The Good and Bad of Corporate Blogging
Posted by Patrick on March 3rd, 2006
Blogs are about engaging your markets in conversation. If your blog is not engaging, then you’re simply wasting time and money. One company that just doesn?Äôt get it is Nike. This is rather surprising because I always thought of the Nike brand as young, hip and with it, but their blog says otherwise. Their blog fails miserably on a couple of levels. Firstly, it is nothing more than a corporate brochure – there is absolutely nothing engaging there. Secondly, the blog does not allow comments or trackbacks, which basically says, “We don?Äôt care what you have to say.” I guess its only fitting that their content is so bad that no one would have anything to say anyway.
One corporation that gets it in a big way is McDonalds. McDonalds has taken a very different approach than Nike with their new blog. It’s written by the head of the Corporate Social Responsibility department, is full of comments and is immediately engaged with controversy both in the blogosphere and in regards to their business itself.
This is an example of a typical blog post at the McDonalds blog. Every blog starts out with the following message:
Corporate social responsibility through the eyes of Senior Director, Bob Langert, and the other people at McDonald’s who work on corporate responsibility issues that matter. Get personal perspectives on the issues, meet the people behind the programs, and hear open assessments of the challenges we face.
Learning From a Former Employee
A few weeks back, I got a comment from Kami, a former crew member at McDonald’s. She had some good advice about the blog.
I have a question for you, Kami, and anyone else out there who wants in on this discussion: What did you learn while working at McDonald’s?
A lot of people have a negative view of jobs in our restaurants. I see McDonald’s as a place for learning and opportunity–a place that gives young people some excellent starting experience and discipline. If you walked around our headquarters, you’d come across more than a few people who started as crew members and worked their way up to management positions. And those who don’t stay in the System can take the skills they learned somewhere else if they choose, as you did. How did working under the Arches help you?
I didn’t start at McDonald’s, but I’ve been here 23 years, and they’ve been very good years. People keep asking me what I do. Well, I “direct” Corporate Social Responsibility for McDonald’s. I’m very proud of the fact that my company has this position and such a department.
I, my team, and many others here at McDonald’s work together in varied ways to develop the right policies, programs, projects, and direction related to our most important impacts on the world–from sustainable agriculture to environmental management in our restaurants to efforts with our people and community-based initiatives. It’s the best job at McDonald’s–at least for me. The work we do can truly change things in big ways.
Back to your blogging advice: I agree with all you say. I’m trying to find time to post more often and create smaller chunks, as you suggest. I like the feedback, even when it’s critical.
And, yes, we are the largest purchaser of apples–at least in the foodservice industry.
Posted 22/02/2006 2:04:00 PM
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Genuine, sincere and engaging and they want to hear what you have to say! This is an A+ blog.
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on March 3rd, 2006 at 5:33 am
Glad you appreciated the discussion of these two blogs.