More Fortune 500 Companies Blogging
Add another one to the list...sort of. It doesn't get much bigger than "The Real Thing". Coca Cola (fyi, my grandfather worked for Coke for 27 years. We have so much cool memorabilia!) has joined the party.From the Atlanta Business Chronicle, staff writer Justin Rubner reports:
And on March 29, one Fortune 500, The Coca-Cola Co. (NYSE: KO), took its first step into the world of corporate blogging, albeit a baby step.
Coke's blog site, now allowing 50,000 employees to share ideas with each other, isn't the laissez-faire, just-about-anything-goes external blogs of companies such as Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) and General Motors Corp. (NYSE: GM). But it is indicative of the growing realization that blogs can be invaluable tools for companies wanting to disseminate and receive information in ways traditional media could never deliver.
But wait, there's more. In a more traditional blog application:
In January, cable provider Cox Communications Inc. launched an external blog called Digital Straight Talk, a source of opinions on issues affecting broadband customers.
Users on www.digitalstraighttalk.com can post and read viewpoints on high-definition television and other technologies, and even hear podcasts -- or digital audio Internet files -- of Cox President Pat Esser discussing the digital home of 2010. Typical users, said Cox spokesman David Grabert, are high-end customers, analysts and reporters.
He said Cox was the first major cable provider to launch such a blog and did so to cut through the misinformation presented by competitors, especially since the cable industry has grown increasingly competitive of late. With new pressures from telecos, Grabert said, Cox needed an outlet to quickly and informally respond to customer confusion.
Hmmmm. Quickly and informally respond. That's a critical element to a blog's success.
"We want it to be a dialogue," Grabert said. "We don't want it to be just another piece of our PR machine."
Bingo. That's exactly right. Now, let's see how long they can maintain that strategy. Therein lies the rub.
Interested in finding out more? ghostblogging@veritymedia.com.
posted by John Palmer @ 6:26 PM
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