It was 1994 and…….

· Lorena Bobbitt is found not guilty by reason of insanity

· FIFA World Cup begins in the United States

· Friends the long running American sitcom premieres on NBC

Oh and blogging was the online diary for a small group of individuals to express their thoughts and feelings good, bad or ugly.

I recently read an article that described a “gradual shift in blogging acceptance” but in a corporate/business setting. Only “12% of Fortune 500 companies run a corporate blog” but my question is when will everybody else get on board? If you want to know what your consumers think then ask. Sure, you will have to filter the information but it is in its purest form. Companies are now hiring individuals who have corporate titles such as VP of Communities & Conversations or VP of Social Media Relations that encompass the blogging responsibilities. There are obvious challenges with the format and with the content provided but whoever wins the race of obtaining valuable customer feedback in volumes will certainly reap the rewards. The companies benefit by getting real time feedback that can be processed and used, exposure and traffic to their websites and an opportunity to serve ads to customers who are relevant to their business.

I intentionally did not mention the benefit of being accountable for issues created by their products or services. Is there a “negative cloud” that hovers over creating a corporate blog which would highlight a company’s faults? Is this why a portion of the 88% of Fortune 500 companies are not participating? Do most companies fear the truth and would rather roll the dice and hopetheir customers come back rather than address what are more than likely real issues?

Corporate blogging is a relatively low cost opportunity to reach the expensive fuel (customer) for its engine so I say, filler up!!!!!!

Chris Masters | Chris.Masters@aclion.com

To find the original article and read more here: BToBOnline.com Blog Posting