Corporate blogs split cyberspace

When it comes to corporate blogging, readers of silicon.com are split over the value of what they are reading - with a small majority most likely to cast a sceptical eye over your company's latest missive.

Over a third (37 per cent) of respondents to a silicon.com reader poll think business blogs are not a good way for companies to communicate with customers. But just under a third (32 per cent) disagree - saying corporate blogs can be a good way for corporations to reach out to the people who ultimately pay their wages.

Slightly less than a fifth (17 per cent) of respondents have not yet made up their minds whether such blogs are worth eyeballing or not, while a worrying 15 per cent checked the box next to 'What is a blog?' - and may benefit from reading this Cheat Sheet.

Business blogging is a process fraught with potential pitfalls - companies must tread the fine line between revealing too much and losing competitive advantage, and saying too little and being branded boring. Nevertheless, Harvard Business School has come out in favour of it and last year urged businesses to embrace blogging.

A recent silicon.com CIO Jury gave a cautious thumbs-up to the phenomenon, with 10 of the 12-strong IT user panel saying corporate blogs are here to stay.

Steve Clarke, head of internal computing at AOL UK, said: "The informality of blogging enables a business to show a human side that was not possible before and this is likely to gain customer appreciation. However many will find the prospect of an employee publishing their point of view directly to the internet a scary proposition considering how controlling most companies are of their corporate image."

David Supple, director of IT and creative services at Ecotec, said: "Corporate blogs have a wide variety of uses as an internally focused communication tool - but staff need to place their comments with caution and be mature about what they post otherwise they will wither like so many bulletin boards before them."