CIO’s show caution on corporate blogs

Jim Turner of One By One Media posts that CIO’s are showing caution on corporate blogs.

…[P]erhaps CIOs are a little paranoid when referring to blogs, but in their defense, it is scary for companies to try something new.  Many businesses don’t want to be the leader in new and different ways of corporate communication.  They like to be copycat for the things that work.  Until companies begin to embrace blogs as an online marketing tool and a way to communicate with clients and customers, they will tread lightly, making sure that the water is warm before jumping in the pool. 

Jim cites Colt Telecom’s CIO Rob Wharton’s fear as a good example:

Blogs are popular because they tend to represent personal opinions and personality rather than corporate messages. Therefore we need to take a great deal of care to ensure appropriate use so we don’t devalue the blog concept, whilst avoiding mayhem in what essentially needs to be a controlled message.

But though showing a corporations personality may be scary Jim is right on that “Mr. Wharton needs to realize is consumers and customers want to see that personality and they don’t want the corporate speak of the controlled message.”

Technorati Tags: corporate blogging, business blogging