Collaborative Communication in Contemporary Organizations: "To Blog or Not to Blog?" The pros and cons of using a company blog

Everyone who’s anyone is blogging. Authors, executives, politicians, computer geeks in their mothers’ basements, the list goes on. They have spawned an entire industry; hundreds of books, conferences, companies, and groups discuss, monitor, host, and develop blogs. People all over the world get paid to follow and write for them. Blogs are devoted to everything from Dilbert and the Dallas Mavericks to grammar and Rosie O’Donnell. A google search of the word “blog” yields over 1 billion hits. Canadian Idol even provides blogs to all potential contestants.

This new verb (blogging) is not just being put into action by individuals, but also companies. In fact, some of the largest companies in North America are jumping on the “blog-wagon”, including McDonalds, GM, Sun Microsystems, Hill & Knowlton, not to mention Canadian institutions such as Roots and the CBC. It’s catching on in Atlantic Canada as well; Sobeys has incorporated a blog into its intranet, and Tradewinds Realty, based on the south shore of Nova Scotia, has a blog discussing Nova Scotia real estate. Organizations of many sizes and scopes all over the country are getting involved in this new media trend.

Blogs, wikis and other similar Web 2.0 technologies are becoming a regular part of the business communications mix.Why are so many companies joining the “blog universe”? The fact is we live in a world driven more and more by technology and companies need to come up with new ways to communicate messages and meet their goals. According to Stephen Baker in Business Week, there are some 40,000 new blogs showing up every day. Companies cannot afford to ignore the fact that more and more of their employees and customers are online sharing their opinions, positively negative, about business practices and their corporate environment.

Technorati, the leading blog search engine, states that the number of active blogs has tripled in the last year alone to over 27 million.In today’s competitive market, companies have to constantly keep up to date on the latest trends and technologies, not to mention stay in touch with what their customers and employees are saying. No one can deny the influence of blogs on collaborative communication in contemporary organizations. Blogs are slowly are “democratizing” the workplace and replacing static and complicated intranet systems and other internal communication tools.

In this technologically driven society, the older print and face to face communication tools are simply losing popularity.As Dan James from the PEI web-based company, SilverOrange, says, “Companies don’t blog, people do”. There is a difference between having a blog within your company acting as a communication vehicle for employees and a company employee taking it upon themselves to blog privately on their own time. However, there are pros and cons to associating a blog with your company, whether it’s used as a regulated employee communication tool or not.

On the pro side, blogs are extremely cheap and simple to set up. They only take a few minutes to set up and there are hundreds of hosts online to take advantage of. They’re ready to use almost instantly. Blogs are very easy to update and provide tremendous freedom. In most cases, there are no tight restrictions controlling the content, length or subject of entries and many people can contribute to discussions. Communicating this way is very easy and desirable to many modern employees. The content is raw and real, qualities which are often more encouraged online than in face to face interaction. As Frank Gilbane states in InfoWorld, blogs provide “direct interaction with readers…people don’t want to interact with press releases, and if they don’t feel the content is real, they’ll simply stop reading”.

In his book, “Naked Conversations: How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers”, Robert Scoble says that the general public, “don’t trust big companies… there’s a general perception that large companies are run by slick lawyers and book-fixing accountants who oversee armies of obedient, drone-like employees. Companies are perceived as monoliths without souls. In short, we see no humanity”. By posting company information and internal goings-on in a blog, a company could be seen as having more of this “humanity” and “soul”. This could possibly improve the company’s position in the minds of their publics. Transparency, or at least the appearance of it, is the key for today’s corporations. Microsoft has greatly improved its image over the last few years, and according to Scoble, this is partly because of their decision to allow their employees to “show a human face by blogging”. Rich Marcello, senior VP at Hewlett-Packard, says that his blog is a way to promote a new style of management, one that ultimately creates better relationships between employees and senior management.

Creating a sense of openness is one of the most important things a company blog can do, because “people don’t want (senior executives) sitting in an ivory tower”.As with any type of technological communication, messages posted on blogs can be sent and received much faster by much larger groups of people. The format of most blogs allows for quick updates and easy access to information and this is beneficial for both the audience and the company. A company can avoid a lot of criticism from the media and publics by getting its messages out quickly. Employees, customers, and investors can learn about organizational changes almost instantly. Not only that, but blogs can provide the opportunity for these groups to give feedback and commentary on these changes, feedback which often goes to senior executives via a much more direct channel. Employees gain a greater sense of trust for company executives, and a more positive affiliation with the company knowing that their opinions are valued and that they can have an influence on organizational decision-making.

With all the advantages of using a company blog as part of internal communications, there are many disadvantages and ethical concerns associated with this still fairly new technology. Probably one of the biggest problems is that once a company opens itself up to the honest opinions and comments of its employees and customers, these sometimes negative musings are difficult to ignore. A company must be willing to change according to suggestions from these groups, and they may not like what they hear. Eli Singer, of Cundari SFP Social Media in Toronto, says that starting a business blog “can be compared to opening Pandora’s Box…the truths learned may uncomfortably challenge operating assumptions and practices. A company may learn how out of sync it is…and may have to make some painful changes”.

Another very serious problem that companies should consider is the regulation and editing of content, or lack thereof. Many companies struggle to balance giving employees creative freedom with postings to encourage the most open communication possible, with controlling what information is being put out there about their business. It is extremely hard to strike this balance, and sometimes to regulate what is written on any given blog. Employees are people, and sometimes people do irresponsible things without thinking. There is always a possibility that a disgruntled employee will blog about the inadequacies of management or even spill internal secrets or financial information that could ruin a company if released publicly. There isn’t much that can be done to stop them, and your company may not be able to recover in the aftermath of a negative information leak.

David Meerman Scott, an American content marketing consultant, uses this metaphor to describe the issue: “Blogs….are like chewing gum in your hair – they’re easy to get into an enterprise, but impossible to remove without some ill-fated hair pulling”. According to Scott, information posted on blogs could lead to lawsuits against companies charging libel, copyright infringement or trademark violations. Dennis Kennedy, a St. Louis lawyer specializing in technology points out that, “companies often…treat emerging Web 2.0 technologies like ‘isolated new phenomena’ that aren't directly tied to corporate operations” and that these companies “need to look at what employees are doing ... in the context of (their) communications policy”.

Even though blogs are easy and cheap to set up, they can take a lot of time and effort to maintain and require the support of all employees. Singer says that company blogs require “strategic thinking about how your brand lives and communicates your value in the blogosphere…the quality of the voice (is important)…this demands both skill and elbow grease”. Tim Bray of Sun Microsystems has laid out a corporate blogging policy for all employees that could be useful for other executives to follow when setting up employee blogs. He suggests, “"It's perfectly OK to talk about your work and have a dialog with the community, but it's not OK to publish the recipe for one of our secret sauces....talking about revenue, future product ship dates, road maps, or our share price is apt to get you, or the company, or both, into legal trouble.... using your Weblog to trash or embarrass the company, our customers, or your co-workers is not only dangerous but stupid.”Blogs can be a very useful tool if they are implemented correctly and not abused by members of your company.

Suggestions come from every corner of the industry about how to implement a successful business blog. In “The Enterprise Blogosphere”, Michelle Delio offers hints such as encouraging honest and open voices, outlining what information employees can and can’t post (similar to Tim Bray’s guidelines just mentioned) and supporting successful blogs. Many industry insiders emphasize the importance of senior executives getting involved in the blog movement. Some of the largest company blogs are headed up by senior executives, such as GM and McDonalds. If there is opportunity for employees and customers to provide feedback on an executive blog, it is important that employee’s feel reassured their postings are going to be read and addressed. This is also important for employees doing the blogging about the company themselves; otherwise the whole idea behind the blog page could be lost. It could be useful for company executives to hire or delegate blog updating to one employee, or group of employees, to ensure organization and consistency.

Unfortunately, much of the business world in Atlantic Canada is lagging behind other areas of the country in the race to join the blogosphere. However, more and more large companies are realizing the usefulness of this tool in their internal communication strategies. As the business world in this region expands and continues to attract innovative minds, I think we will only see this tool grow more popular with Atlantic Canadian executives in the future.There are pros and cons to having an employee blog, but the fact is that information is power. Companies everywhere today cannot afford to ignore the blog phenomenon, or others like it, if they wish to expand, keep up with competitors, and maintain positive relationships with their customers and investors. Good or bad, blogs aren’t going anywhere.

Stephen Baker and Heather Green explain it best in “Blogs will change your business” with the following description: “Go ahead and bellyache about blogs. But you cannot afford to close your eyes to them; because they're simply the most explosive outbreak in the information world since the Internet itself…they're going to shake up just about every business -- including yours. It doesn't matter whether you're shipping paper clips, pork bellies, or videos of Britney in a bikini, blogs are a phenomenon that you cannot ignore, postpone, or delegate. Given the changes barreling down upon us, blogs are not a business elective. They're a prerequisite.”