These days a number of media publications in India have mentioned in their stories that corporates are shying away from blogging because of negative comments, besides others. Let me try to give my point of view why the fear is unfounded.

Before that, let’s revisit a bit on why should a corporate blog? There have been numerous postings on this and I don’t want to repeat much. But primarily, it’s because that a blog can be an effective medium to engage with an organisation’s stakeholders, which in turn provide priceless insights on what their opinions are on that particular organisations and what their expectations are. A blog can also be a good medium to increase brand visibility and attract business leads.

Many global companies have benefitted from blogging. We can take the example of Microsoft and how Robert Scoble has helped give a human face to the software giant. According to one blog post whose url I have lost, ‘General Motor’s FastLane blog delivered an estimated USD 410,470 worth of customer insight and marketing at an approximate cost of USD 255,675. This is a return on investment of 67% according to Forrester Research’. Sun encourages its employees to blog and to use their blogs as a collaboration platform with outside developers. Dell has been using its blog for customer support. We also have Boeing whose blog written by its CEO is very popular.

In India, while some start up companies have adopted blogging, many of established companies that are consider to be the face of India Inc., excepting a few, haven’t. Those that have adopted blogging include companies like Infosys, TCS, Rediff, Milagrow, HCL, Cleartrip, Gridstone, Frito-Lay, and Naukri.

So now coming back to our point of discussion, let’s remember that for any corporation, receiving a negative feedback from customers or business partners is not a new phenomenon, nor is it restricted to the blogosphere. How many times have we written letters to the editors of newspapers giving our client’s point of view on a particular negative reportage. How many times have we engaged with customers who have lodged complaints at consumer forums and at courts for unsatisfactory services meted out to them? But do we stop engaging with the media or the customers for fear of getting negative feedback? We don’t.

Even if we get a negative comment, there is no need to panic and pack up the blogging tools. We need to ask ourselves what is the basis of that comment? If it has a valid reason and what it says is factually true, then there must be a valid answer to that also. If we have wronged, we should be willing to say sorry. Besides, negative comments are not always bad.

Now if a negative comment is a personal attack or without any substantial base, then it can be moderated. There can be a comment policy on the blog.

Let’s ask ourselves now where these personal unfounded negative comments will come from. Not likely from the responsible bloggers. Let’s admit that many bloggers do practice self-censorship. I am a blogger but it doesn’t mean I can write anything and everything that’s not true. My and my blog’s reputation is at stake. Therefore let’s remember that any responsible blogger wouldn’t come out and try to engage in a dirty fight without any valid reason.

Foul comments will most likely come from trolls who get a kick from lambasting any organisation or person. But even when there is troll attack, simply ignoring those particular comments would send out a message. Others reading it will also understand that.

However, if your product is bad, whether you are blogging or not, the negative commentary will come from other blogs. If you have a blog already and you are engaging in a dialogue with many people in the blogosphere, it becomes much easier to reply back and give your point of view.

What do you say? Shall we engage?

Picture credit: Challenge of corporate blogging at ConversationsMatter (I couldn’t help using this)

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