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September 27, 2005
Edelman / Intelliseek Trust "MEdia" white paper
I recently read the Trust "MEdia" white paper from Edelman and Intelliseek. While the entire report is worth reading, one statistic that came out of Edelman's 2005 Trust Survey struck me as a real trend shifter. According to the report:
"Peoples' trust has shifted from authority figures to 'average people like you.' In fact 56% of Americans trust only the opinions of physicians and academicians more than they trust the opinions of people like themselves."
Given the personal nature of blogs, is it any wonder they are becoming such a trusted source of information? This statistics also tells me that companies that continue to employ a top-down, command and control style of corporate communications will eventually lose touch with key audiences such as consumers, investors and employees.
This trend is why Robert Scoble is the face of Microsoft to many people. While blogs won't replace traditional corporate communication tactics, companies need to figure how to integrate them into the mix as audiences will continue to look for this trusted channel to form their overall opinion of a company.
As the old saying goes "If you don't tell your story, someone else will" and these days people want to hear that story from people like themselves, aka - employee bloggers.
Posted by kpoor at 10:36 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 15, 2005
Google sidebar more functional than widgets
I've been using the new Google sidebar for several weeks and would highly recommend it. What seperates it from widget based applications such as Yahoo's Konfabulator is that it is always visible. I really like the design of many of the Konfabulator widgets but I find that throughout the day, my desktop is usually not visible so I am not viewing the information very often. The Google application wins the battle of functionality, which, in my mind, is always the most important characteristic of Web sites and applications.
Posted by kpoor at 08:32 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 01, 2005
Melcrum Webinar on Internal Blogs
I spent a valuable hour yesterday listening to a webinar hosted by Melcrum titled "Blogs and their implications on internal communication - are you ready for that call?"
The speakers were Neville Hobson, communications guru and author of the NevOn blog, and David Berger, Manager, Employee Strategy Communications for IBM.
While I found the whole program extremely uesful and well done, I was particularly struck by a comment made by Mr. Berger at the end of his presentation. He said that being part of the blogging community with in IBM has taught him more about the company, its products, services and people than he could have ever imagined.
This statement summed up for me what blogs can bring to the process of internal communications. Isn't this what most companies want as an end result of their internal communication efforts? Employees that understand the entire company, not just the area they touch?
As I speak to clients about employee blogging, I will be using this as an example of what blogging can accomplish. As was pointed out by both Neville and David, it takes careful planning and execution to get there, but when done right, new technologies such as blogs and wikis can provide pwerful and productive end results in internal communications.
Posted by kpoor at 07:28 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
