributed to their personal, informal and convenient nature. Of particular relevance to corporations, many users rely on blogs when making purchase decisions because they consider the blogger to be a product or category expert.
The popularity of blogs presents both opportunities and challenges for businesses. Formal study of the business implications of blogging is limited; the first empirical study emerged only last year (Lee et al., 2006). Identifying the purpose and audience of a blog is critical in understanding how corporations can use them. The following table helps organize the types of blogs and how they can impact corporations (see Table I).
Internally generated blogs
A corporate blog is a weblog published and used by an organization to reach its organizational goals (Wikipedia). Usually confidential, corporate blogs can convey information from employees and management to company audiences. Firewalls, password, and other access control techniques usually limit these blogs to their intended audience. Employee blogs are bottom-up blogs produced by a single rank-and-file employee, typically to further customer service or product development goals (Lee et al., 2006). Executive blogs are top-down blogs often written by the CEO or high-ranking executives to provide thought leadership or to explain and involve internal stakeholders in the decision making process. CEO blogs “generate instant traffic and can be an effective tool to establish a direct connection with stakeholders” (Lee et al., 2006). Blogging offers employees the opportunity to have a voice and sense of autonomy (Lee et al., 2006). It can also foster cross-functional communication.
Internal blogs can be an effective and interesting way of generating dialog and can be made available to a wide audience. Technology companies commonly use blogs to communicate with those who use their software. The personal, informal nature of blogs makes them a more appealing way of communicating than formal call centers or white papers.
Promotional blogs, another type of externally-facing corporate blog, are marketing tools that can generate product interest and brand equity (Carmichael and Helwig, 2006a). Consumers are often more prone to believe personal messages from a familiar blogger than polished messages from a marketing campaign. These messages can spread much more rapidly than traditional media (as with viral marketing) (Wilson, 2005). Additionally, external blogs can be used to offer product support, give expert advice, and update the community on company activities. Blogs can be more effective at generating external participation and engage prospects at a deeper level than other electronic media and target other business or individual consumers (Ramos et al., 2006).
Blogs generated by outside parties
External, independent blogs should be another key management concern. Rapid publishing and wide, high interest audiences can make blogs a powerful form of word-of-mouth (DeFelice, 2006). Consumers often rely on independent opinions when making consumption decisions and will often seek out perceived experts in the blogosphere. Business can likewise use the blogs of their suppliers for product information to build relationships. Finally, blogs offer a new opportunity for corporations to monitor trends and opinions in the marketplace. Blogs can be found on nearly every topic, and comment features often generate a wide range of opinions from multiple sources. This offers a new medium for market research and an opportunity to gage market sentiment.
The risks of blogs
While blogs present new opportunities to companies, they also pose substantial threats. Employee blogs limit the control corporations have on information. The lack of rules governing the blogosphere has created the analogy to the “wild west” ((Jones, 2005). Misguided or malicious employee blogs have the potential to damage a corporation's carefully crafted brand. Google, for instance, has fired an employee for criticizing his compensation package in an external blog. Google expressly forbids external blogging and has established a platform for blogging within the Google community (Quinlan, 2007). In fact, the problems with employee blogs are so extensive that other blogs are tracking them ( Morpheme Tales, n.d.).
Blogs from the outside world can also be very damaging to corporations. Customers can voice complaints to the world in an instant. Perceived experts can criticize products and corporations. Competitors can employ bloggers to attack corporations, or hire bloggers to start negative blog campaigns for no apparent reason (Millette, 2005). Actively monitoring the blogosphere and developing communication strategies to deal with potential threats is essential for companies who might be exposed to negative blogs (see Table II).
Ethics of blogging
The relatively uncontrolled nature of the blogosphere raises ethical issues. Blogs often contain unverifiable opinion, and the author can easily be falsified. Corporations can deny accountability for employee blogs. Astroturfing is the fabrication of a grassroots marketing campaign (Carmichael and Helwig, 2006a). Astroturfers create seemingly spontaneous campaigns when in fact they are paid participants of well thought-out corporate marketing messages. If discovered, this practice can greatly damage corporate credibility (Lee et al., 2006). Astroturfing is considered unethical and predicated on deception of the audience. While many corporate communications activities endeavor to “spin” the facts, astroturfing intentionally falsifies the source and authenticity of the message. Ethical policies for corporate blogging must therefore address truth, authenticity, verifiability and transparency.
Case studies
These brief case studies illustrate the opportunities and risks blogging offers corporations.
External blogs: Mazda and Astroturfing
In November 2004, a person claiming to be a 23 year-old with an interest in car videos created a blog on Google's Blogger weblog hosting site (Carmichael and Helwig, 2006a). The blog contained links to Mazda car commercials and to a pair of car chase scenes featuring the Mazda M3. Other bloggers quickly questioned the author's authenticity. Later, copies of the car chase scenes posted on the blog were found on the web site of the marketing company Mazda hired to record them. The blog was removed within hours of the discovery. This incident is known as the Halloween M3 debacle and shows that public reaction to “astroturfing” can be extremely negative. It severely tarnished the online credibility of Mazda and points to the importance of a company being open and honest with its audience.
Third-party blogs: Kryptonite locks and product defects
A second example involves the Kryptonite bike lock company (Carmichael and Helwig, 2006b, p. 5). When consumers discovered that the company's bike locks could be picked with a disposable pen, they posted testimonials and videos on consumer products and bicycle blogs. The news quickly moved into the mainstream media. Kryptonite, which had no staff dedicated to blogs, was unprepared for this media coverage and was slow to respond to the posts. The company spent 10 million dollars to replace the bike locks and took a big hit to its reputation.
External blogs: Delta Airlines and employee blogs
In October 2004, Delta Airlines fired an employee for posting pictures of herself in her flight attendant uniform on her personal blog (Carmichael and Helwig, 2006b, p. 5). Delta deemed these personal photos as “inappropriate.” The company did not have a clearly defined policy concerning an employee's online behavior, which meant it had little to support the decision to fire this employee. The blogosphere saw the firing as an attack on blogging in general and responded with a negative online campaign against Delta. Delta had no plan to deal with this online campaign.
In contrast to these examples, many companies have created policies to clearly define appropriate online behavior and to provide guidelines for quick response to incidents related to blogs.
External blogs: Sun and CEO Jonathan Schwartz
Sun Microsystems' president and chief operating officer Jonathan Schwartz openly shares his ideas on Sun's employee blogging site, Planet Sun (Lee et al., 2006). In particular, he often shares his opinions of Sun's competitors. On August 16, 2004, Schwartz explained on Planet Sun why he thought Hewlett Packard (HP) had missed their earnings projections. He blogged the following: “So we all saw HP had a bad week. My bet? It's only going to get worse – and it has nothing to do with their SAP implementation … ” He also referred to the HP-UX as a “dying” operating system.
HP was furious, and its lawyers filed a cease-and-desist order against Sun. The order was later dropped. Sun encourages its employees to blog on Planet Sun. It was aware of Schwartz' posted opinions about competitors and was able to respond quickly. Its legal team now reads all blog postings after Schwartz's 2004 blog comments (Ramos et al., 2006).
External blogs: IBM and Notes
In 2004, consultant Sara Radicati of the Radicati Group published a negative report on IBM's Notes email product (Lyons, 2005). On July 23, 2004, Ed Brill, an IBM employee working in Notes marketing, responded to Radicati's publication on his own blog, edbrill.com. He questioned if Radicati was affiliated with Microsoft and referred readers to other blogs that made similar assertions.
Bloggers were outraged at Radicati because many of these bloggers made money as consultants installing Notes and started their own investigation into these allegations against Radicati. Though Brill's site was considered diplomatic in nature, it linked to other blogs that had far blunter accusations against Radicati. IBM's Notes site linked to Brill's blog on the Notes product. IBM was aware of and was monitoring Brill's blog, so when the allegations against Radicati surfaced and the uproar among bloggers flared, IBM quickly removed the Notes link to Brill's blog.
Pioneers in corporate blog policy
A few companies that have created corporate policies regarding blogging have seen success with these policies, but most top company executives have been slow to give any credibility to corporate blogs as an important corporate communications medium. In a recent survey, only about 5 percent of executives were convinced that the credibility of corporate blogging was growing as a communications medium, about 3 percent were convinced of its credibility as a brand-building technique, and less than 1 percent was convinced of its credibility as a sales or lead generation tool (Jusko, 2006). About 12 percent of senior executives said that their companies have taken legal or other action in response to a blog (Jusko, 2006, p. 16). Most important, nearly half of all senior executives said they do not have corporate policies regarding blogging and three quarters of this group believed they should (Jusko, 2006, p. 14).
The following companies have created policies regarding blogging. All of the corporate policies discuss the protection of proprietary and confidential information. The policies either specifically state the ramifications for not adhering to the guidelines contained within the policies or refer the employee to another corporate policy that covers those details:
- Sun: Policy on public discourse. Sun aggressively promotes employee blogging and maintains a blog aggregator site called Planet Sun where thousands of employees blog about their work. It has been successful in blogging both internally and externally and views blogs as a way of humanizing the company. Sun encourages its employees to blog about the work they are doing. It uses employee blogs primarily to supplement traditional channels of communication involving programmers who write third-party applications that run on Sun systems. Sun's Policy on Public Discourse lays out its expectations for its employees as they blog (see www.sun.com/aboutsun/media/blogs/policy.html for the full policy).
- Feedster: Corporate Blogging Policy. Feedster views blogging in a positive manner and respects that its employees may use blogging as a medium of personal expression. It views its employees as de facto spokesmen for the company and asks that employees observe the guidelines of its Corporate Blogging Policy when they blog (see http://feedster.blogs.com/corporate/2005/03/corporate blogg.html for the full policy).
- Plaxo: Public Internet Communication Policy. Plaxo developed its Public Internet Communication Policy to guide employees and contractors who choose to participate in public communication. Though the policy covers all communications related to the internet, the policy is intended to cover employee blogging as well. Plaxo encourages open communication both internally and externally (see http://blog.plaxoed.com/?p=41 for the full policy).
- Yahoo!: Personal Blog Guidelines. Yahoo! views blogging as a valuable part of the communications media to foster online information sharing. The Personal Blog Guidelines were developed to inform employees who maintain personal blogs about the legal implications of posting information regarding the company. These guidelines include what Yahoo! recommends as best practices when posting anything about the company (see http://jeremy.zawodny.comm/yahoo/yahoo-blog-guidelines.pdf for the full policy).
- IBM: Corporate Blogging Policy and Guidelines. IBM openly encourages all employees to blog both internally and externally. Using an internal wiki or a website that allows users to add, remove, and edit content, IBM bloggers created the core principles of its Corporate Blogging Policy and Guidelines. This was designed to guide IBM employees as they blog and to communicate IBM's position on such practices as astroturfing, covert marketing, and openly berating competitors. These guidelines were written using the best practices from the blogging policies of Sun, Microsoft, and Groove (see http://www.ibm.com/blogs/72/en/guidelines.html for the full policy).
Policy recommendations
In view of the experiences outlined in these case studies and company policies, we propose a general set of guidelines for companies to take a more active role in the blogging community.
External third-party blogs
Many independent bloggers are professionals in their area of interest. Others earn recognition in a subject matter through the quality of their blogging. Either way, independent bloggers are “opinion leaders” for large communities of internet users because they are seen as informed and unbiased. Corporations should not overlook these influential communicators and their relatively affluent audiences (Peslak, 2002). Corporations should:
- Be aware. Corporate managers should find and monitor influential blogs related to their companies and industries. They should be aware of audience size and editorial slant. Blog search engines like Google Blogs and Technorati can help find the most relevant and popular blogs for a given subject. Watch in particular for blogs specifically directed against the corporation (e.g. WalMartWatch.com). It may not be possible to placate the authors of such blogs, but monitoring will help with developing quick responses to their criticisms.
- Engage. Establish relationships with independent bloggers when possible. Add them to the company's mailing list for press releases and new product announcements. Consider purchasing advertising on their websites. Have employees post comments or send e-mails thanking bloggers for positive coverage and offering additional information. Very influential bloggers should be treated like “trade press.” Consider sending them product samples and invitations to industry shows.
- Respond quickly and appropriately. Most independent bloggers read and respond to reader comments and e-mails. Contact them immediately to correct factual errors in their writing or to respond to unfounded rumors concerning your company. Usually bloggers will post a correction. If bloggers do not respond or are openly hostile, threats of legal action are usually ineffective.
Internal and external corporate blogs
Any guidelines for a corporate blog, whether intended for internal or external audiences, should take into account the company's specific intentions and audience. Nonetheless, the following guidelines are broadly applicable to most corporate blogging situations:
- Have a consistent and authentic first-person voice. Bloggers earn credibility by establishing personal, long-term relationships with readers. Continuity in editorial position and style, along with an informal tone, helps build this relationship. Impersonal or sanitized “marketing copy” will immediately reduce a blog's credibility with employees or customers.
- Allow comments but monitor them. Allowing readers to respond to blog entries contributes to a sense of community. Open debate also increases a blog's credibility in a way analogous to the peer review process in academic publications. Corporations should recognize, however, that people who comment will sometimes say inappropriate things. It is critical to monitor blog comments for offensive, unethical, or illegal content.
- Be honest and transparent. Blog audiences are often critical readers. Readers will often point out false information or “spin” in comments or in other electronic venues. Because bloggers must earn credibility through the content they produce, being caught in a lie or exaggeration is counterproductive.
- Add value. Blogs that serve simply as a repository for press releases and advertisements are usually ignored. Readers expect added value in the form of expert analysis, unique opinions, insider perspectives or unusual access to company or executive resources.
- Identify information sources. Proper referencing is critical for establishing credibility and for respecting others' intellectual property rights. Hypertext makes it extremely easy to identify and link to information sources. The more controversial a topic, the more important it is to reference properly. Articles from mainstream press outlets, government reports, and scholarly articles from peer-reviewed journals are the best choices for lending weight to blog entries.
- Welcome feedback and issue corrections. Electronic publishing moves quickly. Bloggers can seldom wait until all information is available and rarely have time to research as much as they would like. Bloggers should acknowledge incorrect or out-of-date information and correct it immediately.
- Respect your audience. Do not lecture your readers. Recognize and respond to their arguments and concerns.
- Protect confidential and/or proprietary information. Be explicit about what kind of information internal bloggers may disclose to the public. Blogs that are intended for internal audiences should be protected from the public by passwords, firewalls, private networks. Recognize that even if access to internal blogs is strictly controlled, it is easy for authorized users to copy and distribute content to unauthorized users. This is an unavoidable risk of electronic communication. Assume that even internal posts will reach general audiences.
- Use appropriate disclaimers and publish a “terms of use” policy. Require all registered users to view a policy that describes the purpose of the blog and the conditions for using it. Typically, such policies require users to limit off-topic discussions, refrain from offensive language, respect intellectual property rights, and respect other users. Reserve the right to block users who do not abide by the terms of use. Disclaimers should make it clear to all users that opinions contained in the blog are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily represent official corporate policy.
Because electronic publishing is difficult to control centrally, it is important to have trusted employees communicating with the public. Nonetheless, a corporation should make every effort to monitor its online presence. New technologies are making it easier to keep track of inappropriate or improper blog entries (McArthur et al., 2005). Some monitoring technologies search for particular prohibited words or phrases. Others search for sudden increases in the volume of content on corporate blogs and alert a human who can intervene or respond if necessary. All electronic publishing systems can produce access logs that record the originating electronic address of every machine that accesses it. These logs can be analyzed for patterns or can be used to investigate illegal or unethical activities. Logs should be stored for a minimum of three years.
Blogs are here to stay
Electronic publishing is often confusing, unpredictable and difficult to monitor. Engaging in electronic communications places a corporation at risk of losing control of its public image. Corporations have therefore been slow to develop policies that allow them to take advantage of these new media. Nonetheless, a very large and affluent portion of the public relies on the internet to inform its purchasing and investment decisions and companies must participate, despite the risks.
Though the above guidelines are general, they provide a starting point for any corporation to develop a strategy for communicating with employees or the public through blogs. They encourage corporations to focus on building long-term, personal, value-added relationships with readers. These relationships allow companies to remain involved in all aspects of the dialog with customers, investors, and critics.
Table IBlogs sorted by source and impact
Table IITypes of blogs
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About the authors
Joshua L. Cox is a fellow in healthcare administration at Mercy Health System. He is a former research fellow in the Fanning Center for Business Communication, Mendoza College of Business, University of Notre Dame.
Eric R. Martinez is a segment analyst in the market intelligence organization at IBM. He is a former research fellow in the Fanning Center for Business Communication, Mendoza College of Business, University of Notre Dame. He is the corresponding author and can be contacted at: ericrobertmartinex@yahoo.com
Kevin B. Quinlan is an international market strategist with United Airlines Corporation. He is a former research fellow in the Fanning Center for Business Communication, Mendoza College of Business, University of Notre Dame.