Just happened to see this article on BusinessWeek which covers “The importance of blogs in your business“.Definitely,Blogs are an effective marketing tool for small and medium sized organizations but with times changing,the question is “Do big corporates also require blogs?” Some of the corporate blogs that I noticed are:
So,why aren’t there more corporates coming up with blogs,which would help their employees the freedom to express themselves in public.Also, Blog would a very helpful tool for employment since,candidates can read blogs and see what employees are feeling about the company.On one hand,companies like Google that focus on innovation encourage blogging(where daily ,every employee has to devote some time for blogging) and on the other hand,instances like these that have recently happened where “An employee was fired just for blogging(though he had not blogged against the employer) could be one of the reasons why corporates don’t prefer having blogs.Or should I say “It is high time,big corporates become aware about the potential of Blogs in this fast growing competitive business world”
Question to my readers:Are Blogs really needed for corporates and if so why?
Psychological Aspects
Yes Everyone wants to express himself or herself. This feeling may more acute in IT people, as they are dealing with many abstract things and in India generally IT people have better access to Internet. It is more important where innovation is the key differentiator in the industry like IT, research and ASIC etc.
HR Perspective
Yes, corporate blog definitely help to build a brand image among prospective candidates. It is very essential for recruitment of better employee. Blog will satisfy the basic need to communicate with like minded people. So it also helps for retaining talented people.
Comparison
I have noticed similar internal tools like periodic magazine, e-magazine, corporate intranet, entertainment programme to express yourself. Big corporate also conduct employee engagement survey, maintain grievance management system, bulletin board etc. However all employee do not use them effectively. Blog can become easily accessible, yet effective tool to express yourself. It builds networks. Your blog is like your brand image.
Other Industry
It is not only for IT people. Blog is for everyone. I have seen, many people interested in literature are writing and reading the blog. Music, art, dance, agriculture, BPO, factory workers all can be benefited by sharing knowledge, techniques and building their networks.
Word of Caution
Blog should be a tool, a mean to reap all the benefits. It should not be end. Also, we can not expect that all visitors will write comments/blog with certain discipline. A moderator is needed. And last, one should also balance between using the corporate resources for personal blogs and for meeting business objectives.
So Happy Blogging.
Wow, amazing post and great points by manish. As far as, my thoughts are concerned, then to be honest I think that it really depends on the kind of business you are in….A blog can certainly help in building the brand and reputation, but again it can be the cause of ruining the reputation. And as far as big corporates are concerned, I think most of the big corporates have blogs these days…I normally keep a watch on the IT companies and most of them have the blogs…and I can’t really say anything about the other industries.
I agree that blogging should be encouraged by these big companies . But as you mentioned of a employee getting fired , there should be certain limit to what you write on that blog .
Hey Manish,
I also accept excellent points brought out by you 😉
I just disagree on two points:
a. A moderator is not needed when a business blog is made since the discipline is already taken into account
b. Blogs are for all the industries and I would be coming out with one more post which focusses more on the same.
-Himanshu
Hey Mayank,
There are quite a few Indian Biggies who still dont have blogs.IMHO blog would be a great tool in such companies where people can innovate and the same would help in creating more entrepreneurs 😉
-Himanshu