A while back I happened to see a blog from a software developer at Microsoft that was actually hosted by the monolithic company at Redmond. The blog didn't cross any lines so to speak but it did have some very frank talk about the bloggers experiences while working for them. My first thought was, wow couldn't they get him fired if he said something negative about the company? Sure it might be wrong, but there are always layoffs and other workforce reduction programs that seem to sweep out those that don't seem to fit the corporate sponsored image. My next thought of course was about what would happen if he accidentally said to much, surely he is under an NDA?

Official corporate blogging seems to be the new trend, a way to show people that these guys running around in suits and ties with briefcases are still hip and trendy - they are trying to "relate". Yet blogging is a two way street, what happens when a disatisfied customer voices a compaint?

Well thats what recently happened at HP. According to this users story at Slashdot, HP was encourging senior staff members to start blogging but when a critical comment of HP was left on David Geess blog, the head of worldwide marketing for HP's management software business, the comment was deleted and the users account suspended.

HP followed up by restoring the comments and appologizing for deleting them in the first place but would this have happened at all if the story didnt appear on the front page of Slashdot?

Corporate Blogging is apparently a two way street and as effectively as it may help promote a company or a product, it can easilly cut the other way and spread the word about how bad a product or service might really be. Its a daring new medium and I think its only the start as the world becomes more interactive. When a single customer complaint can be heard by thousands by the end of a single day, companies will have to take the time to ensure customer satifaction as part of a healthy PR advertising program.

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Final Fantasy

Blogging can be a really effective PR medium for a company or a disaster for them. Blogs are a wonderful thing - if you say something worthwhile on your blog, people listen to you and if you say or do something dumb then people ignore you!

When you start promoting your products using community channels (blogs, forums, social networking etc.), the whole thing becomes democratic and you even have to directly face the criticism. This is something new to the old corporate world and a lot of them are not able to adjust in the changed order.