Good article on the topic of company blogs and the new thinking needed to manage given the new communication system created by the internet, blogs etc.: Company bloggers can help put out fires:
“Our legal people and others were e-mailing and calling and asking me: ‘What are you doing? This is bad. You can’t do that,’ ” Menchaca says of his post on the Direct2Dell blog last August. “But I said: ‘This is what blogs are about. Everything has changed. We have to be transparent and honest. People are talking about this, they’re posting these images, we can’t ignore it. We have to deal with it directly.’ ” With the backing of founder Michael Dell, Menchaca weathered the internal storm and, as it turned out, won accolades not just from Dell customers, but from the business community over how the company managed to stickhandle around a disastrous public relations event.
As I have mentioned before, Dell really has made some good moves in this area. Sun CEO, Jonathan Schwartz, on using blogs to communicate:
Communication is central to leadership - using words, written or spoken, to articulate strategy, guide organizations, engage in dialogue, and … lead. Leading two or 200,000, you can’t do it without communicating. Using technology just leaves more time for everything else.”
Related: Dell, Reddit and Customer Focus - Your Online Presence - Blogging is Good for You
August 14th, 2007 at 5:45 pm
appreciate the perspective on Dell and blogs…and just wanted to say thanks for sharing more broadly with your readers. We live and learn every day…but the conversations and connections with customers and community are very valuable and we really appreciate the feedback we receive.