Why There's No Escaping the Blog
fortune.comArticle relates the story of Scobleizer, a low profile microsoft employee who just happens to have a blog reckoning that he: " has given the Microsoft monolith something it has long lacked: an approachable human face." He agrees with the criticism of MSN Spaces saying "isn't the blogging service for me"
The feedback to his posts seems to have warmed the attitude of some Microsoft critics: "I get comments on my blog saying, 'I didn't like Microsoft before, but at least they're listening to us,'" says Scoble. "The blog is the best relationship generator you've ever seen." His famous boss agrees. "It's all about openness," says chairman Bill Gates of Microsoft's public blogs like Scobleizer. "People see them as a reflection of an open, communicative culture that isn't afraid to be self-critical."
The article goes on to emphasise the power of blogs and why they cannot be ignored whatever your personal attitude towards them.
"If you fudge or lie on a blog, you are biting the karmic weenie," says Steve Hayden, vice chairman of advertising giant Ogilvy & Mather, which creates blogs for clients. "The negative reaction will be so great that, whatever your intention was, it will be overwhelmed and crushed like a bug. You're fighting with very powerful forces because it's real people's opinions."
A must read is the example of the Voltaic Backpack... "Overnight what was supposed to be laying a little groundwork became my launch," he says. "This is the ultimate word-of-mouth marketing channel."
Note that "Google's public relations, quality control, and advertising departments all have blogs, some of them public. When Google redesigned its search home page, a staffer blogged notes from every brainstorm session. "With a company like Google that's growing this fast, the verbal history can't be passed along fast enough," says Marissa Mayer, who oversees the search site and all of Google's consumer web products. "Our legal department loves the blogs, because it basically is a written-down, backed-up, permanent time-stamped version of the scientist's notebook. When you want to file a patent, you can now show in blogs where this idea happened."
posted by Jen @ 10:55 am
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