Bloggers have damaged a number of companies, but it's time to think of the blog as your friend. Skillful blogging can boost your company's credibility and help it connect with customers
The article mentions that General Motors has a corporate blog (fastlane.gmblogs.com). Sun Microsystems have a group blog (www.blogs.sun.com) that aggregates the employee blogs.
Article also shares "How bloggers connect", how to "Take a lead in the conversation", how blogs "Boost credibility and get closer to customers", how "To get the most from your blog".
That last point is worth noting if your library intend to start a blog. The article advises:
- Have a distinct focus and goal
- Feature an authentic voice. "Don't let the PR department write your blog"
- Are open to comment. "Permit both positive and negative posts on your blog, and reply to comments made on other blogs pertinent to your area of focus. Respond in a professional and businesslike way. If you don't want to hear from your customers and critics in a public environment, don't blog."
Question is "Does your library belong in the Blogosphere?"
A no-brainer?
Tag: library blog
I think most of the points mentioned about whether a company belongs to the blogopshere applies to the library too as you said. But the last point is the most defining one:
ReplyDeleteHow liberal is your organization towards blogging?
Right now blog efforts are limited to unoffical ones by individuals on my campus. Librarian blogs are ideal since the earnest is on them to be professional.
However the biggest difficulty I'm facing when evangelizing blogs in my university is the paradigm of control. If you look at the big picture, for an organization with individuals who blog, "control" is really something that is now in the hands of grassroots individual bloggers, rather than the upper management.
This is the big switch which I've to figure out a gradual solution for.
Maybe another way of looking at it, Kevin, is not "control" but of "trust". How much does "upper management" trust the "grassroots" to communicate responsibly? Also, how much trust do the "grassroots" generate for management? It has to work both ways. Both management and grassroots have is often an illusion of control. I think if we see blogging as a grassroots movement, then trust ought to be generated from the grassroots too, where some degree of "face" is to be given to "management" and gradually win them over. We cannot expect management to ease up just by saying "it's inevitable" or "you're control freaks".
ReplyDeleteLooking at trust instead of control is a more matured way of looking at the same problem... both of which are still things you can't just build overnight. What I'm trying to figure out is a forumla for this to happen more visibly, without clamming down the need for vetting of blog content.
ReplyDeleteFor example, one simple idea I shared with a few collegues was to make a university blog aggregator, which makes selected blogs and their content visible on one page. This might remind bloggers that their audience doesn't just consist of publics, but of their own people as well. I've got something like that running for Singaporeans bloggers in North America at http://what.isthereason.com (click on titles to see blog posts).
Thanks Stephanie. I look forward to a day when libraries would have the equivalent of what Sun Microsystems and Microsoft are doing. Sure, there would be problems like Comment Trolls and flamers, but the good will outweigh the bad.
ReplyDelete