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Resources: BusinessBlogging

• CEO Blog Problems and Solutions [http://blogthenticity.com/2005/04/01/ceo-blog-errors-and-solutions/] - Paul Woodhouse, BLOGthenticity, April 1, 2005
  • In the course of perusing current CEO blogs, I noticed some recurring errors, problems, and deficiencies. Let’s consider these flaws and how they can be fixed.
• Companies count on blogs to cut cost of Web [http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/newse/20050326woc2.htm], Saori Kan, Daily Yomiuri, March 26, 2005
  • Examples of Japanese companies using weblogs
• More PR Than No-Holds-Barred On Bosses' Corporate Blogs [http://msnbc.msn.com/id/7235259/] - Amy Joyce, Washington Post, March 19, 2005; Page A01
  • "Since blogs became the next big thing, an increasing number of companies have come to see them as the next great public relations vehicle -- a way for executives to demonstrate their casual, interactive side. But, of course, the executives do nothing of the sort. Their attempts at hip, guerrilla-style blogging are often pained -- and painful."
• Sun Microsystems: Blog Heaven [http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/05/04/issue/brief_sun.asp?p=1] - Wade Roush, MIT Technology Review, April 2005
  • "Over the past year or two, a new kind of web-log has emerged: the employee blog. Maintained on company servers and open to the public, these blogs are used by many high-tech workers for debate, free association, and collecting input about projects."
• A Motor City Marketing Lesson [http://www.business2.com/b2/web/articles/0,17863,1036826,00.html] - Thomas Mucha, Business 2.0, March 10, 2005
  • "It's hard not to admire a corporate blog that can spark that kind of passion. Fast Lane works because GM has found the right public voice. Lutz is an auto-industry rock star who, over a 42-year career, has held senior executive positions with GM, Ford, and Chrysler. The man can talk the talk because he's a real car guy, not a bean counter from GM's all-powerful finance department, where it grooms top execs."
• Tell Me About It: How Business Blogs Work for You [http://www.smallbusinesscomputing.com/emarketing/article.php/3488666] - Michelle Megna, SmallBusinessComputing.com, March 9, 2005
  • "Small business owners can use the same inexpensive, low-maintenance technology to market their companies — with no HTML coding required. By creating a blog, you can boost buzz for your brand in ways advertising can't, and do it for as little as $15 a month."
• Look Who's Blogging [http://www.informationweek.com/shared/printableArticle.jhtml?articleID=60405714] - Jim Nash, InformationWeek, March 7, 2005
  • "How five executives got blog religion and are using it to their professional and personal advantage." Profiled in the article: Phil Windley (former CIO of Utah), Michael Pusateri (VP of engineering, Disney ABC Cable Networks Group), Grady Booch (chief scientist, IBM Rational), Michael Hyatt (president and CEO, Thomas Nelson Inc.), and Alan Meckler (CEO, Jupitermedia Corp.).
• How Many Fortune 500’s Blogging? [http://www.ensight.org/archives/2005/03/07/how-many-fortune-500s-blogging/] - Jeremy Wright, Ensight, March 7, 2005
• Blogs Keep Internet Customers Coming Back [http://online.wsj.com/public/article_print/0,,SB110963746474866537,00.html] - Riva Richmond, The Wall Street Journal, March 1, 2005; Page B8
  • "Small firms find tool useful for recognition, connecting with buyers"
• Venture Capital: Startup tags along as weblogs go corporate [http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/venture/212583_vc18.html], John Cook, Seattke Post-Intelligencer, February 18, 2005
  • Anil Dash, vice president of the professional network at Six Apart, estimates that his company's business blogs have grown by as much as 500 percent in the past 18 months. "It goes all the way from the Fortune 500 companies that are doing their first real approachable conversations this way, all the way to small companies that are legitimizing themselves by being able to talk about what they are doing," Dash said.
• Creative Marketing Destruction: Add Water and Blog [http://www.clickz.com/experts/brand/cmo/article.php/3482671], Pete Blackshaw, ClickZ, February 15, 2005
  • Traditional agencies will make a play for interactive.
  • PR firms will find a new voice.
  • Webmasters and IT managers will move corporate blogs forward.
  • Blogs will "nip" at consumer affairs.
• The Rise of Business Blogging [http://www.micropersuasion.com/2005/01/the_rise_of_bus.html], Steve Rubel, The Advertiser, January 31, 2005
  • Before you jump into the blogosphere, here are some initial steps to take.
• Measuring Blog Marketing [http://www.clickz.com/features/insight/article.php/3458271] (second part [http://www.clickz.com/features/insight/article.php/3460841]), Zachary Rodgers, ClickZ Insights, January 12 and 18, 2005

2004

• HP Quietly Begins Blogging [http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,118707,00.asp], Robert McMillan?, PC World, Tuesday, November 23, 2004
  • "HP's blog experiment was launched November 8, as a way to better communicate with the technical community"
• Corporate Blogging - My Talk From Perth Blog Nite [http://www.richardgiles.net/blog/archives/2004/10/corporate_blogg.html], Richard Giles, October 28, 2004
  • "Before we talk about corporate weblogs, we first need to understand how the internet has changed, and why blogs will be important in the near term for companies relationships with their customers. To do that I'll explain my Internet Bias theory, and why we're in the third wave of the internet."
• Madison Avenue Ponders the Potential of Web Logs [http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/27/business/media/27adco.html?oref=login&ex=1256616000&en=063c68672aeecc1c&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt], by Nat Ives, The New York Times, October 27, 2004
  • "Although political blogs have received the most attention, advertising agencies and communications professionals are using blogs to create discussion about ideas within their industries."
• Blogging For PR [http://www.webpronews.com/insiderreports/marketinginsider/wpn-50-20041012BloggingForPR.html], Rich Ord, webpronews.com, October 12, 2004
  • a review of blogging as a PR tool
• Too much control, too little talking [http://www.afrboss.com.au/magarticle.asp?doc_id=23879&listed_months=0] (PDF version [http://trevorcook.typepad.com/weblog/files/Boss.pdf]), Trevor Cook, Financial Review BOSS, October 2004
• One-to-One Marketing a False Trail [http://ringblog.typepad.com/corporatepr/2004/10/onetoone_market.html], Elizabeth Albrycht, CorporatePR, October 1, 2004
  • "One-to-one marketing is a false trail for marketing. It is, in fact, built on a base of lies, and the consumer knows it. Therefore, it cannot work (explanation for this claim in a minute). Blogging, on the other hand, is one-to-many. It uses the blog as a lever, an amplifier, enabling one voice to reach many, yet in a personal manner. Done well, blogs create credibility, trust. One-to-one marketing is never personal, and it never creates trust."
• Blogging for Dollars, John Edwards [http://www.cfo.com/printable/article.cfm/3238412?f=options], CFO Magazine, October 1, 2004
  • "Once the domain of the disgruntled and demented, Web logs are being embraced by business executives."
  • companies featured: Microsoft, Stonyfield Farm, Sun Microsystems
• The role of PR in CEO blogging [http://nevon.typepad.com/nevon/2004/10/the_role_of_pr_.html], Neville Hobson, NevOn?, October 1, 2004
  • "Should PR stay completely out of the picture when the CEO starts a blog for public consumption? Or should PR be an element in planning how and what the CEO blogs? The answer is: It depends."
• Have Blog, Will Market [http://www.business2.com/b2/web/articles/print/0,17925,703479,00.html], by Thomas Mucha, Business 2.0, September 30, 2004
  • Corporate America climbs on the blogging bandwagon. Slowly.
• Downsized to king of the blogs [http://business.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,16689-1271679_1,00.html], by Andrew Heavens, Times Online, UK, September 21, 2004
  • "Rex Hammock had become one of a growing list of CEOs? to discover the strange and persuasive power of the weblog. When blogs first started appearing, they were largely the domain of tech-savvy diarists [...] Today, they are slowly being joined by a much smarter set of corporate "bloggers" - CEOs?, consultants, venture capitalists, analysts, other senior executives - many of whom, like Mr Hammock, discovered the power of blogging almost by accident."
• What's all the blog about? [http://www.washingtontimes.com/functions/print.php?StoryID=20040814-114043-3023r], by Chris Baker, Washington Times, August 15, 2004
  • You know blogging has gone mainstream when air-conditioning contractors are doing it.
• Blogs: The Marketing Killer [http://www.internetnews.com/ent-news/article.php/3394841], by Michael Singer, Internetnews.com, August 13, 2004
  • The question by some is, "Do companies need a full-blown marketing or PR department when the employees themselves and the conversations they have on these blogs are getting the corporate info out more effectively?"
• Next Wave: How to build buzz on the blogs [http://www.redherring.com/article.aspx?a=10780&hed=Next+Wave%3a+How+to+build+buzz+on+the+blogs], Red Herring, August 4, 2004
  • Weblogs could help make or break your startup's marketing strategy. Here's how to get them on your side.
• Blogging for Business [http://www.businessweek.com:/print/technology/content/aug2004/tc2004089_3601_tc024.htm?tc], by Olga Kharif, Business Week, August 9,2004
  • With readers flocking to their Web postings, execs are finding blogs useful for plugging not just their products but their points of view. Jonathan Schwartz, president and chief operating officer of server maker Sun Microsystems (SUNW ): a blog is a must-have tool for every executive. "It'll be no more mandatory that they have blogs than that they have a phone and an e-mail account," Schwartz says. "If they don't, they're going to look foolish."
• Dear Bloggers: Media Discover Promotional Potential of Blogosphere [http://ojr.org/ojr/business/1091660781.php], Mark Glaser, Online Journalism Review, August 4, 2004
  • "The Wall Street Journal Online is promoting one story per day outside its subscription wall to bloggers. NYTimes?.com is boosting the number of RSS feeds it offers. Media companies are starting to work with -- instead of against -- the blogosphere."
• Workplace blogging [http://unlimited.co.nz/unlimited.nsf/0/2BA8B670E2F5EFE0CC256EED00795D41?OpenDocument], Chris Keall, Unlimited, August 1st, 2004
  • Andy Lark, Sun's vice president of marketing: “Don’t try to fight the blogs. Unleash them. Give employees the printing press. It’s going to be much easier to manage if it’s your press. Organisations with septic cultures are going to have a real hard time not changing. Employees will lay them bare.”
• PR can't shun the blog revolution [http://www.prweek.com/thisweek/index.cfm?ID=217373&site=1], Ian Hall, PR Week UK, July 23 2004
  • "Blogs can be both a marketing tool and a warning of reputational threats ahead. More PROs? need to tune in to this emerging media channel."
• It's Time to Take Blogs Seriously - and Maybe to Develop One of Your Own [http://steverubel.typepad.com/micropersuasion/2004/07/paul_holmes_pr_.html], Paul Holmes, The Holmes Report, July 19, 2004
• Corporate Blogging [http://www.kommunikationsforum.dk/artikler.asp?articleid=11457], Fredrik Wackå, Kommunikationsforum, July 5, 2004 //BusinessBlogging101
  • The President of Sun Microsystems, Jonathan Schwartz, does it. Nike too. Microsoft’s Bill Gates is thinking about it. And they are in good company – corporate blogging is growing as a tool for corporate communications. Blogging, a geek thing just a few years ago, has become a serious alternative for organisations that wants to strengthen both external and internal relationships.
• Blogging With The Boss's Blessing [http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/04_26/b3889107.htm] (+ graphic [http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/04_26/b3889109.htm]), Michelle Conlin and Andrew Park. Business Week, June 28, 2004
• Blogs, bosses and bucks [http://blogs.salon.com/0000014/2004/06/25.html], Scott Rosenberg, June 25, 2004
  • The blogs you're going to see from within most traditional companies will be either uninformative snoozes or desperate attempts at butt-covering and -kissing. Not because people don't have great stories to tell -- but because telling the truth has too high a cost.
• Corporate Blogging and the Boss [http://ross.typepad.com/blog/2004/06/corporate_blogg.html], Ross Mayfield, June 28, 2004
  • Whether large scale adoption of corporate blogging will occur outside tech because of control has less to do with characteristics of industries than leadership.
  • More companies are helping employees to speak freely -- and bond with customers
• PR bloggers push forth the medium [http://www.prweek.com/news/news_story_free.cfm?ID=213395&site=3], by Keith O'Brien, PR Week, June 10, 2004
• MarketingSherpa Readers' Choice Best Blog Awards 2004: 7 Winners Named [http://www.marketingsherpa.com/sample.cfm?contentID=2729], Marketing Sherpa
  • Blogs are exciting many people in the business world, including many PR practitioners. In PR and b2b circles, blogs are a combination of many things: a kind of online networking cocktail reception where everyone seems to have a copy of the article they were referencing handy in their purse or briefcase, an easier and less-intrusive form of boosterism, and, as many will claim, an opportunity to further public discourse on the industry.
• Marketing Sherpa Q&A: Jennifer Nastu, PR Interview: How to Get Mentioned in 8 High-Profile Blogs on Marketing, Marketing Sherpa [http://www.marketingsherpa.com/barrier.cfm?currentID=2714], May 21 2004
• Remarks by Bill Gates at the Microsoft CEO Summit 2004 [http://www.microsoft.com/billgates/speeches/2004/05-20CEOSummit.asp], May 20, 2004
  • Another new phenomenon that connects into this is one that started outside of the business space, more in the corporate or technical enthusiast space, a thing called blogging. And a standard around that that notifies you that something has changed called RSS.
• Blogging for Fun and Profit [http://www.cio.com.au/pp.php?id=1920544343&fp=16&fpid=0], by Sue Bushell, CIO, June 8, 2004
• Sun blogs show uncensored public face [http://www.itworld.com/Tech/4535/040607sunblogs/], by Robert McMillan?, IDG News Service, June 6, 2004
  • In an effort to improve its communications with the outside world, Sun has now set up a blogging system that lets any employee create a blog on the Sun.com site. More than just a bold experiment in vanity publishing, Sun sees its Blogs.sun.com [http://blogs.sun.com] Web site as a possible model for a new type of grassroots corporate communication, according to Tim Bray, one of the creators of XML who was hired by Sun earlier this year and has been driving its blogging effort.
• Event Blogs Take Center Stage [http://prblog.typepad.com/strategic_public_relation/2004/06/event_blogs_tak.html], Kevin Dugan, Strategic PR, June 3, 2004
• Better Project Management with K-Logs [http://groups.yahoo.com/group/klogs/message/459], Jevon MacDonald? and Rob Paterson, Laudably, Inc. [http://www.featurelength.com/], June 1, 2004 // ProjectManagement?
• (PDF) Weblogs: Realigning Business, Technology & Communication [http://www.imninc.com/pdf/Blogs.pdf], Kathleen Goodwin, IMN, May 2004 // WhitePapers
  • This white paper looks at the rise of the weblog phenomenon and examines its potential effect on business, and how businesses can harness this realignment of technology and communication. Weblogs will give rise to a new ?generation? of authorities by making it easy to share meaningful information and content as needed, and at the fast-paced and often irregular speed of business.
• It's A Blog World After All [http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/81/blog.html], by Jena McGregor, Fast Company, Issue 81, April 2004
• Social Computing: Getting Ahead of the Blog [http://techupdate.zdnet.com/techupdate/stories/main/Social_Computing.html], by Mike Gotta (META Group [http://www.metagroup.com]), ZDNet, April 20, 2004
  • Instituted properly, the potential business and workforce benefits of blogs can be significant. Innovative decision makers and early adopters will avoid the mistakes of the past (underestimating the impact of the Web) by allocating discretionary funding in 2004 for blog pilots as part of an iterative effort to construct a broader business case for social computing.
• Blogging - a personal medium is now the message [http://trevorcook.typepad.com/weblog/2004/03/blogging_a_pers.html#more], Trevor Cook, Australian Financial Review, March 20, 2004
  • (Blog's) emphasis on authenticity, and personal engagement with the audience, leads many blogging experts to be deeply sceptical about the prospects for blogging in the corporate world. Weblogs are personal, passionate and opinionated - all attributes rarely found in corporate communications.
• Can Corporations and Blogging Co-exist? [http://ericrichardson.com/verbal/blogs_vs_corps/] (also in PDF [http://ericrichardson.com/verbal/blogs_vs_corps/blogs.pdf]), Eric Richardson
  • The customs and practices of blogging are not available to corporations because their very nature opposes them.
• Blogging business [http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/story/0,3605,1150675,00.html], Jack Schofield, The Guardian Online, February 19, 2004
  • Four obvious reasons why businesses have not adopted blogging.

2003

• The Transparent Corporation [http://www.eweek.com/print_article/0,3048,a=111250,00.asp], Marcia Stepanek, eWeek, November 4, 2003
  • New strategies, mostly aimed at building trust, must be put in place. But don't fake it, spin or fib. In the transparent society, you've really got to be as good as you say you are, because it's getting harder and harder to control the fallout when conflicts with your story arise.
• Expert Voice: John Patrick on Weblogs [http://www.cioinsight.com/print_article/0,3668,a=112811,00.asp], Marcia Stepanek, CIO Insight, November 1, 2003
  • Knowledge management wasn't overhyped. It was underdelivered. Blogs can potentially deliver the grassroots discussions and knowledge-sharing that top-down, corporate-sponsored efforts never could.
• Why blogs could be bad for business [http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/comment/story/0,12449,1052072,00.html], Neil McIntosh, The Guardian Online, September 29, 2003
  • In today's corporate culture, where knowledge is power, the information-sharing capabilities of weblogs may not be entirely welcome.
• Content Syndication: Ready for the Masses? [http://www.econtentmag.com/Articles/ArticleReader.aspx?articleID=4446], Tony Byrne, eContent, June 19, 2003
  • Perhaps it's time to think bigger than the simple management of content and start putting valuable information to work beyond the confines of your own Web site.
• Corporate blogs make personal connection [http://www.btobonline.com/cgi-bin/article.pl?id=10831], by Richard Karpinski, B-to-B online, April 14, 2003
  • For creative b-to-b marketers, Weblogs offer free-range publication relations. Yet they raise questions that cut right to the heart of traditional marketing practices.
• Blogging - PR's True Claim to the Internet [http://www.salesvantage.com/news/relations/blogging.shtml], Robb Hecht [http://prmachine.blogspot.com/], SalesVantage.com, February 2003

2002

• Who Let the Blogs Out? [http://www.entrepreneur.com/Your_Business/YB_SegArticle/0,4621,303129,00.html] - Amanda C. Kooser, Entrepreneur magazine, October 2002
  • Blogging has become one of the hottest Web trends. How can it help your business?
• Small Business Blogging [http://danbricklin.com/log/businessblogging.htm], Dan Bricklin, August 12, 2002
  • It is important to understand that the purpose of a blog is not always to get the largest and widest readership possible. The purpose is usually to communicate with interested individuals. Even in business, the number of those individuals may be very few, but the impact of the communications can have economic impact far beyond its cost.
• Basic K-Log info [http://groups.yahoo.com/group/klogs/message/211], John Robb, Knowledge Management Weblogs Yahoo! Group, February 18, 2002
  • A brief overview of the business case for K-Logs

2000

• The Toughest Virus of All [http://www.shirky.com/writings/toughest_virus.html], Clay Shirky, Clay Shirky's Writings About the Internet, July 11, 2000
  • Viral marketing is not going to save mediocre businesses from extinction. It is the scourge of the stupid and the slow, because it only rewards companies that offer great service and have the strength to allow and even encourage their customers to publicly pass judgment on that service every single day.