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Only 16% Trust Corporate Blogs: Are They Worth Doing?

Posted by: Heather Green on December 09

The response from Forrester Research is it depends. But the bottom line is that based on survey research the firm released a report today, it’s time for some rethinking of corporate blogs. (To get the report you have to hand over some contact data).

Forrester found that 16% of the people who read company blogs trust them—less than every other form of content they asked about, including print media, direct mail, even corporate emails.

The funny thing from my perspective is that those that read blogs regularly trust corporate blogs more, though still less than most other forms of content. And 39% of those who blog at least once a month trust them, Forrester says.

Forrester has some advice for corporate blogging that works. (Flogging products isn’t one of the strategies….) Among the things they recommend is don’t blog about products, blog about customers’ problems. Blog if you’re a celeb like Amazon’s Bezos or Mark Cuban. Also, if you’re popular or inspire cult-like following, like Apple, it doesn’t matter what you blog. People will read it. And keep your employees blogging. A wide range of voices, like the thousands of bloggers at IBM and Sun, seems to have more credibility than just one corporate one.

But the old saw about blogging to have a voice? Forrester calls that the weakest rational of all. It’s only good for PR, which may be necessary if you’re Dell and under siege for your customer service. But putting a voice on what’s essentially press releases doesn’t make you more trustworthy. Inevitably, then, it seems like there’s much less room for corporate blogging than some companies think. And also less room to think that you might be taking people in through corporate blogging that’s all about spin.

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Reader Comments

Greg

December 9, 2008 01:24 PM

To get the report you have to pay $279.

Michael E. Rubin, Blog Council

December 9, 2008 01:37 PM

Heather,

There are actually examples of corporate blogs that do write about products in a fun and friendly way. As it was pointed out in the report, Dell, Rubbermaid, and Microsoft all do this pretty well. In fact, Microsoft's Outlook blog is one of my favorite blogs (corporate or non-corporate) because it's fun, friendly, and informative. It also just happens to be about a subject I care about (email productivity).

Some corporate blogs that do blog about their products and do it well:

Intel
Lenovo
Nokia
Sharpie
Walmart

All are Blog Council members, BTW. You can find other examples here: http://is.gd/aS5J

Cheers,
Michael

----
312-932-9000 / michael@blogcouncil.org / twitter: merubin
I am a Blog Council employee and this is my personal opinion.

Heather Green

December 9, 2008 01:53 PM

Hi Michael,

Actually in the report, Josh Bernoff doesn't really classify any of those as blogging about products. He says that Rubbermaid works because they're blogging about an issue (getting organized). Microsoft works because its employees blogging. Dell is considered one of blogs companies need to do to give themselves a voice outside of press releases because it was responding to a PR crises, namely bad criticism.

Heather Green

December 9, 2008 02:00 PM

Greg,

I had the wrong link there before. I just used the link Forrester gave me and got to download the report for free.

Jon Garfunkel

December 9, 2008 06:01 PM

The report has 2 pages of data, and 2 pages of speculation. e.g., "Our rule of thumb is that if the person reading the blog says, 'Sure I don’t trust corporate blogs, but I don’t think of your blog that way,' then you’re on the right track."

That's pure speculation, and it goes on from there. (Did Microsoft really suffer because Robert Scoble left? And BuzzMetrics losing Max?)

The whole problem is this vague notion of "trust" from the survey. Better questions should be asked: when you go to look for information for a product, where do you look, and what do you make of that information?

Greg

December 9, 2008 08:42 PM

Thanks, Heather. I was able to get the report thanks to your link.

Dan Erwin

December 12, 2008 03:22 PM

That's exactly why my motto is:
NEVER RETIRE.

Why give up power, money, fun, learning and growth? Makes no sense to me.
www.danerwin.com

Chris Parente

December 12, 2008 05:08 PM

Heather -- good post. If corporate blogs just recycle company news they can't become a good channel. I like to say thought leaders have to have thoughts, and market knowledge to back them up.

Wrote about one such example here: http://tinyurl.com/5au42j

Merry New Year!

steve baker

December 16, 2008 01:36 PM

I agree with Jon. Questions in surveys like this bring up all sorts of responses, but not necessarily honest answers. It's more effective to look at people's behavior, to see which corporate blogs they read, and how often. Those numbers alone, though, won't provide much guidance about whether it's worth it for companies to blog. If only a few important customers value the blog, that might be enough. It's a question of digging into the data.

Agitationist

December 31, 2008 04:06 PM

Well said, Heather.
A different take on the Forrester Report from a media strategist's perspective:
http://agitationist.com/corporate-blogs-arent-trusted-forrester-research

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In Blogspotting Senior Writer Stephen Baker and Associate Editor Heather Green take a look at how cutting-edge technologies are changing business and society. Whether its blogs or wikis, data crunching or data targeting, technology’s advances are reshaping the world that we live in.

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