You Can’t Ignore the Blog

How companies can manage and benefit from this meteoric trend

by Markus Hilse, European Director Products & Services

There is no question that the blogosphere is a rising meteorite that companies around the world need to recognise and plan for. Over the past three years, Blogs -- short for personal Web logs -- have demonstratively influenced politics, social trends and corporate reputations. Over 70,000 new blogs appear in the World Wide Web(1) each day and analysts predict that by the end of 2006 there will be roughly 40 million worldwide(2).

Commenting on the growing popularity of the blogosphere, Markus Hilse, European Director of Products and Services for Pleon, sees blogs as an important extension of existing corporate communications plans. “More than 50 percent of our clients have -- or are working on -- state-of-the-art blogging scenarios. If implemented correctly, blogs can be a surprisingly cost-effective and meaningful way to communicate.”

Unfortunately, many corporations think of blogs as synonymous with crisis management thanks to a few high-profile cases such as the Kryptonite bicycle U-locks scandal. A consumer claim that the expensive locks could be easily opened with a ballpoint pen was fuelled for weeks by blogs -- some of which even posted home videos showing exactly how to do it – before Kryptonite became aware of the problem.

Hilse believes that international companies would do well to take the blogging trend seriously and incorporate it into their European communications toolbox, not just because of the crisis management implications but also for the tremendous opportunity it presents for building more personal relationships with the 49 percent of Europeans who are already on the Internet.(3)

There are already several tools and search engines that can aid in the monitoring of blogs. The challenge for many organizations is allocating and training the resources needed to monitor and manage a blogging forum within an existing communications infrastructure.

“What really scares people is that there are no rules; suddenly an idea or a story can just pop up and grow exponentially. It’s a learning system,” continues Hilse. “Clients initially get excited about the prospect of blogging only to be overwhelmed by the task of managing and maintaining them in multiple languages and multiple countries.”

So what is the solution?

Hilse recommends that whenever a company decides to create, monitor or respond via a blog, it should be done in-line with an overall communications strategy and should consider five key points:

1) Understand the global context

Nearly one in three Internet users in the US read blogs daily. As with any information posted to the Internet, blog content is timely and instantly global thanks in part to the proliferation of English. It’s estimated that 62 percent of the new blogs created this year will come from outside of the United States. Germany alone has an estimated 100,000 bloggers and significant growth in other countries is anticipated. While keeping track of a company’s reputation in the blogosphere can pose a huge challenge for international organisations with limited local communications resources, the transparent nature of the blog is ideal for getting close to people to gain a broader understanding of what they think.

2) Consider the audience

In Europe, the majority of bloggers are under 30 years of age. They are students, trainees, self-employed persons, or "power" internet users.(4) A company-sponsored Weblog can be a cost-effective tool for reaching this audience and soliciting consumer feedback or as a forum for presenting an organisation’s position on an issue or trend. A blog is not, however, a good place to attempt to influence your shareholders and needs to be carefully managed for information that could be considered “material” to a company’s financial strategy.

3) Monitor for crisis prevention

Companies must keep an eye on the most important blogs and can only take action if they are aware of what is happening on the Net. Quantitative and qualitative blog search engines now exist to make monitoring easier but monitoring alone is not enough. In the case of a crisis or inaccuracy, a company should react as soon as an issue is discussed in the blogosphere. Organisations are naturally entitled to comment on relevant blogs, but not under false pretences. The overriding rule of honesty is a foundation for blogging and applies to companies as well as the community. For some companies it would make sense to integrate relevant bloggers into their public relations work and to establish personal contact with them.

4) Create blog guidelines

Although it is a new medium and open to experimentation, company-sponsored blogs need to fit within an organisation’s brand identity and communications culture. Establishing clear guidelines and policies give employees a road-map to responsibly use blogs to greater effect. Questions to consider include: Is there a published blog policy? Are co-workers and activists aware of it? Whose job is it to monitor blog communities and how is it being reported? Is there a strategy for responding to negative comments in blogs? Do leaders have the capacity to communicate in blogs? Is there a willingness to engage in an open dialog with the public about an issue?

5) Embrace advice

While it is fairly straight forward to monitor blogs, it is very difficult to identify the moment where an issue, idea or trend will take off. Many companies find this is an area where external counsel can be invaluable for bringing an outside perspective to an issue that may seem trivial. Blogs can also be a painfully honest mirror of social and political views. Treat a blog as you would any other highly strategic and important medium in your communications portfolio, review content regularly and include it as part of regular management discussions.

“Blogs are just the beginning of a new company-to-person dialogue where podcasting, mobile phones and direct TV will create unimagined outcomes,” concludes Hilse. “Blogs can be the catalyst for re-shaping communications to be a more innovative and responsive way to build authentic relationships with desired audiences.”

Notes:

1. Sifry, Dave: State of the Bogsphere, www.technorati.com, Febr. 2006

2. v. Randow, Gero: Es bloggen die Blogger im rauschendem Netz in: Die Zeit dated 09.03.2006

3. Schneller, Johannes/Faehling, Gerhard, Trends in der Internetnutzung und Entwicklung in den Online-Medien, www.acta-online.de , 2005

4. Fittkau & Maas, W3B-Studie, www.w3b.de, autumn 2005

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