Corporate Blogging and Reputation Management

There was quite a stir this week over a posting a summer intern made on Jeff Jarvis's blog on behalf of Dell. Personally I find the blog posting unbelievable, even for a summer intern. No matter what he thinks of Jeff and his postings this was unprofessional and bad etiquette under any guidelines. Richard Edelman called it "A Serious Case of Malpractice", well stated Richard.

The irony is that early that day Scoble posted a recommendation that there be a "two-week moratorium against saying anything bad about a new corporate blog" and was positive about Dell's attempt to participate in the conversation going on to offer design and marketing advice. This, too, was well stated. What I find refreshing about Robert's postings is he is fair and reasonable. He welcomes new comers to the blogging world and uses his readership to promote the good aspects of consumer media.

What I observed about this set of postings is that Dell has recognized the power of consumer media and is listening and participating. There is so much great information out there on a customer's experience with your brand, both your products and your service. How much money have marketers paid trying to collect this information in a traditional fashion and only been able to get a sampling? This is the marketers gold mine of customer data, but only if you want to hear the truth. Once you hear what is being said, you have the opportunity to respond. Using the power of blogging, you can share your plans to improve the areas that need improving and provide additional information to defend your brand's reputation. One of my favorite case studies on this is the story of Six Apart in the book Naked Conversations. Sorry you have to buy the book to get the story =)

It's too bad this intern had to get this started on such a bad note. Now Dell has to dig out further and has more damage to it's reputation. As for the summer intern that posted:

Chris Says:

July 11th, 2006 at 1:29 pm
Hey Jarvis

I honestly think you have no life. Honestly? Do you have a life, or do just spend it trying to make Dell miserable. I’ve been working with Dell the past three weeks researching trashy blogs that worms like you leave all over that frigen blogosphere and I cant honestly say that Dell is trying to take a step towards fixing their customer service. They hire guys like me to go on the web and look through the blogs of guys like you in hopes that we can find out your problem and fix it. But honestly I dont think you have a problem Dell can fix. Your problem is you have no life.

Chris, the advantage of being a summer intern is that you get to try out possible career options to see what you want to do when you enter the workforce. May I suggest your reconsider yours, communications does not seem to be an innate skill of yours.