Discover how web-logging sometimes becomes k-logging through this article. It underlines the key advantages of using several weblogs to sustain the KM process in an organisation.

“Web-logging is more than just a cool form of web publishing. Savvy corporate k-loggers have proven that it can be a useful way to capture and share knowledge…”

It also touches the concepts of taxonomy and aggregation of multiples feeds or sources of information.

“A recent market brief by Forrester Research suggests that organizations have begun to move away from single-solution KM packages. A report by Deloitte Research supports this opinion.”

Via Franck Dumesnil.

Richard Giles shares the talk he gave during Perth’s Blog Nite. He starts by presenting his view on the development of the Internet (research, commercialisation and humanisation) as an introduction to some good reasons for companies to blog:

1. Because the internet is humanising, and blogs help humanise a company.
2. Because the blogosphere helps keep your finger on the pulse of the industry, and being a part of that sphere adds credibility.
3. Because consumers are smarter today. E.g. We are sick of corporate speak. We can see right through it.
4. Because it means you can communicate with your communities unfiltered, and it promotes instant feedback.
5. Because it builds a network.
6. Because of Google.
7. Because you become the expert.

Via CorporateBloggingBlog.

The Top 10 Ways to Lose Your Intranet Users. Why are we not surprised about the reason #1? In other words, what are companies waiting for to implement intrablogs?

Via Column Two.

This is probably a ‘must read’: a Morgan Stanley report about the future potential of blogs and RSS.

Via Small Business Trends.

We just discovered another corporate blog maintained by Pran Kurup, the CEO himself: News, Views and Updates on Online Learning.

Via Dana’s Blog.

Sun Microsystems interviews Tony Perkins about why business executives and marketers need to be all over the blogosphere before it is all over them.

“All great companies pay attention to what their customers are saying. Getting a perspective on how their company and products are perceived in the market, and whether they have any market positioning or public relations issues is extremely valuable.

Blogging is a powerful way to communicate openly in a market. We call it “open source media” because you can have that direct dialogue and understand why a customer may or may not want to buy from you.

Yet executives like Jonathan Schwartz, who has been brave enough to start his own blog, are very much the exception rather than the rule. Smart executives will realize that blogging allows them to communicate directly with users, potential customers, and strategic partners and to create a direct dialogue with those people without the media getting in the way.”

Via The Blog Herald.

PR Pro can’t ignore blogging.

“We are today in a world of transparency, where any news comes to the awareness of everyone who’s seeeking it…. The blogosphere is in the same time our best friend and our worst enemy. That’s why no one involved in communication should dare ignoring blogging.”

Corporate Engagement: A new spin on blogging.

“… many see blogging as an opportunity to move away from the idea of PR as an attempt to control communication through ‘messages’ and clever media tactics (spin). There is no doubt that blogs are proving to be useful extra tools in the communications armoury. Many contributors discussed practical applications from corporate blogs that give customers a stronger sense of connection with an otherwise impersonal organisation, to crisis management blogs that can be used to counter media misinformation in the shortest possible time.”

Via Guillaume du Gardier.

Why Every Site Needs RSS.

“If you add a new web page, or make substantial changes to existing pages, how do you let your customers (both former and future) know? You can email your former customers, but spam blocking software will prevent half of them from getting your message. And keeping track of mailing lists, unsubscribe requests and address changes is nothing short of a nightmare.”

Via Debbie Weil.

RSS presented as the next great marketing tool.

“An increasing number of companies are doing it. Most sophisticated content providers already have feeds.”

Via Le blog de iFeedYou.

Read on The House of Squarespace:

“… word-of-mouth spreads at a ridiculous speed in the blogosphere and is so fast that companies can not keep up unless they maintain a blog themselves. With a blog, a company is able to announce their mistake and provide an explanation the same day as the mistake is found within the blogosphere. Traditionally, you would have to wait for a press release a couple of days later at the earliest.”

David Sifry publishes his 4th post about the growth of the blogosphere: Corporate Bloggers, people who blog in an official or semi-official capacity at a company, or are so affiliated with the company where they work that even though they are not officially spokespeople for the company, they are clearly affiliated. The chart shows that there are currently 5 big (identified) players comprising a wide community of bloggers: Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, SAP, Macromedia and Oracle. As David says,

“… we are still at the relative start of accepted use of blogging as a part of corporate policy - and that there is still a tremendous opportunity for forward-thinking companies and management to have a significant positive impact on their public perception by encouraging an enlightened blogging policy, encouraging openness both within and outside of the organization.”

Via CorporateBloggingBlog.

Via le blog de iFeedYou: further to the success of Art Of Speed, a weblog to promote Nike products, Heaven, in collaboration with the blog Agency, created the daily snkr blog, another weblog dedicated to Nike, in french this time.

Business leaders have come to value what they once feared about weblogs: these online diaries provide an easy way to reach a large audience. This short article explains why weblogs bring marketing power.

“The real promise of blogs, however, lies in their tremendous marketing power. For just a few hundred dollars, companies can start a buzz about new products, tout awards won, and generally blow their own horns.”

Via Dana’s Blog.

Ellen Finkelstein explains on Robin Good’s reviews how to keep unified documents up to date with RSS Corporate Document Management. This way it is easy to keep a record of policies, procedures, current prices, or other important information and to make it easily and quickly available for employees, clients, or the public to refer to.

“The RSS feed notifies subscribers of new items as they are changed and links back to the site. Finally, you have a system that combines a permanent, organized source of information with instant notification of changes, all in one process.”

We’ve been talking quite a lot about corporate blogging, and companies advertising on their own weblog. Here is another view on using industry blogs (other companies’ blog) to promote your products.

“An industry blog talks from the perspective of a respected third party that has nothing to gain from your product’s doing well, other than offering something useful to its audience.

Moreover, people are becoming increasingly immune to marketing talk. These days, most of us are able to sense company-driven trumpet blowing a mile away, and we discount the flowery adjectives accordingly.

In contrast, company news mentioned by a leading industry blog will be objective—and from a trusted source—so it’s more likely that people would listen.”

More to read at The Power of the Industry Blog. Via CorporateBloggingBlog.

5 ways to use RSS to boost your business or organisational success:

1. Create An “Announcements And Special Offers” Feed
2. Create A “Client of the Week” Feed
3. Create A Training Or Team Feed
4. Create an inter-office feed
5. Schools, non-profits and other organizations - RSS works for you too!

Via Weblogger.ch.

“Headline Syndication for Intranets” is a good article about how to solve common visibility problems on corporate intranets. Most people probably only access a small, narrow portion of the intranet’s information. They aren’t aware of what the rest of the intranet can offer because they don’t browse beyond their normal “info-grazing” range. One solution is to feed relevant content to them, in nice, digestible chunks of headlines, allowing employees to quickly browse and choose what is relevant to them at that particular moment.

Also, the article underlines a key point: feeds aren’t just for “news.” In fact, done right, they invert the traditional relationship between news maker and consumer. By highlighting potentially everything that is new (as opposed to official corporate news), headline syndication can empower employees to decide what is novel and meaningful to them as individuals, then read accordingly.

Via Column Two.

Have a look at this insight into product weblogs (as well as valuable advice) by Gary Petersen.

• Weblog software needs to be easy to use and available to multiple people. The weblog must be easy to update.
• When you set up your weblog software, you need to make your complete articles available in your RSS feed.
• Search for what other people and companies are writing about your products and leave comments thanking them on their weblogs.
• Post often in order to keep your site populated with fresh content. This keeps customers and prospects coming back to read what you are writing. Second, you will be found by the search engines. Third, it helps you with search engine ranking.

Rich Ord, CEO of iEntry Inc. pusblishes The Blog Marketing Explosion, and concentrates on weblogs maintained by CEOs, possibly, the most powerful type of corporate marketing per dollar spent ever invented.

Via Micro Persuasion.