Debate on Corporate Blogs

I always wanted this blog to stay away from corporate issues but every now and then something blips on the radar that can’t be ignored. Bear with me for a minute.

If anyone has been watching, there have been some healthy (for want of a better word) exchanges of opinions going on between several key IT players over the past few weeks.

First HP used a favourable article on ZDNet to have a go at IBM and Dell on Eric Klintz’s Marketing Excellence blog. Lionel from Dell responds on the same thread but the argument dies.

Chris from MWW Group (PRs to Amazon.com among others) tracks back to this on their Open the Dialogue” blog and uses it as a healthy example of what blogging is all about – real people debating real issues head to head, without PR interference.

The thing is none of this “wanton sincerity” is true at all.

First of all, simply by debating on HP’s MARKETING EXCELLENCE blog, means that all sincerity flies straight out the window (remember, All Marketers are Liars, says Seth Godin).

Then I replied to Chris with a post just before Christmas about how difficult (artificial) it is to compare independent professional blogs to corporate ones. My post wasn’t published. True I’m a little guy, but the “Openness” of MWW Groups “Dialogue” is now in doubt.

Want to see a really open debate? One with real people arguing about real issues? Then read the vehemence over at Scoble’s blog following his dig at Apple after his son’s Mac Book Pro had problems, complaining that despite Apple’s poor service and Dell’s openness, the former gets good press while the latter suffers from the opposite.

The comments are what Scoble himself in his book Naked Conversations defined as “Tough Love”.

On corporate blogs it’s a different story and Klintz’s refusal to take the argument with Lionel any further is a clear demonstration of this.

True, a blog must by definition be open and personal, but surely not to the point where a company of the caliber of HP filters the replies it posts (read Lionel’s reply) and places a legal disclaimer at the foot of each page which reads:

“Opinions expressed here and in any corresponding comments are the personal opinions of the original authors, not of HP and may not have been reviewed in advance by HP.”

In this case, there is a certain inconsistency in what employees are saying about their companies, and how these same companies wish to be represented.

If you’re truly sincere, why not, as Dell has rightly done, stand by your comments and do without the disclaimer? At least that way you bind the underlying truth of your words to the principles, values and goals of the company you (directly or indirectly) represent.

And that’s where an intelligent marketing department enters the equation.

As I mentioned in my unpublished post, “I think that only the foolish would seriously believe that behind the apparent liberty with which Dell, HP and Lenovo people blog, marketing didn’t have a hand in establishing the general guidelines and best practices to be implemented.”

Look closely and you don’t find debate on corporate blogs. Discussion yes, and even some serious “link appreciation”, but not debate.

Investor relations, client loyalty and sheer common sense dictates that corporations of this scale will continue to foster brand awareness with the same care and attention they have devotedly applied since conception.

Blogging gives them another channel, it’s true. A more open channel for sure (with (unfiltered?) feedback to boot!), but a channel all the same.

And that’s how it should be.