External Corporate Blogging – Why or Why Not?
External corporate blogs are forums that companies set up in order to interact with their constituents outside of the organization. These groups consist of anyone from consumers, to investors, to activist groups and legislators.
But why is communicating with these groups important? Can’t a company just focus its advertising on these groups and measure their feedback through sales or the stories that are generated in the news? No! It is essential that a company keep an open line of communication with its outside stakeholders because this will allow for two-way communication, and this is where external corporate blogs come into play. Rather than talking at a public, it is important to talk to them and hear what they have to say because it shows that a company cares about its audiences, their opinions, and their needs. Blogs allow for a company to establish a place on the Web where feedback from customers and other stakeholder groups can be heard, taken into consideration, and responded to in a timely manner. This can help improve the company’s bottom line sales and profits because the company is establishing a trust between its constituents and the organization.
Disney is just one example of a company that has chosen to set up an online forum to engage its customers in the feedback loop. The video interview posted below with Duncan Wardle of Disney was done by Ragan Communications and discusses how Disney uses its “Mom’s Panel” to interact with its passionate consumers and begin a dialog, all the while promoting the Disney brand.
External corporate blogs also provide a company with an outlet to get its news to the public first, without any interruptions or spins from outside sources. This comes into play when dealing with corporate public relations.
To find out more, please read Darren Rowse’s blog post, “A Guide to Corporate Blogging.”
I liked your example of Disney’s “Mom’s Panel.” It was a smart move for Disney to use their prime customers to start conversations about Disney vacations. Moms are primarily the ones who are going to plan trips to Disney. They are more likely to listen to their peers (other moms) than anyone else. Also, no one else has better knowledge of planning trips for their families than the ones doing the planning themselves. I also like how Disney decided to let the comments go up without moderation. This gives Disney and their forum more credibility because it shows they aren’t just filtering out negative comments.
I think its interesting to compare how CEOs and corporations use two different types of blogs, internal and external, to communicate with their publics. I think the idea of having them separate is good in being able to analyze the feedback in terms of the audience that they are directed to. However, I think it would be pretty interesting to see the dialogues that could occur if these forums were open to both internal and external publics and what kind of feedback could be established there. I think it could allow for more discussions between employees and consumers, seeing as how we know that happy employees can be one of the best promoters of a company, I think that by utilizing them in the blog dialogues, and not just the top management, it could be very useful for a company.