So what will it take for the Fortune 500 to adopt blogging?
David Kline, co-author of one of the handful of books published thus far on blogging (Blog! How the Newest Media Revolution Is Changing Politics, Business and Culture) just emailed to say he's working on an article about what's holding the F500 back from blogging and what it will take for blogging to go mainstream. He asked for my thoughts and I responded:
Fear & blogging on the blogosphere Long Tail
(with apologies to Hunter S. Thompson)
Fear is the single most important thing holding corporate America back from embracing blogging. Fear of being open, fear of a two-way conversation, fear of controlling the message, fear of the time commitment. Just makes sense. If you put blogging in the basket of corporate communications it runs absolutely antithetical to so-called current best practices.
So what will make this change? Again, fear. Fear of not embracing the new media technologies which so many consumers are now adopting, whether it's a video iPod or a blog. Fear of not being where your customers are. Which, increasingly, is online.
Well, that's my thought for the day. Now back to cleaning up the mess on my desk...
I think fear is a consideration against F500 companies blogging, but more so, I believe it's lack of understanding how to use and integrate blogging into the corporate communications armament and not being convinced of an ROI that mostly hinders the use of blogs.
If it were clear blogging would increase their market share, improve their image, increase their stock price, or give them a competitive advantage, I’m confident more F500 companies would blog and find a way to deal with any fears they have.
The fear they have may be they see the downside, but don’t buy into the upside…today.
Food for thought.
Posted by: Jim Logan | January 20, 2006 at 10:46 AM
Why? Big companies are big targets. As a result, they must to deal with much higher level of scrutiny (Sarbanes-Oxley, SEC disclosures, etc.) and thus, blogs are simply another risk to manage. Can you imagine having your corporate counsel review each draft (for compliance) before you post it online?
That's the reality. So for now, blogs will not bode well for the Fortune 500 crowd.
As more big companies join the blogosphere, they will need to balance the risk of authentic communication - just like a circus performer would delicately balance on a high wire - without a safety net.
Smaller companies on the other hand are not as constrained by formality, hierarchies and scrutiny. This naturally allows them to be more nimble - they can make their size to an advantage.
Posted by: Brian Carroll | January 25, 2006 at 04:22 PM
A few months ago, I set-up a Wordpress blog on my site (http://www.thecrmcoach.com/blog)...that was the technical part...easy enough.
However, getting into blogging itself has been a very different matter. First, there were all the new words I had to learn (and still am)...blogosphere, blog roll, syndication, RSS feed, trackback, ping...not to mention other words like: deliscious, feedburner, technorati and the like.
Every 5 years or so I find myself behind the times with technology...this from a guy who makes a living in technology. Each time, I find myself spending a month or so doing a whole brain immersion into the new technology.
With blogging, I'm just starting to get the hand of it, to get hip with it. (do "they" still say "hip"?) It was a matter of modelling my young children who just dive in to the new and start doing...
I started doing and dots started connecting and all of a sudden there's a whole new web of know-how somewhere in my brain...
So...how soon will the Fortune 500 CEOs just dive in and start doing? (I suppose that means rolling up of sleeves)
Posted by: Scott Gingrich | February 01, 2006 at 11:21 PM
I agree with you, Debbie. Fear is what's keeping many Fortune 500 companies from staking a rightful -- and long overdue -- claim in the blogosphere. Inspired by your post (above) on "Fear & blogging on the blogosphere Long Tail," I just wrote something myself about this very same topic, a parable about a CEO whose board forced him to choose between getting fired and publishing a blog. Check it out when you have a free moment -- I put it up on my blog just yesterday. Thanks.
Posted by: Bob Cargill | February 10, 2006 at 04:28 PM