My former (future?) colleague Antony Mayfield has some useful advice for companies that are toying with the idea of engaging with the blogosphere (or 'buzz space' as it includes more than blogs alone).
This is an area that has fascinated me for several years and it finally appears that companies are beginning to recognise the impact that 'informal publishing' (for want of a better expression) can have on reputation and sales.
Antony's advice is sound and I particularly like his second and third points; like anything else (CRM, relationship marketing, paper recycling...), if a company is to be successful in its approach to new media forms it needs people to buy into a coherent, well thought out policy.
My view is that companies that bury their heads in the sand because they are too old-fashioned or, as Antony politely puts it, "timid" to address the phenomenon of web-based communications may well be heading for a shock some time soon. Fortunately, I know of some interesting developments that promist to make tracking 'buzz' considerably easier and I intend to write about some of these at some point in the future.
Thanks to David Rossiter for drawing attention to Antony's blog.
Posted by dompannell at October 12, 2005 12:18 PM