Corporate Blog: Is it really a dilematic decision?

In June 2006, SWAonline published an op-ed written by Amalia E. Maulana; a PhD candidate in UNSW School of Marketing, Australia. The title of Amalia’s op-ed is Corporate Blog: Dilematic Decision.

In her op-ed, Amalia stated that there are several reasons why having a corporate blog could become a dilematic decision IF corporate bloggers agreed to adopt the code of ethic in blogosphere.

Those reasons are:

1. The information disclosed in a blog should be honest; then how to control the flow of information of this blog? What if a corporate blog becomes a place where employees could posted their complaints towards the company?
2. Once a company decided to go blogging, they have to commit on their blog. Are they ready for this commitment?
3. Blog should not consists of advertisement. It is a 2-way communication tools that should reflects daily experience of bloggers that will lead into discussions. Then what if your corporate blog can’t lit up an interesting discussion?

She then brought an example about Google corporate blog that receives criticism for not adhering to blogosphere code of ethic.

What puzzles me is her few last statements about corporate blogging. According to Amalia, corporate blog is not a must for companies, considering the dilemma it caused. Furthermore, she said, “Companies that need blogs are market leaders wanting to positioned themselves as an expert in the industry … or those who wants to have a close relationship with their customer.”

My question to Amalia is: why don’t companies want to positioned themselves as an expert in the industry? And why don’t companies want to have a close relationship with their customer?

***

In his blog, Seth Godin, the author of Unleashing The Ideavirus, All Marketers are Liars, and Permission Marketing, published a post called 'Raveling'.

Seth illustrated a blog built by Emily Martin, a graduate from art school. Emily has a myspace page for her blog Inside A Black Apple; and starts selling her artwork on Etsy.com.

Inside A Black Apple captures Emily’s daily life, her dreams, as well as the history behind her new paintings and other cute artworks. Emily has only a small store in her apartment; but she has hundreds of views in Etsy and has sold more than 20.000 dollars worth of paintings so far. Hmm, does it ring a bell?

***

You can wait forever; but probably you’ll never become a market leader.
Does it mean you’re not going to consider blogging until then?

I think being a blogger is more into becoming an opinion leader. That’s why Mavericks go blogging at the first place, and I think that’s the reason why other bloggers do, too.

Note: Amalia is a member of Virtual Consulting, where his colleague Nukman Luthfie wrote about corporate blog. Amalia's post in SWAOnline is written before that particular posting appeared in Nukman's blog.