The corporate world saw the potential of blogging early on and soon found that the corporate blog, if used properly could be a very effective management tool, both inside and outside the organization. The corporate blog is of two types – the internal and the external blog. The internal corporate blog has taken the place of the old memo and office circular as a way of keeping the employees informed about developments in the company.
In the case of the external corporate blog, blogging is done to communicate with all external stakeholders, including customers, and through the act of keeping them informed of new developments and inviting their feed back, making them feel a part of the organizations – a loyalty that can translate into additional profits.
While the corporate blog is a powerful tool, many companies do not use it properly because they do not understand its potential and have stated their blogs only so that they are not looked upon as being out of date. These companies create blogs with no long term aim or focus, either for the employee or the external stakeholder and because of this, the result is often the reverse of what they expect it to be.
A blog that has no discernible purpose will create the impression among the readers that those who publish it – the company’s management – also have of clear purpose. And since a blog is an interactive medium – readers should be able to post their comments on what they have read so that readers can share their opinions and experiences – not providing material that stimulates the interaction will leave the corporate blog limp and lifeless.
However, if done in the right way, an internal corporate blog can foster a huge amount of employee involvement and loyalty by giving them a forum to express themselves in front of the rest of the organization. Giving employees current up to date information in the corporate blog will allow the management to collect valuable employees feedback on various issues in an informal manner and modify their policies accordingly, it needed.
In the case of the external corporate blog, by presenting issues and aspects of the business that will be of interest to the externals stakeholder, the company will be able to obtain valuable feedback on a variety of subjects at almost no cost.
The blogs will also allow the external reader to feel he has a direct communications link to the management of the company through which he can respond to what the company is saying and express his opinions – something that will once again build loyalty since people do not respond to the opinions of those for whom they have no regard.



