Social Networking

As mentioned in my previous post, I believe that blogs/wikis could positively impact numerous corporate settings due to its potential to enable various levels of employees to share their own knowledge and experiences on certain work-related topics. In Michael Barbaro’s article “Wal-Mart Tastemaker Write Unfiltered Blog,” we see that companies such as Wal-Mart have been able to gather more honest reviews on their current products by implementing a blogging platform for their employees and merchants. This particular initiative did not only improve Wal-Mart’s understanding of their customers’ preferences, but also helped them strategize in terms of revenue generation. Based on the positive results that Wal-Mart has achieved from creating a corporate blog, we are definitely bound to see more companies begin to follow in similar footsteps.

However, through the increased use of corporate blogs, employees could also begin to face heightened scrutiny from senior-level employees. The truth of this statement could be seen in James Dao’s article “Pentagon Keeps Wary Watch as Troops Blog.” As stated in the article, because various personnel have begun to utilize blogs, the American military is “policing their daily flood of posts, videos, and photographs” to make sure that all their content is in tune with their official voice. If this approach were to roll over to corporate blogs, employees could also risk having their own voices and opinions compromised for the sake of their employer’s image. 

Everything stated in this post, of course, is all based on speculation. We will only be able to find out the true benefits and damages of corporate blogs as more companies begin to incorporate such a platform in their respective settings.