SASR 1

Group: Silvia Angerbauer, Angelika Sipos,

Silke Schröckmair, Rene Hörwertner

Instructor: Mark A.M. Kramer

Course of IT23 Information Technology

Date: November, 2009

Blogs in Business

A diary in its original form is a very private and intimate collection of

experiences and thoughts that are listed chronologically. Nobody would ever think

about publishing this journal.

Differently perceived are attitudes towards online-diaries, the so called blogs.

Thereby, experiences on a specific topic are published on internet with the intention

to be made available to the whole world and allow the exchange of information of

those experiences.

Blog operators are not only private persons but meanwhile also organizations

are present on internet by blogs. Consequently, the following questions have to be

posed: What are blogs? Who are their users and who is the target group?

This paper shall discuss these questions and furthermore, argues about

characteristics of blogs especially those of Corporate Blogs. There are various types

of Corporate Blogs existing. Their differentiating aspects are documented and effects

on organizational communication discussed. Success factors are evaluated based

on researching existing corporate blogs. The use of blogs as a communication tool in

the marketing mix shall demonstrate the possibility of gaining competitive advantage.

Finally, the relevance of corporate blogs on the example of the Federal Armed

Forces will be discussed and conclusions are drawn.

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1 Abstract

Up to 98% of information in media is disregarded! Possible solutions are

oriented towards the following aspects: independent and unique content, balance of

communication means and product performance, waiving inefficient and not

controllable media, targeting understanding and bi-directional communication to

consumer and customer, unconditional orientation towards immaterial values of an

organization for both internal and external communication (Horx et al.).

This statement dates back to the year 2004 but is still true. Communication

with the customer in the modern era is difficult to remain focused and is additionally

hampered by the diversity of available communication channels.

Necessary promotion and communication methods for the achievement of

company goals are no longer easy thoughts of a communication mix. Because of the

global integration by internet, wider perspectives and increased transparency of

offers are available customers. The necessity to contact customers directly and

understand their requirements is predominant. Controlling the efficiency of

communication with customers is of increasing importance caused by cost pressure.

Organizations can use additional possibilities for external communication to

customer based on the fast spreading internet. Weblogs are a bi-directional

communication form which exists for a few years already. By making use of weblogs

in organizations, the correct expression is Corporate Blogs. Because of the online

available statistics and evaluation tools – similar to those of websites – weblogs can

be controlled by respective indicators.

2 User and the Target group of Blogs

As blogs are internet based media, user and target group are strongly

oriented towards the user group of internet in general. As per Statistik Austria,
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already 69.8 % of households have internet access. Austrians between 16 and 24

years are using the internet by almost 100 %. Surprisingly, this rate is below 50 %

only at the group of Austrians above 64 years. Usually, Austrians of all ages use

internet to collect information, use online services and communicate.

Table 1: Types of media consumption (Kaumanns et al. 20)

a. Note: Weblogs belong here to the Content Type “text & pictures” and are

placed in the category of Participation among “contributing”. However, it is not

always obvious where to set the boundaries as wikis or blogs often contain videos or

audio data.

As per the independent blog “b24”, approx. 3 % of all Austrians write blogs

and approx. 6 % read blogs (boerse-express). Zerfaß reported that approx. 87,3 %

of interviewed Germans know and 80 % use blogs. Similar to Austrians, there are

more blog readers than posters.

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3 Definition: Blogs

“Blog” refers to the word “Weblog” which is a type of online-diary created on a

website (IT Wissen). This kind of logfile equals a journal and contains entries,

comments and notes which are chronologically arranged: The most current entry is

placed on top followed by older posts. Different softwares are offered online free of

charge to create and maintain blogs.

3.1 Characteristics of Blogs

An essential aspect of blogs is the possibility to actively contribute on the

website as a reader. Therefore, this media is not static compared to conventional

websites where editing is only possible by the website-administrator. It is dynamic

and offers the possibility to anyone to comment a topic. Hence, blogs allow blog

operators to interact with interested parties. Comments can be posted by basically

anyone who is reading the blog. Usually, pseudonyms are used for commenting.

Weblogs are often more current then websites. A good blog is characterized by

repeated, daily up-dates. Current topics are placed always on top to support the

reader searching for the latest entries.

Weblogs can be simply connected with each other. References to blogs with

similar content increase additionally the ranking position at search engines. By the

function „Permalinks“, which are durable links in the internet, entries are found easy

in blogs.
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A very interesting service for weblogs is the use oft he so called RSS-Feeds

which allow subscribing to the blog. Additionally, blogs have the function of „ping“1

and the possibility to set tags.

The possibility of blog composition is comparable to the classical website.

Alternatives for design and exposition are not countable by certain systems. Only

Freeware-Blogs such as Wordpress (http://wordpress.com/) are limited by

specifications oft he online-blog-software.

In addition, blogs are easy connected with picture and video services. It is

hence possible to integrate videos, podcasts or live-streams.

3.2 Types of Blogs

There are many possibilities to categorize blogs. Most common and

understandable are the following three areas (Klein 9): private blogs, civil society

weblogs und corporate blogs.

3.2.1 Private Blogs

Creators and advisors of private blogs are internet users in this case. The

content of these blogs are mostly based on interests oft he blog operator and have

rarely scientific background. The user motive for blogs in this area is the information

search for blog readers or the bloggers’ attitude of just being public. More motives of

bloggers and blog readers in comparison are shown in Table 2:

1. PING (packet internet grouper is used to test the accessibility of target

destinations by implementing echo-protocols that are enquiring and collecting reply

protocols (IT Wissen).

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User Motives

68,3%

66,8%
66,8%
64,4%

56,6%
80%

29,3%
60%

26,8%
26,5%
19,4%

18,7%

18,5%
18,0%
40%

7,5%

4,9%

4,9%
3,7%
20%
0%

contribute and I like

media does not fulfill

to gain product
to communicate with

to meet new people

to learn more about a

to enlighten people
to get rid of anger
subject, other media

others or exchange

because classical

my requirements

information
because I have
does not discuss

and cirtique
something to
opinions

to write

Blogger Blog Reader

Table 2: User motives of blogger and blog readers (Zerfaß and Bogoyan 6)

3.2.2 Civil Society Blogs

These blogs are operated by organizations which are opinion leaders such as

unions, political parties or nature protection organizations (Klein 10). Blog operators’

interest is strongly influenced by the organization.

3.2.3 Corporate Blogs

By using this type of blog, it is possible for an organization to communicate via

internet. In comparison to websites, a blog offers the necessary interactions. This

might reduce barriers for customers to contact an organization directly. Depending

on the blog’s target there are different types. The basic differentiator is whether the

blog is dedicated to employees (internally) or customer (externally).

4 Corporate Blogs

A corporate blog is similar to private blogs regarding its techniques and set

up. The weblog’s motive is the factor of differentiation. While this is not necessary or

even useful for private blogs, corporate blogs diverge. Although a difference between
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internal and external blogs is coherent, it is not directed to the corporate blog’s goals.

Chosen categorizations of corporate blogs are shown in the Table 3.

Table 3: Types of Blogs (Zerfaß and Boelter 127)

b. Note: Persuasive communication means to enforce own interests (in this

case company interests) by using emotional bonds and preferences. Argumentative

communication is setting a clarification process which shall end with a decision that

is taken on conviction. Informative communication offers rarely the possibility of

influence. The main aspect is information brokerage.

Therefore, the following questions have to be answered before starting with

the physical creation of a blog (Klein 22):

• Which target groups shall be focused?

• Which is the blog’s goal?

• How often are contributions created?

• Who is creating contributions?

• Who maintains comments?

• How to deal with crucial comments?

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By answering those questions, the type of blog can be examined and targets

traced. Differences between blog types are rather marginal and fluent as blog sites

are possibly fit with different aspects. However, it has to be focused on a clear

distinction as efforts for maintenance are reduced and readers have access to

clearly defined information packages.

4.1 Types of Corporate Blogs

4.1.1 Knowledge Blogs

Knowledge Blogs are mainly used within the company. The possibility to

exchange internally specified knowledge via a broad media may disburden

interpersonal barriers. A major advantage is the documentation of communication

that actually took place. This makes searching for information also possible. By

embedding a blog into intranet or linking with a Wiki2 a knowledge data base

including communication possibilities can be utilized.

4.1.2 Service Blogs

The target group of service blogs is customers who require in addition to the

information about products and services support from the company. Blogs are an

alternative to classical telephone hotlines in this case. So far, offered „Frequently

Asked Questions“ (FAQ) by various company websites can be extended by the

2. A wiki is a web-technology that allows to collaboration on context. Various

authors can immediately contribute by posting texts, amendments or doing

modifications which are all traceable (IT Wissen).

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interactive components of a service blog. Consequently, customer might loose

inhibitions to ask certain questions.

4.1.3 Campaign Blogs

The use of campaign blogs is timely limited. These blogs usually support

product launches or are part of a marketing activity. Customer can initiate own

activities. At the same time, the company takes that feedback or comments on

collateral blogs for planning and designing campaigns (Duschinski 77). Attention has

to be paid to the highly different tendencies of opinions. Customer tastes about

marketing activities are different and therefore also their comments. It is important to

accept highly critical comments and not to overreact on them. It would be wrong to

immediately threaten someone with legal actions because of critical statements

which could be seen by bloggers as a call for revenge. Exactly this caused severe

damages to reputation and finances at certain organizations in the past. One of the

first cases was the blog „Spreeblick“ (Haeusler) which was reporting about ring tone

offers from company Jamba. Their offers had been revealed as being traps for just

making money as one of Jamba’s employees disclaimed under a synonym.

Unfortunately, being recognized as Jamba staff, an avalanche of blog entries was

triggered that caused damage to Jamba’s reputation.

4.1.4 CEO Blogs

These type of blogs can be further differentiated and in both ways of

communication: internally and externally to the market or by PR. To distinguish

among them is fairly difficult as employees have the possibility to react on the CEO’s

entries as stakeholders. Frustrated employees are able to anonymously post

comments with strong opinions which might influence other blog readers. This

tightrope walk is also present for creators. Balancing the informative characteristic
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with information about a person on the one hand and about the company on the

other hand is comparatively difficult. Company information is more oriented towards

a campaign blog.

4.1.5 Product and Brand Blogs

These blogs are preferred when establishing products or brands on the

market which are bought by customer who are usually heavy internet users. By

focusing on these marketing activities, the commitment to brands can be improved

(Klein 29). Nevertheless, organizations have to be careful on confronting blog

readers with too much marketing activities. It might put them off.

4.1.6 Customer Relationship Blogs (CRM Blog)

Communication via internet is not restricted to contacting customers by E-

Mail. A blog can be used as a part of a CRM software for campaigns and contacting

customers. Conversation does not only include various forms of customer

relationship management (Teller 1). It is becoming more important for the

communication about sales, marketing and also general business. Enquiries e.g. can

be handled directly and less costly via blogs. Marketing communication can be

directed towards both new and existing customers fast and inexpensive but

moreover: more effective.

4.1.7 Collaboration and Project Blogs

Based on the increasing global orientation of corporations, it became

necessary to cooperate within international collaborations. A blog created especially

for this purpose can improve essentially communication flow. But also for projects

within the company an implemented project blog may overcome barriers among the

project team. A project network is created by the combination of data bases,

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corporate wikis and blogs. Each additional project is incorporated to the existing

structure and does not cause any additional IT costs.

4.1.8 Crisis Blogs

Similar to Campaign Blogs, Crisis Blogs are timely limited but created for a

different purpose. A specific company problem becoming public is often the reason

to create such a blog. Communication with the public and the person concerned is

supported by a blog in order to defuse a crucial situation is supported by the blog. By

creating such a blog based or as a part of an existing weblog, its online availability is

very fast.

4.1.9 Subject Blogs

Offering information is the main purpose of a Subject Blog. Publications and

other contributions of magazines about a specialist area are made public to an

interested audience for discussion. Often those specialist areas tackle IT issues.

Operators of these weblogs are usually organizations with the respective

background such as software servicer providers. The objective of communications is

to present competence, presence and the possibility for blog readers to socialize

with other peers (Duschinski 78). By a strong concentration on a topic, the ranking in

various search engines is influenced. Strongly visited Subject Blogs are often found

on the first pages (Wolff 125).

5 Success Factors for Corporate Blogs

Like many other media, blogs have own laws. The success of an external

corporate blog depends not on design but on the techniques it is based on. For each

type explained earlier, it is essential to develop sensitivity for goals and the target

group in order to not create misunderstandings by communication. Some basic rules

are true for all types.

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5.1 Authenticity

Basically everything can be promised to customers on a weblog. In business

reality, these promises often turn out to be a bluff. Therefore, it is also necessary for

corporate blogs to preserve authenticity. A marketing appearance attracting

customers but staffed with negative comments based on inacceptable performance

damages the corporation’s image (Wolff 125).

5.2 Atmosphere of Communication and Guidelines

The atmosphere of communication is for a blog of upmost significance. Those

blogs that are strongly related to a marketing concept are often mistrusted and

refused. Generally, a “conversational” tone is predominant on blogs. This tone is

strongly related to the satisfaction with the blog itself and trust in its content (Hass et

al. 128). So called “Blogging Guidelines” or “Blogging Rules” have been set up

meanwhile for creating this tone. The major goal of these rules is to provide

organizations with first guidelines for entering the “Blogsphere” the bloggers own

confined world. These guidelines include the most important aspects of the

employees’ responsibility for posting and the exclusion of corporations’ liability for

those entries. Additionally, criteria such as following existing company rules and

norms, respecting secrecy and generally sticking to internet similar „Nettiquette“ are

important (Wiegand). Hence, these rules support trustworthiness of entries.

5.3 Trust in Content

Trust in the content or information on internet is in addition to the mentioned

communication atmosphere also depending on the bloggers’ age. Table 4 shows

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that sources which are also known offline are ranked higher by older internet users

than those sources which are controlled by internet users only.

Quality Characteristics of Information

90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
up to 20 y.

30 - 39 y.

40 - 49 y.

50 - 59 y.

60 - 69 y.
20 - 29 y.

I only trust pages on internet which sources I also know and trust offline
I trust pages on internet which content is controlled by internet user

Table 4: Quality Characteristics of Information on Internet (Kaumanns et al. 20)

Hence, despite having a good internet or blog appearance, organizations

should be still offline attractive to customer for creating the necessary trust.

Corporate Blogs are therefore successfully used in addition to the existing

communication mix. Because of the current still missing acceptance for this

information tool, blogs are not a successful single communication medium.

5.4 Actuality of Information

Generally, the actuality of information is supporting trust (Herpich 4). Because

of the fast pacing developments of internet, nothing is worse than to offer old

information to customers under the synonym of „news“. This is also true for blogs.

Organizations risk to loose audience because of a failing actuality of its blog (Paul et

al.). Up-dating a blog once a day is appropriate but however, this is a minimum

requirement! Peak values would be several postings per day. Of poor value are
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posting rates of less than once a week. Insufficient up-dates rather fuel bad

reputation than improve customer communication.

5.5 Importance of Blogs within the Marketing Mix

Communication policy is divided into seven areas: PR, promotion, sales

promotion, direct marketing, event communication, trade fair communication and

sponsoring. Weblogs are at least in five divisions implemented. However, they are

considered of not being useful in the areas of promotion and sponsoring as blogs

dealing with these two aspects only, might not be of high interest (Wolff 127).

In each of these areas, a blog is used additionally or supportive to increase

the effect of the original communication tool. Conceivable are trade fair and event

blogs on which respective event or trade fair appearance is going to be documented

by pictures and information. For the blog’s success it is necessary to promote it

additionally by other communication tools. A blog can not be effective as long as

nobody knows about its existence. As soon as the blog is well established,

promotion is effective in reversed direction too. Then, it is possible to point at e.g.

events or products.

Weblog readers have a dominant positive impression about Corporate Blogs

which was revealed by a study of W3B in autumn 2007 (Fittkau et al.) and based on

visitors of weblogs (45 % of all internet users).

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Attitudes towards Corporate Blogs

39,5%
do not know corporate blogs

receive less relevant information 10,6%

allow a glance backstage 20,4%

importance is overrated 20,8%

corporations can improve customer
communication 29,8%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40%

Table 5: Attitudes towards Corporate Blogs (Fittkau et al.)

5.6 Cross-Linking of Blogs

Blogs are cross linked by a blog role or by setting of trackbacks into other

weblogs. Though, it is not useful to randomly create comments on other website and

links to the own blog. The relevance of cross-linking is depending on the similarity to

the own site. The relevance in a search engine is increasing for both blogs if they

share similar topics and are referring to each other by cross-linking. But there are

sites which are generally rated higher such as the Austrian broadcast www.orf.at. A

link from this site to the own blog increases its search engine ranking enormously.

As indicated above, naming the own URL is an essential criteria for search

engine robots. Therefore, an explanatory name which is at the same time conforming

to the content should be preferred. This allows the potential blog reader to recognize

the content of a weblog already on searching by an engine.

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6 Examples of Corporate Blogs

The extension of Corporate Weblogs is in Austria relatively low. Although

some organizations took already this plunge, there exists a vast potential for

development. The Austrian directory for weblogs3 administrates only some hundred

blogs. Top blogs in each category are easy recognized by a high number of

accesses. Unfortunately, these hits are in each case only on the first blog. The

number of comments is according to experience considerably lower. Moreover,

many of these registered blogs are originated in Germany. A real Austrian blog with

respectable hits is the “Autweb-das Blog-Autnet” (Wahrenberg). The operator set as

the blog’s goal to get to experience Austria, its population, history, culture, etc.

“Blogmax” of company Baumax4 is a real Corporate Blog. DIYs (do-it-yourself)

describe on blogmax their personal building experiences. On the menu item “Inside-

Blog”, employees of Baumax are providing advice to various DIY topics. At this point

the subject driven blog links with a Service or Product Blog.

Another interesting weblog is the CEO Blog of Martin Bredl, the head of

company communication at Telekom Austria. His blog’s topic is „Job and live in the

information society“. Similar is Hannes Treichl’s5 blog who is a managing partner of

marketing deluxe. Topics are embedded in IT and his experiences of his own

3. http://www.blogverzeichnis.at/.

4. http://www.blogmax.at/.

5. http://www.hannestreichl.com/.
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consultancy profession. Ed Wohlfahrt is self-employed PR-consultant and blogs also

about IT topics and marketing as well as PR.6

IBM started to integrate blogs into the organization very early. Internally, IBM

uses blog-platforms to also deal with international projects. Since the beginning of

2005, employees are also blogging externally in the “developerWorks Community”

under stating their true names which was intentionally started and of high value and

importance to this blog. Topics are mainly based on IT. IBM also developed blog

guidelines for using “developerWorks” (IBM).

7 Potential for the Development of Corporate Blogs

There are no clear predictions for the future of weblogs. On the one hand,

analysts still forecast a hype of internet and the Web 2.0-motions. On the other hand,

elatively depressed popularity is found in Europe towards developments (Eck 163).

Nevertheless, a growth in the online communication sector is expected based on the

developments of the last two decades. Meanwhile, also the concept of weblogs has

succeeded in the public.

Approximately all 6 months the number of registered weblogs is doubling

worldwide, according to Technorati, a popular weblog-search engine (Klein 17).

Further, a reduction of the meanwhile well established communication by e-

mailing is expected (Eck 164). Especially e-mail communication within the

organization is limited by the use of blogs. Reasons are that communication via

blogs is usually less time consuming, filtering of defined criteria is possible, direct

6. http://edwohlfahrt.blogs.com/blogdog/.
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replies are not necessary and the information flow is improved. Additionally, the blog

is visible to more persons at the same time which makes it more transparent and

also RSS-feeds can be subscribed (Eck 165).

A further advantage of blogs is the possibility to include pictures, videos or

podcasts. Thereby, information is becoming more concrete compared to simple text.

Meanwhile, also entries are made by photo-mobiles which are called moblog (mobile

weblogs).

A further development of Corporate Blogs could be into the direction of

specialization. This special orientation might be towards e.g. events or PR activities

which is not conceivable yet (Wolff 156).

8 Example for the Relevance to a Company

The usability of blogs in institutions under public law such as the Federal

Armed Forces is rather difficult to evaluate. The possibility to attract a

demographically young target group is given because of the internet structure. But

exactly this target group is the most critical one. As already mentioned, a blog is

effective in combination with other instruments of the communication mix. An already

existing and dominant organizational communication will not be modified

considerably. That means as a consequence, that existing marketing activities have

to be already perceived well in advance to support a blog. A further major aspect in

this case is the compulsory military service. Based on the fact of being an obligation,

a certain reactance might be provoked at the addressed service men. That means

that a strong polarization of comments hast to be expected. On the other hand, the

Federal Armed Service is a well known brand. Therefore, adolescent male identifying

with the brand will be interested in a weblog. A possible high access frequency
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encourages the use of this communication tool. Nevertheless, especially in the case

of the army, the risk of strong attacks on the blog also increases and has to be

considered (Duschinski 65).

Additionally, it is necessary to appoint well trained staff for servicing the blog.

Although the answering of questions and comments appears to be fairly simple,

effects might be considerably negative if nonprofessional answers are provided to

the blog community. Again, sensitiveness for contributions and the right tone and the

blog atmosphere are crucial for success.

9 Conclusion

Weblogs are definitely a useful instrument for the corporate communication.

However, the medium weblog will not replace existing ones but is strengthen the

coverage by using it as an additional component of the marketing mix. It is important

for organizations to accept the trend towards online communication and stay

competitive by its implementation. This is especially crucial as the creation of a

weblog is time intensive. It requires strategic thoughts and careful planning as

negative aspects bear a strong potential for an overall bad reputation of the

company.

Depending on branch and orientation, the significance and meaning of a

corporate blog to an organization’s target audience might differ considerably to

current blog users. It is expected that this will improve with the fast changing

information era and its acceptance. Corporate Blogs might be an adequate

communication medium for almost anyone.

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