Sarah, who's working on her dissertation, posts passionately about the end of winter's dreariness in the UK, asked a few good questions in her comments to our first chapter.
One is regarding the authenticity of "corporate blogs." Actually, this book we does not advocate official blogsites, spewing a company's party line. In fact, we will argue against them, because they would be no more effective than websites with comment sections. Instead, we hope to make the case for companies to encourage individual employees on all levels to blog and to set guidelines and policies so that employees can do so with spontanaity, in unfiltered form, allowing visitors to see real people doing real jobs inside a company. This is an entirely different.
Second, Sarah suggested that blogging was not appropriate to small businesses and Robert and I disagree with some passion of our own. We are strong advocates that blogging presents a huge opportunity for small businesses to become closer with community constituencies who have very few options open to them for marketing—a Yellow Pages ad, perhaps being the best of them. But Yellow Pages are very limited. You can see who has the larger ad or more compelling logo, but you learn nothing about the texture of a company or its reputation. But suppose, a local plumber, started a blog that revealed his knowledge and passion for his profession. Suppose he posted, tips on how to avoid having to call in a plumber—tips for keeping those pipes clean, examples of problems he has seen that could be avoided. First off, in reading his or her posting—you'd know this person infinitely better than you would someone from the Yellow Pages. Second, when you typed in "Plumbers, in Hometown" guess whose name would come up first and foremost? Oh yeah, the blog is cheaper than the Yellow Pages insertion, as well. We have few examples of these sort of companies--fewer than we would like, but the list is getting fatter every day. We think small businesses, as always will be late to adopt in droves, but those who do so earlier, will find very gratifying results.