Company Weblogs

The phenomenon known as blogs presents both opportunity and risk for businesses especially the big companies.  Employee blogs provide the human face of the corporation as it gives insights into a company’s culture while building a sense of community around its products.  The risk lies in the unexpected effects of the expression of employees’ personal thoughts about their work in the Internet which is a known and volatile public venue.

Blogs maintained by company employees may touch on a variety of topics.  Technical subjects or company products are usually discussed but always with the intent to veer away from posting sensitive or confidential information.  Some companies have already provided their own specific guidelines for blog contents so as to make it clear to their employees the limits that have to be observed in expressing themselves.

A behind-the-scene glimpse of company life can be gleaned from the writings of people that are considered “insiders”.  Some company bloggers choose to write about the broader issues which their company faces.  Most companies officially embrace blogs as a way of getting their message across.  It is quite common to hire several employees that would create blogs and use them to communicate with customers about special events such as a product launch.

The informal nature of blogs makes them very effective means of communication.  Its contents are widely accepted due to the perception that it talks about real things and is not merely a press release.  Blogs that are established or sanctioned by companies are very much different from independent blogs maintained by individual employees.