The Two Types of Corporate Blog
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. Corporate blogs are divided not two categories – the internal blog and the external one – and each has its own purpose. The internal blog takes the place of the “what’s happening in the company” memos of the old days and allows for the management to keep in touch with every employee directly and also permits the employees to communicate with the management is a way that has never before been possible. External corporate blogs are used to communicate with all those outside the company who have an interest in and contribute to its success by keeping them informed of company news, development, new product introductions and so on.
Unfortunately, there are many companies who have started corporate blogs with no clear understanding of what they are and how they should be used – companies who started down this path just to give the appearance of being modern. 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. An aimless blog that does not seem to have any focus will never be respected and if it becomes a joke, what do you think will be their impression people have to the company management who send it out so often? Additionally, as the corporate blog is a two way medium – readers are usually invited to submit their comments on what they read – not providing the right kind of material for people to make comments can reduce the blog to a joke and formality.
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. Gauging employee mood and attitude to the company and the work they do is important in any modern company and the internal corporate news letter will provide the management an opportunity to do this by inviting employee feedback. 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. And as in the case of the internal corporate blog, the external one will give the reader a chance to feel more connected to the company since he will be communicating with it by sending in his comments and this communication will foster a strong connection that will result in profits.