Although corporate blogging can be a powerful tool, there is a time when it can get pretty dicey. Without proper management, a blog can be a disaster that can end up ruining your corporate image. Let’s take a look at three examples of the good, bad and ugly in the world of corporate blogging.

The Good

A good corporate blog finds the balance between being personable and professional. This is a juggling act, but when it’s done right, the result is a successful blog that builds a solid relationship with the public. The best example of a good corporate blog is Sun Microsystems. They’ve allowed their employees as well as management to post blogs on anything under the sun and the result has been terrific in the blogging community. Readers feel connected with the company and they can now put faces with a big corporation. This company has long been a leader in the corporate blogging world and they are a very good example to emulate.

The Bad

Walmart is a terrific example of corporate blogging gone bad. They set up a blog that was supposed to be written by a couple that was traveling the US in an RV and staying at Walmarts. The only thing that was not mentioned was that Walmart was sponsoring this as a corporate blog – not as a personal endeavor as the creators originally claimed. The blogosphere soon found out and the result was scorn. This did not do Walmart’s image any favors and they quickly retired the blog in question and have not made any new overtures.

A lot can be learned from this debacle. Never try to masquerade a corporate blog as anything but a corporate blog. It will backfire.

The Ugly

Earthlink’s blog is perhaps the most notorious. The company already has customer service issues and a lot of ill will already. When they debuted the blog, they were opening themselves up to a whole new host of problems. First, they didn’t allow comments, then they did, then they didn’t and the cycle continued. The posts ended up addressing constant controversy instead of addressing any key issues for the company. They simply could not surmount these obstacles and the blog was eventually cancelled.

For this lesson – make a decision and stick to it. Otherwise you look wishy washy. If you have trouble with customer service, a blog may not be the best idea. Don’t open your company up to problems right off the bat if you are concerned that the blog will turn into a public bashing forum for your company. This was a bad decision on the part of Earthlink and one that they undoubtedly regretted. Instead of fixing their image, they ended up reinforcing bad publicity.

The best way to ensure that your corporate blog joins the ranks of The Good in blogging is to work with a management company that can help you navigate the treacherous waters of blogging. With their help, you can avoid falling into The Bad or The Ugly categories.

Photo Credits: 1

Originally posted 2008-08-08 05:16:46. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

• Making Sure Your Corporate Blog Works For You Not Against You One of the main problems facing corporate bloggers is that their posts can be taken the wrong way, or controversy can get stirred up. Since one blog post has the potential to make or break your company, it is very important to make sure that you are managing your blog......
• Improve Corporate Communication with Blogging In this day and age, the hottest media and the hottest method for communicating with customers, employees, business partners and competitors are through corporate blogging. If you create a corporate blog for your business, and you follow some basic strategies for improving communication through this popular online media, you will......
• Projecting the Right Image of Your Company Through Your Corporate Blog Few people realize how powerful a blog can be when it comes to projecting an image to the public. Words have a power all their own and the wrong ones may sink your company’s reputation. Before you even start your own corporate blog it is very important to first come......
• 3 Smart Blogging Techniques for Business Owners If you are getting ready to launch a corporate blog, there are a few techniques that you can use to make sure that it is a success. By utilizing these methods you can ensure that you will quickly build up a new readership and starting increasing your customer base. Corporate......
• Getting Smart About Corporate Blogging - Part Three The first two part of this series discussed a semi-recent post made by Matt Cutts, that covered a few things that corporate bloggers need to know. The last point that we'll cover in this series is what Matt had to say about blogging angry. There is some very powerful information......

• Obama Sells Out, Decides He Should Be a Politician With half of the country being fully energized by "hope" and "change", no wonder our demand for gasoline is down almost 9% from last year.  On Thursday, August 28th, 2008, Barack Obama accepted the nomination for president from the Democratic Party.  Still a relatively young and strapping gent, Obama worked......
• Review of Bill Schultheis' The New Coffeehouse Investor The author's marketing company kindly sent me a complimentary company of Bill Schultheis' latest reworking of his book: The New Coffeehouse Investor.  According to the "about the author" section in the book, Mr. Schultheis is an investment adviser with Soundmark Wealth Management, LLC, a fee-only registered investment adviser located in......
• The Small Business Values of Managed Hosting Managed hosting is a great solution for small- and medium-sized companies because it takes away the need for the cost of an IT specialist. If you are a small business than no one needs to tell you that finding ways to reduce your financial load is important. Yet finding an......
• Taking Website Marketing & Start Business Consulting Into Consideration I am sure most of you have heard the phrase, or term, business plan. And I am sure some of you wonder what this business consulting is all about. How does it make money?How does one become a business consultant? Perhaps you even see some of these business consultants in......
• Why Big Companies Are Blogging? There are still some old school business people out there that consider the whole idea of blogging for their business rather ridiculous. Unfortunately for these people, they will never understand that the world is changing and blogging is a whole lot more than just a bunch of people in their......

audience, content, engaging ideas, planning, public relations, publicity

blogging, blogosphere, community readers, controversy, corporate image, creators, customer service issues, debacle, disaster, earthlink, faces, juggling act, overtures, personal endeavor, proper management, rv, scorn, sun microsystems, terrific example, walmart