Corporations Form Group To Create Blogging Best Practices

Executives from 12 large companies, including The Coca-Cola Co., Wells Fargo & Co., Kaiser Permanente, General Motors, and Dell, have jointly formed a Blog Council aimed at promoting corporate blogging best practices -- a plan that has already elicited skepticism from many in the blogosphere.

Last word: The natural temptation will be for marketers to try and control the conversation and maybe filter out negative elements of a conversation that could adversely affect a product usage / purchase decision. Credibility and transparency are everything in the relatively informal user generated content worlds. Censorship and attempts to control the message are the quickest way to alienate participants in user generated worlds. If brands want to integrate a brand related message to influence a conversation, they need to be aware that they have to have something worthwhile to say to be invited into a conversation. Pushing irrelevant messages in segmented environments will only undermine the delicate relationship that they are trying to build with their customers.

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