Corporate Blog Council
We've been following with some interest the inception of the Blog Council, "a community for official corporate blogs and bloggers that represent major global corporations" that was recently formed by some very large corporations, including AccuQuote, Cisco, The Coca-Cola Company, Dell, Gemstar-TV Guide, General Motors, Kaiser Permanente, Microsoft, Nokia, SAP, Starwood Hotels and Resorts, and Wells Fargo.
Conspicuously absent from that blog cabal are Sun and IBM, each with thousands of employees who blog, and strong corporate commitments to blogging evident from notes on their respective company websites here:
Many of us at Sun are doing work that could change the world. We need to do a better job of telling the world. As of now, you are encouraged to tell the world about your work, without asking permission first (but please do read and follow the advice in this note). Blogging is a good way to do this.
and here:
As they'll tell you themselves, the opinions and interests expressed on IBMers' blogs are their own and don't necessarily represent this company's positions, strategies or views. But that doesn't mean we don't want you to read them! Because they do represent lots of business and technology expertise you can't get from anyone else.
IBMer Mike Moran adds on his Biznology Blog:
Many other companies use blogs to connect better with their customers through blogs. Blogs that are written by living breathing employees, not the PR department.
Our new corporate blog, Securing Innovation, was conceived by us as a group blog, with posts by all our employees who want to write articles and blog about their work for the company. As well, some of our executives have their own personal blogs about their special interests and expertise. Tom Petrocelli, our Senior Vice President for Enterprise Software, has his own blog, Tom's Technology Take, where he shares his thoughts about a wide range of technology issues beyond those he writes about here on the company blog.
IP.com is not a large corporation with hundreds and thousands of employees, but more than a few great ones, and we count among our clients many of these large companies that are developing best practices in corporate blogging. Like them, we're pretty much learning as we blog, and hoping to get better with experience in this engaging new medium for corporate communications.
