- With today’s constant technological advances, organizations are drifting away from consumers. Recent technology is causing more distance and less interaction between organization and consumers. Therefore consumers feel that they are dealing with machines rather than humans when bombarded with automated interactions and self services. With the introduction of blogs, consumers are able to put a “human face” to an organization; consequently enhancing and strengthening the relationship between the two, and creating brand loyalty.
- Blogs enable customers to comment on any entries by the blogger, and these comments can be used as feedback or new idea generation. As a result, the organization is able to address real customer needs and consequently better severing them.
- Blogs are cost efficient and do not require a lot of effort, and therefore it can be a very useful and effective way to promote the organization and its products and services. As a result, organizations are able to reach a broader audience, and are able to reduce unnecessary costs such as advertising and marketing costs which are both time consuming and costly.
- Blogs give visitors the opportunity to comment on a bloggers entry, and respond to previous comments or criticisms, therefore allowing visitors to interact with one another; consequently creating a sense of community, and thus giving them a reason to revisit the blog regularly.
The disadvantages of blogs used in an organization:
- Blogging takes time and effort, and those who hold firm stands within an organization and have a lot to discuss and say, usually don’t have time voice their opinions and get around to blogging
- Although blogs are not costly, they are time consuming when it comes to updating and monitoring them. If neglected, a poorly monitored blog can cause serious harm to an organization’s image.
- Coherency plays an important role in portraying a proper and credible organizational image. Therefore, a constant change in voice may negatively impact an organization, and portray it as being disorganized. Consequently this will effect the reader’s perception of the organization when making purchasing decisions, and in turn in jeopardize the organization rather than promoting it.
- Having the blog open to the public, will give access for competitors and rivals to crucial information which could negatively impact an organization.
links:
[6] http://www.iacis.org/iis/2006_iis/PDFs/Wood_Behling_Haugen.pdf
[7] http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/nt/2004/nt_2004_08_23_blogging.htm
