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Risks of corporate blogging

By Editor on Mar 4, 2007 in PR2.0, corporateblogging

Indian corporates are increasingly getting into blogging as it seems so with the increasing number of requests coming to PR agencies for counsel in this endeavour. Rajesh at Blogworks also gave reference to an ET story on how motorcycle manufacturers are studying blogs to gain customer insights. While this may be a progress we are seeing, venturing into the blogosphere might not be so smooth-sailing for all the corporates everytime. Kami Huyse jotted down 10 risks that corporates are likely to run into when they decide to enter the blogosphere.

These include:

  1. Negative Comments
  2. Loss of Control Over the Message
  3. Neglect
  4. Misunderstanding the Culture of the Blogosphere
  5. Unprepared or Loose - Cannon Employees
  6. Fueling a firememe of Criticism
  7. Legal Liabilities
  8. Losing the Farm
  9. Negative Impact on Stock Price
  10. Tort Lawsuits

In India, maybe finding the right audience for your corporate blog might be another challenge. It might be easy if your company sells products for the youth like bikes, gizmoz or skin care items, since there are a lot of the potential customers surfing the net and participating in online communities. Getting industry professionals to read and engage them in a dialogue might not be so easy.

Well, these pointers are not meant to start a debate that whether corporates should blog or not, but should serve as guidelines in understanding the blogosphere better. As Rajesh said, the blogosphere is quite fair and transparent and real users, if happy with your brand, will counter any biased/ malicious campaign with true feedback.

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India PR Blog is the leading public relations site in India and ranks among the top 25 PR blogs in the world. It is written by a team of PR professionals and journalists from a cross section of organisations and provides PR resources, tips, discussions, tools, and analysis of the PR practice, industry developments, trends, issues, and media developments. The initiative is an attempt to gather some of the experienced and young minds from the Indian PR industry, share them freely with one and all, have a discussion, and help take the industry forward. The blog is read by more than 1000 PR professionals across levels and organisations, marketing professionals, journalists, mass communication students, and marketing bloggers in India, US, Europe, and the Asia Pacific. You can contact Editor via email here or online here.

12 Comment(s)

  1. On Mar 4, 2007, Rajesh said:

    I also believe that in a couple of years time setting up and managing corporate blogs is going to be a no brainer- standard operating procedure. It is using social media for ‘marketing and communication’ that’s going to be the challenge - that’s also the interesting bit and where professionals like all of us will have a role to play.

    Cheers.

    R

  2. On Mar 4, 2007, Srinivasan said:

    It is a good article. Since many of the orgnaisations do not know the ‘culture’ and the developments of this new media, they have a lot of misconceptions. Blogs are good communication tool, provided the companies use them properly. they need to be educated.

  3. On Mar 5, 2007, hobbithob said:

    Hi Rajesh, thanks for droppin by. Our role will definitely be more when the client started engaging with the social media. We have to counsel well keeping in mind the PR taboo in the blogosphere. Thanks Mr. Srinivasan for your coments. Let’s hope the industry is able to counsel well to our clients, and for this we need to gear up to the new media ourselves too fast.

  4. On Mar 6, 2007, Anonymous said:

    These are all PR gimmicks by PR agencies of the western world to carve out fresh revenue streams. Let’s not foolishly fall for it.

    Would I buy a GM car by getting impressed with the GM corporate blog? Or would I invest more in the GM stock by reading the PR puff that GM’s PR dept is doling out in the CEO’s name in the blog?

    Get real, man !!! Blogs are as much a passing phase as dotcoms were 6 years back.

    - B
    (former journalist turned Comms Head of an MNC)

  5. On Mar 6, 2007, hobbithob said:

    Hi B, thanks for your comments but I have to disagree with you. Blogs have emerged as new communications and news sources independent of the PR industry. As they are getting influential by the day, the PR industry is only trying to make sense and help clients benefit from engaging with this new media. Today, whether you want it or not, you are going to get dragged into the blogosphere. There’s no harm if this is generating additional revenues from us.

    And there have been case studies of corporates benefiting from blogging including Microsoft, Dell, Boeing, and of course the one you mentioned – General Motors.

  6. On Mar 6, 2007, praneeth said:

    Companies if not set up a corp blog should at least monitor what is discussed about there brands in social media(blogs, social n/w websites)

  7. On Mar 7, 2007, Rajiv Harjai said:

    Hi Hobbit,

    I would agree a little bit with B that this could be a Public Relations doing, but even if it is that its great. I being a PR student am told that for the time being if a public relations student is not blogging, “It is fine”, but after a couple of years, if you are not blogging, it will be a disadvantage. I think there are exciting times for Blogs in the future and the Indian community is getting very socially internet active. Just look at Orkut, almost all my friends have an account there… Maybe I should join too. I mean the Blogsphere cannot just be tripling every year for nothing.

  8. On Mar 9, 2007, hobbithob said:

    @praneeth, Specially considering the amount of consumer insights you can gain from these media

    @Rajiv, hey, there are more than 600 PR bloggers already and that’s great :-)

  9. On Apr 22, 2007, Payeng said:

    “Blogs Driving Motorcycling Sales..??”

    Being one of few bloggers of India who keeps a blog on the Indian 2Wheeler industry, here is my take on the above article.

    The sites mentioned in the above mentioned ET Article are…

    >> Xbhp.com
    >> Mouthshut.com
    >> Bikenomads.com
    >> Bajajpulsar.org and
    >> Yahoo groups for Royal Enfield, Hero Honda Karizma group and TVS Apache

    So where are the blogs..??

    I was actually hoping to see my blog Indian2Wheels.Blogspot.Com being mentioned in the above article… Now its clear that even the definition as to what a blog is not clear even to Big Publishing Houses. But thankfully the readers who visit my blog at least knows the difference.

  10. On Apr 22, 2007, hobbithob said:

    Hi Payeng, I agree with you that the sites mentioned are not blogs in the literal sense…maybe it’s the way some people just wrongly assumes every web 2.0 site as a blog. By the way, you have got a great site and I have referred to it for research on my clients many times.

  11. On Apr 22, 2007, Payeng said:

    Wow..!!

    My blog has been referred…!! That too for Research..!!

    That’s actually too much for a new found hobby of mine.. :-)

    I don’t know what to say.

    May I know in what way does my blog helps your clients..??

  12. On Feb 17, 2008, Ninnaantinee said:

    this comment has been removed by the editor

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  1. Corporate Blogging: Why corporates shouldn’t fear negative comments | India PR Blog on May 6, 2008

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