Like Eric Kintz I think it will be interesting to watch as more companies that compete directly with each other open their own blogs and use them as a means of targeting those competitors and controlling the information flow. That’s kind of an area that gets ignored when people are corporate blogging. Sure, blogs are great ways to speak directly to stakeholders and consumers, but how are they really utilized to position a company in its marketplace?

A lot of this is going to depend on how much influence the marketing department has on the blog’s content. If they’re the ones writing it or approving the content then the conversation could move from one of impassioned people sharing their viewpoints to one that becomes simply a battle of copypoints – and we have enough of that in the form of paid advertising and press releases.

Personally, I think this polite yet blunt. Think about watching the British Parlimentary debates on C-SPAN (don’t try to say you’ve never done this). One member gets up and goes through his or her bit and then someone from the opposition gets up and says, “My honorable colleague…” and then proceeds to call him or her the equivalent of a raving lunatic. Get gritty. Fight for position. Back up your point of view with facts (not spin) and then dive into the fight. That makes for both good reading and shows that you as a company are passionate about what you do and how good you feel you are.

One thought on ““Boy, that escalated quickly… I mean, that really got out of hand fast.”

  1. I agree with you, Chris. As corporate blogs scale, we will have to pay attention to keeping a personal, authentic, direct dialogue with our customers vs. trying to replicate our traditional PR tactics.
    Eric

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