I got an email from a student who's doing a project on business blogging in India. He sent me some questions and I figured I should share it with you too!
a) your opinion about blogs
Blogs are a great way to build a brand and find a community to have a conversation with.
b) Negatives of blogs
The two points that are negative is that blogs are dependent on technology and only a tiny minority knows about them.
c) Future of blog in India.
As more and more professionals go independent they will turn to blogging as a means to reaching out to peers and customers. But to really take off, blogs need to turn from a 'written' medium to 'audio' medium. Podcasts are still to catch on in India. But the future for blogs has to be both 'audio' and 'mobile'
d) What are the initiatives taken to improve blogging in India.
No central approach is taken to improve blogging. It spreads by word of mouth. Currently its used by a tech savvy minority and the vast majority of internet users who only communicate with friends and have no need to reach out to others are not bothered by it.
e) Threats faced by a company of having a blog.
The threats if any would be if a blog is used by the company to push content that was previously used in company brochures. Organizations have to understand that a blog has to have a 'personality' (even if it is team blog) and open to feedback. If people percieve a lack of authenticity or attempt to manipulate through a blog then it will result in a backlash for the organization.
f) Which trend made the companies in India to move towards blogging?
Right now, no major companies have moved to blogging. Initially the audience type will self select the companies that move to blogging. I would like to see a lot of dot coms that reach across to the net savvy population blogging.
g) What will be the profile of the company in starting a blog?
I've always maintained that the biggest beneficiaries of blogging would be professional services firms and independent individual service providers, who don't have the marketing dollars of the big firms.
Gautam,
ReplyDeleteWipro was perhaps the first Indian company that started a blog. This was the link (http://wiproweblog.com/).But it was miserable.They pulled that out. It had no RSS feed. The comment policy stated that they can modify the comments before making them public.It was usual PR speak and did not reflect employee voice.Corporate blogs are a very dicey thing.Once somebody out there posts anything,it is treated as "official" and anybody can use that info.Remember, Google was left red faced when they had to censor their very first blog post on the google blog.The impact of blogs on corporates is high.Apple Ipod had some problems and was discussed a lot on blogs.Apple made a press statement to clarify that. Also, Walmart invited bloggers to come and have a look at itz working style in a move to improve itz image.Blogs are a powerful method to put a point across.However,Blogging is democratic and informal. You can't sustain a blog otherwise.So,am not sure how comfortable will companies be setting up blogs in the future.
I'd like to add another question
ReplyDeleteHow do you see blogs affecting mainstream media ?
I certainly agree that blogs aren't for every type of company; certain types of business transactions may not be appropriate for interactive and/or democratic discussion.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, the biggest resistance to corporate blogging (and to adoption of other social networking and interactive technologies) is more cultural than structural. For certain executives and organizations, the use of tools such as blogs is viewed as a threat to the "control" management has (or thinks it has) over customer perceptions and communications.
I've addressed such issues in a recent article (http://web2journal.com/read/207411.htm) and am very interested in hearing feedback on thses issues.
Dennis D. McDonald
http://www.ddmcd.com