Blogging in the largest German companies
An interesting look into the blog plans of the largest German companies: Five of 30 are already using internal or external blogs, and five more are examing the tool.
Among the bloggers we find the boss of Siemens, Klaus Kleinfeld, who uses his intranet blog to talk about visits to different companies in the group, technology, trends and innovation.
It's also very interesting to learn why some companies actively, so far, have chosen not to blog. E.On think that the costs of blogging are too high considering the possible advantages. There also seem to be doubts about content being published without standard editorial control.
The second objection is a common one and if company execs are afraid about what employees might write they have internal issues relating to trust and loyalty that goes way beyond blogging as such.
The first objection is more intriguing and made me think of Niall Cook's post "What's the ROI of blogging?". I think the following quote is central to understanding corporate blogging:
"As I sat through sessions with ROI in their title, I was struck by the difference Delahaye's Mark Weiner highlighted between value and return on investment. To paraphrase (accurately, I hope), value is relative (or subjective) whereas return on investment is absolute (or objective). ... If you accept this logic, then the way you measure relative and absolute metrics must also be different.Thanks to Hugo E. Martin for the tip!