As much as it pains me to agree with Jeff Nolan on his post about corporate blogging
here,
I have to say that annecdotally I do not see an immediate tipping point
for corporate blogging. From my vantage point, I see at least a couple
of other factors contributing to the sad state:
- There are very few "skilled" bloggers in any position of authority within a corporation
- Despite the grassroots nature of blogging, people still need role
models for corporate blogging. Unless a company is actively supporting
blogging, there is a (tremendous) amount of baggage that blogging
(whether right) carries with it in a professional setting.
- Academic arguments on risk management are nice, but some
corporations need to gain extra comfort level with their abilities to
handle actual blog crises (or at least criticism in the blogosphere)
- Ask yourself, who in your organization is a role model for handling
this kind of stuff? Have they proven that they can take the heat (of
any temperature) in the blog environment or is it just conceptual? I'd
be surprised if people could name three people (off the tops of their
heads) in their companies that could "handle" the blogosphere. Again
whether right, I see it as a barrier to corporate blogging.
The environment and culture surrounding blogging sets the tone
within a corporation (case in point: Malcolm Gladwell's portrayal of
how crime in New York was reduced by eliminating graffiti and the
visible signs of vandalism).
One area that I am sensing positive feedback in the corporate
environment is around serious use of blog reading. Perhaps it is
because people can digest larger amounts of information in blog format
as opposed to reading traditional new sources. Perhaps it is because
they can glean leads and subtle insights from reading blogs. Or perhaps
it is related to the richer link content in blogs.
So if companies are not ready to encourage corporate blog writing by
actively seeking, reaching out to, and elevating the exposure of
skilled bloggers in their own organizations, I would suggest that they
support blog reading (and blog intranets as sandboxes at least). The
ROI on gaining industry knowledge from blog reading strikes close to
very immediately. I think that some managers are surprised by how much
their workers' level of knowledge comes up when they are encouraged to
read quality blogs, like Om Malik, Daily Wireless, and Mark Evans (to pick a few from the telecom space).
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