DotNeil.com

This time last month I received an RSS feed through from Scott Karp’s ‘Publishing 2.0‘ on the topic of coporate blogging. Unfortunately I’ve only just got round to pulling this post from my ‘to read’ list - but as a new blogger and fledgling Web consultant, the question of ‘to blog, or not to blog’ is one that I have a great interest in. Scott managed to split the decision two ways; if you’re a Web startup - yes. If you’re a big company - no. And there’s so much in between.

In the following weeks I will be undertaking what’s probably best described as a ‘Web opportunity analysis’ for a business. The company in question is certainly no less advanced in it’s Web technology adoption that any other UK company of it’s ilk, at least from my relatively short corporate experience (how much experience can you expect a twenty-two year old, final-year undergraduate to have?!). The company just wants to ensure they are at the very least investigating all potential business avenues. And as a medium with over 50 million participants, the blogosphere needs considering.

I intend to answer the following questions;

• Is anyone blogging within this particular sector? If so -
• Can the company gain industry intelligence through monitoring the right blogs and the communities surrounding them?
• Should the company itself engage in blogging?

The company operates internationally and has 50+ employees, which means the third question brings me back to the issue of corporate blogging. Although I expect to provide an answer to the company at the end of the short analysis period, this really is a question that will take much longer to answer, at least from a financial position. I know I will find blogs within their business sector. I know there will be online exclusive communities surrounding these blogs. And I honestly believe there will be many business opportunities through these communities. But it’s a matter of justifying them now with tangible financial returns. That won’t be easy to do.

I will, however, find it easy to justify the following. A company that can blog, and can blog the right information, will be in a much better long-term position than a company with the same financial and market position, but which doesn’t have the same blogging awareness and experience. Blogs aren’t going anywhere, and social networks aren’t slowing down, and they’re both justified communication channels. In the long run, the blogging company is building an extra communication channel for it’s products & services, and if the blogger’s are active, they’re bringing attention to their company brand much more frequently than the company which just has a website and a quarterely email newsletter.

It doesn’t matter if the company is big or small, they all have to communicate with customers to create sales. But which company is more likely to gain the business when the opportunity arises; the company that communicates their brand to you through targeted daily/weekly RSS feeds which you (or someone near to you) has chosen to receive, or the company that makes a quiet (and probably unnoticed) Web site update every 3 months?