Brand experience

Brand building and maintenance, giving the customer/user the opportunity to communicate directly and feel connected - that's another important potential role for Blogs in Business................

Blogs in business article

Howard Baldwin writes in the 1 January issue of Electronic Business Online, Blogs for business?

Forget about all the hype you've heard about blogs (a.k.a. Web logs) as the latest outlet for personal journalism. It turns out they also have a remarkable ability to aid communication in business, whether within internal workgroups or among external chains of suppliers and partners. For an industry such as electronics—where relationships are far-flung and time-to-market pressures require fast communications—blogs can bring a new agility to the workforce.

[via micropersuation via new KM blogger Eugene Giudice]

And there is a great quote from Phil Gomes, "blogs work best internally as a knowledge management tool, because information can be made so easily accessible."  We all know about blogs as external communication vehicles, because that is what people see.  But internally, they can become part of a conversation and community strategy.  And blogs (and wikis) are also excellent tools for recording information we don't want to lose. 

Of course, this all needs to fit within the overall strategy for the organization.  The article also mentions, briefly, that several companies have tried blogs internally and their usage morphed as they learned what to do with them and how blogging should or should not be part of the job description. 

11:18:30 PM    

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Information Today Analyzes Google's Digitization Project. Librarians, academicians, journalists, information industry pundits, and real people continue to ring in with comments, concerns, quarrels, and commendations for Google’s new library program. 'This is the day the world changes,' said John Wilkin, a University of Michigan librarian working with Google. 'It will be disruptive because some people will worry that this is the beginning of the end of libraries. But this is something we have to do to revitalize the profession and make it more meaningful.' [SNT Report]

Been following the Google discussions concerning the digitalization project and this link is a fine summary from a respected information guru, Barbara Quint. I agree with those in her summary that believe the direction that Google is taking will strenthen the role of librarians and libraries...........And after, all our goal is to encourage and facilitate information access.........

10:43:22 PM    

There's No Escaping the Blog. Freewheeling bloggers can boost your product—or destroy it. Either way, they've become a force business can't afford to ignore. [SNT Report]

…….a company's worst PR nightmare, its best chance to talk with new and old customers, an ideal way to send out information, and the hardest way to control it. Blogs are challenging the media and changing how people in advertising, marketing, and public relations do their jobs.

It should be obvious that a brand experience cannot be build or maintained by ignoring the presence of blogs, it is viral marketing created virally (mine)

10:26:47 PM