Companies big and small are using blogs to engage staff and customers but caution rules

By Yeo Ying Ying
Straits Times, Singapore
2 Oct 2005

MICROSOFT is doing it. So are Google, IBM, General Motors and Boeing.

If you think blogging is the sole preserve of Internet-savvy Hemingway wannabes, think again.

These big companies have also dived headlong into the blogosphere. All of them have launched corporate blogs as alternative communication platforms.

Corporate blogging is rapidly gaining acceptance by businesses in the West, helped in no small part by the endorsements of large and reputable corporations.

A corporate blog is one published by or with the support of an organisation to reach its goals.

Written in some instances by CEOs and in others by specially appointed managers, many adopt a casual, conversational and engaging tone which sometimes makes weblogs such a good read.

The trend has found its way to this region and some companies in Asia have already taken the plunge.

XiMnet Malaysia, an interactive Web design and multimedia company, started its corporate blog (www.ximnet.com.my/thelab) last December.

‘Chief alchemist’ Wiley Chin updates the blog about three times a week with entries on work-related matters or personal thoughts on life.

He believes the blog has helped XiMnet to ’stand out’ from its competitors. It has, he said, helped the company cultivate a ‘distinct voice’ and shape a brand identity.

He added that awareness of XiMnet had increased as more people had come across the blog through Google searches.

‘This blog gives voice to our values and allows us to share our insights using the informal story-telling format,’ said Mr Chin, who believes that corporate blogging is an effective tool to give companies a human face.

Businesses, he said, had gone beyond the mere exchange of goods and services.

He explained that customers now demand to know ‘Who are you? What are your values? What do you really care about? Why should I buy your products and services? What are your primary motivations in businesses? What do you stand for ultimately?’

Another company which has jumped on the corporate blogging bandwagon is Singapore-based Spoon, which offers marketing, design and communications services.

Splogger, its corporate blog ( www.spoon.com.sg ), was started in June this year. All Spoon employees can post entries.

Spoon’s creative director Kevin Lee said its employees use Splogger to ‘communicate certain opinions, views, musings and insights’.

One posting took cinema exhibitors to task for being protectionist by trying to prevent parallel imports of DVDs into Singapore. Another satirised search engine Google and its various offerings.

The CEO of Pacific Centennial Group (parent of Virtual Office Singapore), Mr Peter Tan, also views the corporate blog as ‘a channel for expression and announcement’.

Virtual Office Singapore, a virtual office provider, started its blog ( www.virtualoffice.com.sg ) early last year. Mr Tan updates it weekly or fortnightly.

In it, he talks about why Virtual Office was set up, the company’s achievements, sales performance and interesting stories on entrepreneurship.

Virtual Office Singapore is just one of many companies in the Asia-Pacific waking up to the benefits of blogging.

Indeed, if the positive reception of BLOGasia 2005 is an indication, corporate blogging has huge potential for growth in Asia.

BLOGasia, the first corporate blogging conference in Asia, was a two-day event that took place last week in Singapore.

The conference saw a turnout of about 50 people from government and corporate organisations in Singapore and Malaysia.

According to Maitre Allianz course director Alethea Liow, there is ‘a real and growing interest in corporate blogging, judging from the intensity and number of questions from attendees of the conference’.

Maitre Allianz is the event organiser for BLOGasia 2005. The company is already planning to hold BLOGasia again early next year.

A speaker for the event, Ms Susannah Gardner, said: ‘I expect to see strong movement towards blogging on the part of Asian businesses in the next few months.’

This, she said, is partly due to the interactive and open nature of blogs. ‘Blogs tend to humanise a company, making it more approachable and less monolithic. They let you hear directly from your customers, in a context that isn’t about them having a problem with your product or service,’ she explained.

Ms Gardner gave the example of the press statement, a traditional public relations tool employed by most companies. A press statement does not allow the public to respond or reply.

In the case of most blogs, the comment function will effectively ‘build an ongoing relationship with the public in an interactive way’.

However, she cautioned that blogs might not be appropriate for every company. She advised companies to seriously consider whether their corporate cultures could tolerate the kind of open, direct communication that is required to make a corporate blog successful.

Indeed, some companies avoid corporate blogging for fear of encountering legal issues such as libel, copyright infringement and disclosure of confidential information.

ERA Singapore, a real estate company, is one such example.

Assistant vice-president Eugene Tan said the company is wary of its employees blogging about their work.

‘They have a duty to maintain confidentiality for the things they do at work,’ he said.

The concerns of these companies are not unfounded, given the spate of high-profile firings of employee bloggers.

Google dismissed an employee in January this year for discussing his life at the company in his personal blog.

A former Delta Air Lines flight attendant was sacked last year after posting inappropriate photographs of herself in the Delta uniform on her blog.

Ms Gardner, however, said: ‘For every individual who is ‘fired for blogging’, thousands more are using blogs to build trust and goodwill with customers, clients and constituents.’

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