Brief History of Blogs

According to Wortham (2007), the first person to coin the term “weblog”, which is more commonly known as a blog, was Jorn Barger on December 17, 1997, who used the term to describe his Internet browsing history. Today there are well over 7 million active Internet blogs that outline everything from the silly to the sublime. Many blogs are of a political nature and are popular attractions for people looking for the story behind the story. Arianna Huffington, founder of huffingtonpost.com, says that bloggers are the “pit-bulls of journalism” who focus attention on issues that we may never see in the newspapers (Wortham, 2007). On the other side of the spectrum, many blogs are nothing more than personal online diaries. Time magazine in 2004 noted the increasing popularity of weblogs as blogs can help families keep in touch with each other (time.com, 2004). Many are now sharing pictures and family news with each other using blogs instead of communicating via the telephone.
The commercial application for weblogs within the e-commerce world is growing as well. A prime example of the commercial application can be found at one of America’s premier companies, Boeing. Boeing’s Vice President of Marketing, Randy Tinseth, writes a blog that is sanctioned and hosted by Boeing to serve as a means of delivering news of the 787 Dreamliner as it readies for its first flight. Tinseth’s blog is the most current source available on the Internet for news of the Dreamliner 787 and is an example that many companies could emulate. However, this is a company sponsored blog and not a blog that is written by an “average” employee. Glove Girl on the other hand wrote about Lancaster-Webb within her musings on her personal life. This dichotomy presents interesting challenges to companies looking at how to utilize blogs to promote business.

The Pros of Blogs

At first glance, Will Somerset, CEO of Lancaster-Webb Medical Supply was negatively taken aback with the knowledge that one of his employees, affectionately known as Glove Girl, was blogging about company happenings. After taking a closer look, the line of benefit and harm to the company became more difficult to distinguish. Companies like Lancaster-Webb today are discovering that blogging can be beneficial, if done correctly. Though Glove Girl had the best intentions, there may be a few tricks to learn to make her blogging skills invaluable.
In the present economy, firms are looking for ways to cut costs where they can and blogging can be a cost-efficient form of marketing. Sullivan (2009) stated that corporate blogs can operate as forums which inspire feedback and promote industry discussion. Many customers turn to a company’s blog to find out information about the company and find out what it would be like to do business with them. Customers can receive advice and up to date information about products and services. Glove Girl did just this for those who read her blog. She answered questions, gave updates, and provided insight to Lancaster-Webb products.
Why were people so drawn to Glove Girl’s blog? Glove Girl was able to do what many blogs do for corporate America: make the impersonal personal (Sullivan, 2009). A company’s website may have all the necessary information to make an informed decision about whether to become a customer, but a blog helps a person to see the company’s personality by creating a human experience in an otherwise impersonal forum. Aaron Tucker, the Vice President of Killer Chef says, “I think the blog allows individuals the flexibility to engage as they wish, whereas the e-mailed newsletter is something a person has to opt into… One is far less intrusive than the other. Also, a blog, if done well, can get picked up by other Web sites, and this will lead to increased Web site traffic and improved Google rankings” (Sturdivant, 2009, p. 27). The blog allows a customer to see the company for what it really is, not only the parts that marketers want people to see.
As CEO of Lancaster-Webb, Somerset is tasked with actively promoting the business and continuing to explore ways in which the company can continue to increase its leading market share. While intrigued by the possibilities of a corporate blog, Somerset also had some reservations as to how Lancaster-Webb could build upon Glove Girl’s popularity and operate within the confines of company policy. The biggest challenge to Lancaster-Webb is to outline a strategy for developing the company’s blog.
Sullivan (2009) offers a few recommendations when establishing a company blog that Somerset and Lancaster-Webb should keep in mind. The first step in establishing a corporate blog is to plan ahead, establish your business objectives, and stick with them. The person writing the blog should understand the company’s brand and share its values. While immensely experienced and talented, Glove Girl was operating outside the confines of a defined marketing plan. Ironically, one of Lancaster-Webb’s own customers admitted to Somerset that Glove Girl was more persuasive than any of its own advertising (Suitt, 2003).
The second step is to recruit talent (Sullivan, 2009). A person who has an authentic voice and shows a passion for sharing information with customers should be in charge of the blog. Lancaster-Webb is extremely fortunate in this case as Glove Girl is already in place. She has the talent and the following and can be used to help spread the marketing and advertising message for Lancaster-Webb.
The third step in creating an effective company blog is to create a schedule (Sullivan, 2009). While daily posts can be overwhelming and messy, companies should post to their blog often to keep information fresh. While over 7 million blogs are active, there are nearly an additional 93 million blogs that have been created and no longer updated (Wortham, 2007). A company such as Lancaster-Webb cannot afford for its blog to dry up.
Finally, a company must make sure to keep its blog interesting. Pictures, videos and interesting facts can keep viewers intrigued and wanting to come back for more information. Readers of blogs are becoming more accustomed to features of blogs beyond the text. As social media becomes increasingly personalized, Lancaster-Webb can look for ways to offer interesting and visually appealing elements to its blog to continue to attract the interest of its customers.
If Lancaster-Webb can help Glove Girl sharpen these areas, the blog can produce great things. The more often a customer comes back to view its blog the business increases its chances of creating a sale.

Cons of Blogging

While Lancaster-Webb is benefitting from Glove Girl‘s blogging about their products, there is significant risk to the company in having an employee writing about the company without being officially sanctioned, managed, or monitored by the organization’s marketing and risk management departments. For example, Glove Girl reported that the Houston Clinic, a potential buyer of Lancaster-Webb’s new glove line, had a much higher cesarean delivery rate than other others in the market. Glove Girl, before having all of the facts about the situation and not knowing that there was a valid reason for the clinic having such a high cesarean rate, alienated a potential client of the company (Suitt, 2003). This arguably would not have happened had the blogger, Glove Girl, been connected with the marketing or communications department of the company.
Another significant risk the company is allowing Glove Girl on her own to blog about the company. Glove Girl has built a large and loyal audience by blogging about the company and its products on her own and there is a chance she could become a disgruntled employee and have control of a significant forum where she could just as easily write negative entries in her blog. Brody and Wheelin (2005) wrote of the act of “cybersmearing”, an act in which former and current employees have maliciously disclosed confidential information and engaged in personal and professional attacks against management that have, in some cases, undermined the stock price of the company (p. 12). By allowing Glove Girl to be a de facto spokesperson for the organization, Lancaster-Webb is giving her credibility that she could later use to harm the company.
By allowing an employee to provide information on the Internet about a company’s product, the company runs the risk of the general public mistaking the blogger for being an official spokesperson for the organization. A fear that a company’s communication or marketing department will have regarding a company blogger is that the blogger gets off message. This is a legitimate concern for Lancaster-Webb since so many of Glove Girl’s followers could view her as officially representing Lancaster-Webb. Thus, anything she says that is not correct could undermine the company’s strategies. Allowing Glove Girl to continue in an unofficial capacity will put the organization at risk for misrepresentation, malicious conduct, and alienating current and potential customers.

Alternatives for Lancaster-Webb

Blogs were created to allow people to create an online journal of their thoughts and ideas and to publish them for view by the general public. While blogs began as a personal endeavor, they are starting to become a business phenomenon as well, with company-sanctioned blogs being written by executives and managers. Companies must also proceed with extreme caution when sanctioning company-sponsored blogs or in allowing employees to blog about the company in such a public domain. How can Lancaster-Webb monitor or police employees like Glove Girl who are writing a personal blog but are sharing information, or misinformation, about the company? The first step would be to create a blog code of ethics that the employees who write personal blogs are to follow. In addition, Lancaster-Webb and companies in general should create a blogging policy as part of the confidentiality agreements they have employees sign when starting with a company.

As mentioned before, it is necessary to set some ground rules when allowing employees to blog about the company on their own time. As the idea of corporate blogging began to create traction in 2004, Charlene Li of Forrester Research created a list of six general principles that authors of internal company blogs should follow. However, these principles have a great deal of utility for external blogs that employees are writing and companies would be wise to ensure its employees are blogging by these principles:

1. Make certain any views expressed in the blog are the authors alone and do not necessarily represent the views of their employer.
2. Respect and protect the company’s confidentiality and proprietary information.
3. Confer with management regarding any questions about what is appropriate to include in a personal blog.
4. Be respectful to the company, employees, customers, partners, and competitors.
5. Understand when the company asks that topics not be discussed for confidentiality or legal compliance reasons.
6. Ensure that your blogging activity does not interfere with your work commitments. (Li, 2004, p.7)

These six general principles will help establish a set of rules for employees to follow. The challenge remains in keeping track of any personal blogs employees are authoring. The Internet is extremely large and it will be difficult for employers to find and monitor personal blogs, though it may be easier for these companies to find its employees on social networking sites such as Facebook or MySpace. Because of the difficulty in monitoring employee blogs, a company should also create a ‘blog code of ethics’ that employees must sign when starting with a firm.
Most employees are accustomed to signing confidentiality agreements as well as agreements to understand and abide by a company’s code of ethics. However, it is likely safe to assume that these codes of ethics do not cover the recent advances in social networking. As a result, a company like Lancaster-Webb should either edit its existing code of ethics or create a separate code of ethics regarding the use of social media, particularly blogs, and how the employee represents the company. While there are many factors which need to be included in this code of ethics, the following are the most important aspects of a code that need to be included:

1. Tell the truth and write accurately,
2. Acknowledge and correct mistakes quickly,
3. Strive to create high-quality posts, including following the rules of basic grammar and utilizing spell-check,
4. Cite references or link to original sources directly whenever possible,
5. Disclose any conflicts of interest. (Li, 2004, p.10)
It appears that Glove Girl was following most of these rules as she was writing her own personal blog. In the case of the Houston clinic mentioned before, Glove Girl was quick to recant her opinions of the clinic when she learned of the reasons for the abnormally high rate of cesarean deliveries. The key thing that Glove Girl and Lancaster-Webb can learn from this particular example is that it is important to do research and to cite references when blogging about work, particularly when the subject of a post is an extremely important customer. While Glove Girl did correct her blog when she learned of the reasons behind the clinic’s high rate, the fact remains that irreparable damage could have been done and the correction may have been too late.