Where cases come from
Halley Suitt has just published a HBS case on weblogging. I hate to say this since she runs such a good blog, but it looks from the abstract like yet another piece of hack fiction which will be pored over by students hoping for insight into the exciting world of blogging / business. It's at times like this that I'm sure case studies aren't the answer.Ahha, I've just noticed that it's also published in the Harvard Business Review, I'll add a more informed comment when I've read it (I'd link, but HBR online is subscription only).
Right. Reading over, here goes It is indeed another of the short stories the case editors at Harvard are so in love with. Our protagonist bounces from encounter to encounter with varying individuals who outline their views on the issue. In this case the issue is a blogger who's postings have had a serious impact on the sales of surgical gloves. Now I may be wrong here, but in all honesty I can't think of examples where bloggers have sold that kind of product in significant numbers.
Over at bloggerheads Tim has been trying this kind of thing for ages, and while he's made blogs an effective PR tool I'm not sure he's doing that well on the box shifting front. I know this blog is responsible for a few applicants to SBS and for reassuring many more potential MBA's about either the institution or MBA's in general, but I'm no more than an incidental benefit to the general marketing round here. I can shoot my mouth off all I like (Hell, I did, the least complementary bits of this post were quoted in an interview with the Times, no less) but it didn't make much difference.
Blogs are useful tools, good for building and sustaining relationships. That's why politicians and writers like them. They're not adverts though. If enough bloggers get together they might be able to shift something but not in the way described in the case.
Anyway, that's by the by. The real issue addressed is whether or not you want to keep bloggers in your organisation or turf them out. I'd love to keep them in, for a good company the best marketing you can do is to rip the lid off your organisation and show it's guts to the outside world. It may not shift a lot of product, but it's better for hiring new staff, keeping an eye on your company culture or speeding internal communication. For a bad company marketing of any kind is rarely the cure.
What you'd need of course would be company guidelines on writing about work for any employee who wants to do so. These need not be onerous - just the usual. Don't discuss confidential information, make clear that you're not official, don't badmouth clients or say things about co-workers you wouldn't say to their faces unless you're prepared to face the consequences. I'm rambling now. Maybe I'll tidy this post up later, and possibly ask Halley for a comment or two.