Unconvinced: Corporate Blogging

May 26, 2006
Top executives question credibility.

Blogging may be all the rage among the Internet-savvy, but top company executives have been slow to bestow any credibility to corporate blogs as a new communications medium, recent survey results show.

Just 5% of executives said they were convinced "to a great extent" that corporate blogging is growing in credibility as a communications medium, while the percentage dropped to 3% of executives who were convinced "to a great extent" that corporate blogging is growing in credibility as a brand-building technique. As a sales or lead-generation tool, the percentage dropped to less than one.

The survey on corporate blogging was conducted by Harris Interactive on behalf of New York-based public relations firm Makovsky + Co.

In addition, nearly half of all senior executives polled said they do not have corporate policies pertaining to blogging, while three-quarters believed they should.

"This reflects that the credibility of corporate blogs, whether sanctioned by the company or written by others, is growing, but that executives at top companies are slow to come to grips with recognizing their importance in building a dialogue with customers and other stakeholders-including critics," opines Makovsky Executive Vice President Robbin S. Goodman.

Other survey highlights show:

  • Some 12% of senior executives said their companies have taken legal or other action in response to a blog.
  • Twenty percent have a formal process in place for monitoring blogs written about the company.
  • One in five (21%) read business-related blogs once a week or more often.
  • Three-quarters (77%) reported that no one in their organization is writing a corporate blog.
  • Less than one-third (30%) reported having a thorough understanding of the term "Internet blog." (A blog or weblog combines text, links and images to form a personal journal full of news and opinion.)

Harris conducted this survey with 150 executives via telephone in February across a broad spectrum of industries and service companies.

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