Corporate ClueTrain

All Aboard! The Cluetrain is traveling to the following stops...

Time to board the ClueTrain

Who's on the train?

There will be talking on the train

Transparency on the train

Rules of the train, per Gillmor

It's a matter of trust

Conversation in everyday life

Conversations lead to community

Jenny Preece rides the ClueTrain

People, Purpose and Policies

Social Capital on the Cluetrain

Where do we go from here?

There is still uncertainty among CEO-types about the value of blogging. Joe Queenan, in an October issue of Chief Executive writes that since there is little monetary value in blogging, a CEO has better things to do with his (or her) time. A recent survey by Burson-Marsteller revealed that only 7% of CEOs surveyed actually blog, though CEOs do see the value in blogs for promoting internal communication and for communicating with external audiences. A recent Harris/PRSA survey "finds that majorities of general consumers, executives and congressional staffers are more likely to think traditional marketing methods are acceptable practices over non- traditional techniques."

An Edelman survey found that employee blogs are more credible than corporate blogs, and bloggers unassociated with a company would prefer to interact with employee bloggers over other company representatives. One of their key findings is that even though 51% of bloggers are blogging about company products, they are not often contacted by that company.

Who else is experimenting with blogs and blogads?

Budget
The Budget Scavenger Hunt includes both blogs and blogads

Business Week Magazine
An article in Folio describes the blogs BW has started in their Tech Beat and Deal Flow sections

Hasbro
Hasbro is using blogads to promote is new 70th edition of Monopoly

Microsoft

The WSJ even has their favorites...

I decided to do my own sleuthing among the top 25 brands, as ranked in the Top 100 Global Brands by InterBrand, thinking that the brands with the most brand equity would be most likely to utilize every channel possible to promote their brands, including blogging or online communities. Out of those top 25 brands, only six had employee blogs and five had pr type customer-focused blogs. Those brands with employee blogs include Microsoft, IBM, GE, Hewlett-Packard, Dell, and Ford. Notice that five of those six are technical firms. Interesting... The firms with customer blogs include Coca-Cola, Intel, Nokia, Hewlett-Packard, and Cisco.

The remaining question is, will other brands think of blogging and creating online communities as a fad, or will they take it seriously and "get on the cluetrain?"

In taking this class, reading these books and observing the Sun blogs, my goal is to help organizations "get a clue" by understanding how to use blogging as a tool to promote two-way communication with their constituents, ultimately resulting in loyal customers, vibrant online communities, and social capital.

In corporate/pr speak, corporations need to do a better job building relationships with consumers, or their publics, using an authentic voice. In Cluetrain talk, "Loyalty to a company is based on respect. And that respect is based on how the company has conducted itself in conversations with the market. Not conversing, participating, is not an option. If we don't engage people inside and outside our organization in conversation, someone else will. Start talking (p. 73)."

The end result of the conversation will be social capital--loyalty--to the organization. Nan Lin (2001) has written about social capital and defines social capital as “investments in social relations with expected returns in the marketplace (p.19).” He quotes Levi-Strass (1949) when he says that “it is the exchange which counts and not the things exchanged (p. 146).” And, Lin (2001) says, “its motive its to maintain a group or community (p. 148).” He adds that trust is a critical component of those exchange relationships, in that it “reduces the complexity of the world (p. 148).” He also addresses how a firm can utilize its reputation “to mobilize the support of others for both instrumental and expressive actions (p. 150).” Grunig (1993) suggests that a firm “earn a good reputation early, because it is difficult to replace an existing reputation with a new one (p. 135). Grunig (1993) examines the fuzzy concept of image, and suggests that a firm must be concerned with more than just public perception of its image, but must be concerned with the substance of its relationship with its publics, as well. Grunig (1993) correctly identifies that “although it may be difficult for large organizations to communicate personally with all members of their publics, they have means other than the media to communications with publics (p. 123.” When Grunig (1993) wrote this, blogging was not widespread, but today, blogging nicely solves the problem that he identifies that prevents an organization from forming a relationship with its public.

Grunig (1993) differentiates between symbolic and behavioral communication. Symbolic communication is quest for positive images (Grunig, 1993); concerned with what an organization communicates to its publics—one-way communication about its image. He contrasts behavioral communication as a longer-term strategy of building substantive relationships with publics based on: “reciprocity, trust, credibility, mutual legitimacy, openness, mutual satisfaction, and mutual understanding (p. 135).” Creating blogs or online communities have the potential to build all of these attributes with an organization’s publics by sharing information in an authentic voice.
In examining whether or not a company should encourage blogs as a way to communicate with their constituents, the best avenue to build social capital, then, would be the blogs that promote an exchange of information, or work to create a dialogue between the company and its customers, thereby reducing the complexity of the relationship, building one that has greater trust. This is precisely what the communities on the Sun website are doing.

Lin (2001) argues (contrary to Putnam) that social capital in cybernetworks is increasing due to increased access to information and technology as well as the ability of people to reach out across boundaries of time and space. Howard Rheingold (2003) in "Smart Mobs" observes that "Trading knowledge isn't new. ...one of the most attractive social innovations enabled by virtual communities was the way members could serve as information hunters and gatherers for each other" to provide collaborative filtering (p. 116). "Reputation is even more important in commerce than it is in conversation (p. 123)."

Tönnies would define the Sun community as Gemeinschaft, or community that has a shared belief or shared will. These Sun bloggers definitely exhibit more than self-interest (Gesellschaft) in the way that they share information, comment back and forth, link to each other, and show up on each other's blogroll.

The potential of this social capital and conversation is to create “a group of people who care about each other more than they have to (Cluetrain Manifesto, 1999).”