Posted by Todd at June 19th, 2006

Over the past six months, one thing keeps popping up at conferences and in client meetings: if corporate communication teams want to use blogs in the enterprise they better call them something other than blogs. 

 

Feedback tools.  Fine.  Online newsletter.  Great.   Company webinars.  That seems to be okay too.  But say the word blog and you’re likely to run into resistance.  Lots of it.

 

For some organizations – and let me stress “some organizations” – the use of blogs is a huge leap into a whole new world full of mystery.  In fact, the use of blogs has a similar feel to how larger enterprises reacted to the use of message boards and chat room back in the late ‘90’s.  Most of the resistance back then centered on and around issues of control.  Today, blogs seem to be tripping the old control warning lights in many IT and legal departments.  In fact, a few organizations have told me that their ban on blogging is an extension of their monitoring in addition that their IT departments are blocking access to certain file types like MP3’s.

 

No matter what we call it, blogging is not about being a trailblazer or creating a competition to see what department can be the most innovative this quarter.  Using blogs is a competitive advantage based on creating a shared understanding about aspects of the enterprise where employees have a difficult time expressing their needs or experiences. 

 

If you’re trying to get sign off internally on using a blog to support corporate communications, call it a newsletter. Just don’t call it a blog.

TAGS: Blogs