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Companies Increasingly Look To Blogs As Spokesmen

By Kristina Peterson, Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- As the ranks of bloggers continue to grow, more may be wearing pinstripes than pajamas. Increasingly major companies are turning to blogs to fulfill functions traditionally performed by spokesmen.

Recently a Microsoft (MSFT) spokesman declined a journalist's request for comment, but sent along two links to employee blog posts. Professional sports teams have also been among the early adopters in leaning more heavily on player and employee blogs as a source of access for both the media and the public.

"This is an increasing trend, but I don't think spokespeople will ever go away," said Lance Morgan, chief communications strategist at Powell Tate. "There aren't enough blogs in the world to accommodate all the questions all the journalists in the world have."

Just under one-third of Fortune 100 companies have corporate blogs, according to a Burson-Marsteller social media study the public relations firm posted on its own blog. Technology and telecommunications companies dominate the corporate blogosphere, according to the late July 2009 survey. Microsoft alone has over 2, 500 corporate blogs. Meanwhile only 9% of the Fortune 100 oil refining companies have blogs and none of the major health-care or property insurance companies do.

Blogs can help businesses field questions on sensitive issues without directly refusing comment, said Rick Murray, president of Edelman Digital, the digital division of public relations firm Edelman.

A blog is useful for companies "if they know it's a point where they'd just rather not have a conversation, but here's our point of view," Murray said.

Still, blogs pose challenges of their own. Public relations experts said they advise clients to remember employee posts should provide quotable information in an appropriate voice, without entirely abandoning the informality of the medium.

"A company blog, when written by employees, has to balance the genuine nature of the blogosphere with the needs of the company," said Erin Byrne, Burson- Marsteller chief digital strategist. "We never recommend that companies take a personal approach from the perspective of sitting around in your pajamas."

Byrne highlighted the Southwest Airlines Co. (LUV) blog, "Nuts About Southwest," as one that navigates that balance well. In a recent post, "Why Do They Hate Your Bags?" emerging media specialist Christi Day reminded readers that Southwest does not charge for the first two checked bags.

"Did anyone else see the news today about a competitor who wants you to pay more than $249 a year for your bags to fly?" Day wrote. "Did anyone else think it was an Onion article headline?"

Still many company blogs hew closely to language that a few years ago would have only been found in a press release.

The title from a Feb. 10 post from a Microsoft blog was unlikely to divert traffic from the Huffington Post: "Comparing Search Data Retention Policies of Major Search Engines Before the E.U."

Nor the following day's post: "Microsoft, Girl Scouts Join Forces to Improve Online Safety."

Blogs can help companies meet journalists' tight deadlines when lining up calls with executives is hard to arrange, said Jennifer Houston, senior vice president at public relations firm Waggener Edstrom.

"When it's a last-minute thing, pointing someone to a blog will allow that reporter to get that information faster," she said.

And unlike advertisements, which can only fit so much information on one page, blogs can take up as much room as they would like, Morgan noted.

"The advantage of the Internet is you can go on and on forever," he said. "But the disadvantage is no one wants to read on and on forever."

-By Kristina Peterson, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-6619; kristina.peterson@ dowjones.com

  (END) Dow Jones Newswires
  10-12-091016ET
  Copyright (c) 2009 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.