Among the many different forms of communication within an organization, blogs are one of them. They are a form of informal communication that can unveil an infinite amount of information about a company. In today's world, a majority of information is given in digital format, from emails, pictures, videos and within seconds can all be posted on a blog for the world to see. Once again, blogs do have their own pros and cons, however if used correctly, blogs have the potential to change a company like nothing before.
Advantages:
There are roughly "9 million blogs out there with 40 000 new ones popping up each day". Imagine all that information that is streaming through the Internet. Yes, most of it can be UN-usable, but the other percentage that can be used is whats important. These blogs can be talking about your own business, about your employees, about the companies visions, its needs and wants. A company can keep track of which classified information has been leaked or not. It can be used internally as well, as a means of getting employee feed back, and keeping everyone up to date with the most recent news and events. Blogs can be viewed as a way to harvest brand new ideas, and to collect potential new clients. With so many people using blogs, one can think of it as a new channel of mass media and mass marketing. Its essentially a tub of information, where you can pick and choose to see anything you want to see.
On the other hand, blogs must be used wisely!
Disadvantages:
It takes about 8 minutes to sign up to a website and begin creating your own blog. Essentially it just took you 8 minutes to become a self-publisher. At this point anyone can write whatever they want about anything. For organizations, this is scary. Blogging can be compared to the grapevine effect but instead of being within the confines of the company, its within the confines of the Internet. Whatever you write, anyone can see. Blog posts will linger through the Internet forever. Any information about a company or its employees will be available and there will be no way of removing it.
Final Note:
As already explained, blogs are a modern source of large amounts of information. Companies definitely need to look into blogs and follow what is going on. However, it is very important that they monitor blogs regarding their own company and their employees. Whatever is released onto the Internet is there to stay. As a final note, yes there are risks when blogging, however it is a modern tool that should definitely be used in order for organizations to collect massive amounts of information on other companies, marketing strategies, products, and clients. (Just to name a few)
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