Corporate Conversations

Chapter five of The New Influencers titled Corporate Conversations was about corporate blogging. The main thing that this chapter focuses on is that blogging is not for all corporations, but it does offer a lot of oppurtunities and benefits. Blogging really gets the word out. These words may not be taken in the same way by everyone, but sometimes getting bad responses from people can be just as beneficial to a company as getting good ones.

The chapter states that blogging should only be done if someone wants to do it. Some of the benefits that come from it are: customer responses, product information, release dates, and responses to scrutiny. Take the GM/New York Times debate for example. A New York Times columnist bad-mouthed GM saying that they are not as great of a corporation as they claim to be. Although GM was having problems writing a defense in a newspaper they did have their blog. They typed responses about the New York Times article and defended themselves. So many people took interest in this that it got picked up by national shows/news stations. That was a great way for GM to get publicity and show how great of a company they are. There fans really seemed to stick up for them as well.

While national coverage does not always come from blogging, in my eyes it can be a lot more beneficial than harmful to a company. If a company really has good products and something good to offer to customers why not write about it? Even well known companies can benefit from blogs. They can gain praise from their loyal customers, or suggestions on how to make their products even better. If enough effort is put into corporate blogging a company can really gain great benefits from it.