The cover story of the current issue of BusinessWeek sums it up well: “Blogs Will Change Your Business.”
Reading through the article, the one quote that resonated (and continues to do so) was this one: “Your customers and rivals are figuring blogs out. Our advice: Catch up…or catch you later.” It definitely feels like we’re at the inflection point; about to hit Geoffrey Moore’s chasm with respect to business blogging.
A couple of interesting tidbits:
Tidbit 1 – BW has launched blogspotting.net, their own actual, honest-to-goodness blog to cover the emerging area of blogs and business. To Heather, Steve, and the rest of the BW team…nice job!
Tidbit 2 – They also did a nice job pulling together a quick list of things to consider when launching a business blogging initiative. (Unfortunately, BW buried the link in a place requiring serious excavation in order to find it.) The highlights:
- Train Your Bloggers
- Be Careful with Fake Blogs
- Track Blogs
- PR Truly Means Public Relations
- Be Transparent
- Rethink Your Corporate Secrets
Boilers are stoked. Pressure is right. It’s time for this train to leave the station.
Although the quote noted above is spot on, the customer angle, and the “how are people really addressing business blogging” aspects were glossed over a bit in the article. (However, considering the article’s breadth, that’s understandable.) That being said, still would have like to have seen more case studies, and more examples of the different ways organizations are using blogs to connect with customers.
I read your cover story with great interest but I think your print readers deserved some additional information.
1. Blogging is fraught with both societal and legal issues.
It is one thing to read a BW article and be confident it is researched, well thought out, checked by others, etc. But Blogs could be a bunch of made up nonsense and people thinkg it is the truth. You would be surprised how many people believe things because it is in print or online.
Blogs will get so pervasive, one will not know how to sift through all the crap, just like with search engines.
2. Legal issues are many. BW and other news organizations have lawyers reviewing things for libel.
Can a blogger write defamatory things and get away with it? What if a blogger damns a product and makes up stories about how bad it is? Is that blogger going to be responsible.
I think Apple was write going after the blogger about its trade secrets. They are trade secrets and we have laws protecting them.
3. Finally, RSS and Blogs are really just extensions of the origina “push” technolghy and Message Boards. Just a little more elegant and quick. It is not something “new.”