Blather Not: Creating Dialogue Means Tackling Tough Topics
Once, as an organization or an individual, you’ve committed to blog, you’ve committed to dialogue and to discussing things that you and your readers find important.
This week, Paul Gillin wrote a post about corporate blogs that were not tackling the tough issues of the financial crisis on Wall Street. A sampling:
Kodak’s Thousand Words blog posted photos of Northern California scenery and humpback whales off the coast of New England.
Wal-Mart, which is one of the most important companies in America, posted two entries since the crisis began. One was about its campaign to reduce plastic bag waste and the other clarified its strategy on digital rights management. I suppose that’s more important that the economy in some parallel universe.
Johnson & Johnson talked about a visit to BlogWorld and a dinner honoring two esteemed scientists.
Bill Marriott, who is one of the few CEOs who blogs, commented proudly on Marriott’s selection to a list of best places to launch a career and more soberly on a hotel bombing in Pakistan. Not a word about the outlook for the travel sector.
Sony wrote about a charity it supports and the long-term viability of the Blu-Ray disc format.
Southwest Airlines talked about a new approach to speeding up lines at airport security and also a pilot’s experience during a particularly rough landing in Austin. In 13 entries since September 17, there is only one passing reference to “the current mess on Wall Street.”
Toyota was happy to report that 48% of Lexus owners are repeat customers. It also boasted about two new crossover vehicles as well as its ongoing work on hybrids. I guess the US economic crisis is a domestic matter.
You can’t ignore the elephant in the room, folks. If you’re readers are thinking about it, show leadership and write about it. Open the topic up for discussion. Be authentic about your concerns and transparent in how you and your company are dealing with important issues.
It can be tough. This kind of authenticity and transparency can feel very vulnerable whether you’re a public or private company. But if you’ve committed to this medium, that’s part of the deal and responsible companies with strong leadership will figure out how to do it (or ask for help!). Otherwise, don’t call what you’re doing a blog, call it an enewsletter.
By the way, your agency’s blog is so pretty! Love the red.
Anyway, I totally agree with your post. It seems like some companies are blogging just to blog. It’s a great idea for companies to have an online appearance and be engaged in social media; however, I think it backfires when they don’t take the time to update the blog and engage with readers.
Like we’ve discussed in writing, what’s the point to having a Facebook presence when there’s no outlet for discussion? Wal-Mart did this (no surprise, really). The same goes for blogs. What’s the deal with having a blog when it’s neither relevant, updated, or responsive to readers? I’m pretty surprised with many big companies’ blogs that don’t meet the status quo.
Good thing we have a great bunch of blogging babies that will graduate from UO and start putting things in order.