Angry Bloggers Attack: How Do You Respond?

When bloggers attack, we, as trained communication experts, must be ready to respond, and must recognize bloggers as a new wave of reporters. Many are key influencers who can rally a community against you. Working with bloggers and responding quickly builds rapport and relationship. And gets you the bigger story—maybe even a more balanced story.

Miller, Roy G. Communication World Bulletin (2006). Articles>Business Communication>Public Relations>Blogging

Bloggers' Alert: Confidentiality and Disclosure in the Workplace

First it was e-mail messages, next it was PDA messaging, and now it is blogs. These networking tools are all widely used by employees. They also sometimes become a source of contentious litigation when employers become concerned over the risk of corporate liability and public disclosure of confidential information that these new technologies pose.

Siegel, Ariane. Communication World Bulletin (2005). Articles>Business Communication>Privacy>Blogging

Blogging and Corporate America: How Weblogs Can Enhance the Marketplace and Foster Intellectual Capital

In a broad sense that the weblog can be beneficial to the business world as a whole. More specifically, however, it provides technical communicators with unprecedented opportunites at innovation and leadership.

Danielson, Joe. Orange Journal, The (2005). Articles>Business Communication>Online>Blogging

Blogs: The Fast Track to Getting Global Awareness

“We need to get global awareness fast,” says your CEO. “Make it happen.” When faced with the need to rapidly increase your organization’s visibility around the world, there are some daunting and expensive challenges, particularly if your company does not have a local presence in the countries it is targeting. Hiring local public relations and marketing communication talent, translating collateral into local languages and identifying and getting into both formal and informal business networks are just a few of these challenges.

Albrycht, Elizabeth. Communication World Bulletin (2005). Articles>Business Communication>Marketing>Blogging

Blogs: Viral, Targeted, Fast, Informative--And Becoming Critical

The world of blogging, also known as the blogosphere, is wild, highly viral, uncensored and unedited. It is also the newest and most critical tool in a business communicator's toolbox. Why? Because with blogs, communicators can quickly, regularly and easily deliver a variety of information to a highly targeted audience. A good blog will create a more personal relationship with customers and influencers by showing that the company is listening and responding to what they have to say.

Cohen, Ephraim. Communication World Bulletin (2005). Articles>Business Communication>Online>Blogging

Corporate Blogging and the Technical Writer  

Corporate blogging is rapidly becoming another way for companies to communicate with their customers and increase internal communication. Learn about the advantages and future of blogging and how to get started.

Johnson, Tom H. Intercom (2006). Articles>Business Communication>Writing>Blogging

The Digital Debate: Should CEOs Blog?

A debate continues to rage about how important and influential media such as blogs, podcasts and social networking sites really are. At the heart of this debate is the question, Is the blogosphere really an appropriate place for executives and others in positions of power who have everything to lose?

Cody, Steve. Communication World Bulletin (2007). Articles>Management>Business Communication>Blogging

Edelman's Perfect (Blog) Storm

In early March, The New York Times ran a story with the headline "Wal-Mart enlists bloggers in PR campaign." While the story itself is of interest as an example of how some PR agencies increasingly see blogs as legitimate communication channels, it is of greater interest to look at what the Edelman PR agency did in this specific case acting on behalf of their client—what went right and, more important, what didn't.

Hobson, Neville. Communication World Bulletin (2006). Articles>Business Communication>Blogging>Case Studies

General Motors vs. The New York Times: A Case Study in Effective Blogging

For all the talk about corporate blogs, there still seems to be considerable debate about their value. As of early June, though, those questions should have been put to rest. General Motors illustrated just one of the benefits of blogs—bypassing the media and taking your message directly to the public—in its response to a column that appeared in The New York Times.

Holtz, Shel. Communication World Bulletin (2006). Articles>Business Communication>Public Relations>Blogging

Internal Blogging and the Rules of Disclosure: An IR-Reconciliable Difference?

We are hearing and reading a lot these days about the new age of transparency, in which organizations must go beyond traditional, tightly controlled communication and engage in a "naked conversation" with their customers, communities, employees and other stakeholders.

Shewchuk, Ron. Communication World Bulletin (2006). Articles>Business Communication>Workplace>Blogging

Lessons Learned in the Corporate Blogosphere

As the publisher of CEO Blog Watch, I pay close attention the evolution of corporate communication, especially as it pertains to blogging. In fact, the mission of CEO Blog Watch is to chronicle the continued rise of corporate and CEO blogs. As someone who monitors CEO blogging, I can tell you that the most commonly asked question on the subject is, "Should a CEO blog?" Here's my take on the subject.

Cornett, Brandon. Communication World Bulletin (2007). Articles>Business Communication>Management>Blogging

Should Businesses Embrace the Blogging Phenomenon?

When news reports announced that Apple Computer was suing unnamed individuals (presumed to be employees) who had allegedly leaked information about a prototype Apple product to several blog news sites, it raised a number of questions. What does the lawsuit mean for freedom of expression and the role of journalists who serve an information-hungry audience? How will the courts balance the fundamental right of freedom of expression against a company's claims that trade secrets have been violated on a blog?

Blackshaw, Pete. Communication World Bulletin (2005). Articles>Web Design>Business Communication>Blogging

Unbundling the Blog

Whether you're grappling with how to reach out to bloggers discussing your industry or contemplating creating a corporate blog, it's vital for you as a communicator to understand what's being said about your company in cyberspace—and how to play an active role in the dialog.

Taylor, Helen. Communication World Bulletin (2006). Articles>Business Communication>Public Relations>Blogging

What Are the Bloggers Saying About You? Practical Tips for Communicators

The influence of bloggers and their readers has erupted into campaigns that have affected large, well-known companies and brands—Wal-Mart, Kryptonite Locks, Land Rover, Sony. Smaller firms could suffer even more, like the New York camera retailer that went out of business. Don't let this happen to your organization.

Papacosta, Donna. Communication World Bulletin (2006). Articles>Business Communication>Public Relations>Blogging

Wikis, Blogs and Other Community Tools in the Enterprise

Wikis and Web logs (blogs) make a big impact on the Web, but they can also be useful in an enterprise. A community is a group of people with common interests, goals, or responsibilities, such as a project team or an interest group. Combine wikis and blogs with existing collaborative tools to enhance the productivity and effectiveness of enterprise teams.

Farrell, Joel A. IBM (2006). Articles>Writing>Business Communication>Blogging

Corporate Blogs: Minefield or Bonanza?

Blogs are the lifeblood of the "social internet" and with around 60 million blogs currently in existence they provide a large proportion of the content available online. This gives them huge potential as a tool for companies to engage with an audience in a way that hasn't really been possible before, but very few businesses seem to be taking advantage of the phenomenon. Why is that?

Oxer, Jonathan. Internet Vision Technologies (2007). Articles>Business Communication>Blogging

Corporate Blogs: Measure Their Value!

To date, ROI hasn't been applied to blogs. This is partly due to blogging recent introduction to the marketing mix. Many blogging experts have suggested calculating a blog ROI is impossible. As a professor, I teach students how to tie marketing to the bottom line. Calculating ROI for a blog should be no harder than calculating it for other marketing components. To place ROI measurements in context, you must first understand how blogs fulfill different business objectives.

Cohen, Heidi. ClickZ (2005). Articles>Business Communication>Blogging>Assessment

Blogging for Business, Marketing Via the Internet

Unlike corporate websites, b-blogs are cheap to launch and easy to maintain, thanks to powerful, easy-to-use tools. Unlike spam, or junk e-mail, b-blogs aren't intrusive; users must click to them. Done well, b-blogs provide a fast, informal way to share information -- project updates, research or test results, product-release news, industry headlines -- inside and outside your company.

Stuart, Anne. Inc. Magazine (2003). Articles>Business Communication>Blogging>Marketing

Sun Guidelines on Public Discourse

Sun Microsystems' policies about employee blogging: "You are encouraged to tell the world about your work, without asking permission first, but we expect you to read and follow the advice in this note."

Sun Microsystems (2008). Articles>Business Communication>Blogging>Policies and Procedures

Corporate Blogging Policies

I wrote in a recent report, that companies should have a blogging policy to provide guidelines for employees who want to have blogs. This primarily relates to employee's personal blogs and lays out the guidelines of what the company expects. As expected, policies will vary greatly depending on company circumstance. Here are a few examples and also, my variation.

Li, Charlene. Socialtext (2006). Articles>Business Communication>Blogging>Policies and Procedures

Fifteen Companies That Really Get Corporate Blogging

Below is a list of 15 companies that really get corporate blogging and produce blogs that are informative, fascinating, and a joy to read even for people who aren’t die-hard fans of the company.

Catone, Josh. SitePoint (2008). Articles>Business Communication>Blogging>Case Studies

Nobody Wants to Read a Stupid Blog

Maybe your business isn’t a massage clinic, but you are probably as passionate about the heart of your business as my client is about hers. I’m not talking about what you do. I’m talking about your business being an extension of who you are. For your business, I believe a blog is the answer. But not a stupid blog.

Chung, Tony. Duo Consulting (2008). Articles>Business Communication>Blogging>Rhetoric

Business Blogs: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

How should we evaluate the corporate blogs that do exist? Laura and I have come up with this list of criteria that we think the best corporate blogs should have. This might change as we start working through the list as we, like you, may learn a few things about what can and should be done with corporate blogs.

Fuller, Liz. Business and Blogging (2008). Articles>Business Communication>Blogging

Using Twitter, 'The Smart Way'

Twitter is now a must-have tool if you're publishing content, undertaking online marketing, or looking to keep up with the latest trends in anything web related.

SubHub (2008). Articles>Business Communication>Blogging>Social Networking

Don't Waste Money On A Business Blog

Don't waste your money on a business blog (unless search engine marketing is an important piece of your overall marketing efforts and you're going to invest the time and effort into making it work).

Jehring, Ben. SmallBox (2009). Articles>Web Design>Business Communication>Blogging