Media Center 2.0 - Tools For Thought

While browsing through “Fortune 500 Business Blogging Wiki” a listing of companies with a corporate blog, I asked myself, “Which industries are “blog happy”? In order to answer the question, I classified each company based on their general activity or by identifying the segment in which the company had chosen to blog about.

The findings below offer some insights into the sectors and companies that are most willing to blog.

I also asked my colleague, Ian, for his thoughts and we had some comments after examining the table.

• It was not shocking to discover that the IT industry represents nearly half of the blogs on this list however; it is surprising to note that several industries are at the bottom of the list or do not appear taking into account the benefits from blogs.

• The cosmetics industry has much to gain from using blogs. For many firms, product development is largely based on innovation and the ability to offer products tailored to the consumer. Drawing intelligence from the pool of readers via a blog, companies could benefit from this raw source of information for their R&D projects.

• The same is true for the automotive industry that is late coming to the blogosphere. Of the few manufacturers, GM does not hesitate to use the blog as an accompanying tool used in the market introduction stage of a new product with a personal touch that reinforces the campaign. As a result, the blog is read and grabs the attention of consumers as seen in the post “Invicta: A Product Progress Report” published on May 1, that received 67 comments! A mosaic of expertise, a pool of readers, ready to deliver their views.

• The Coca Cola company for its part, decided to uphold the historical image of their brand by choosing Phil Mooney as its blogger. Mooney has been in charge of The Coca-Cola Company’s Archives since 1977.

During a brief discussion during the last Yulbiz networking cocktail, I asked Fred Cavazza about the companies in France that have a corporate blog. The answer was clear and boils down roughly to the following categories: i) Companies that have promotional blogs, ii) No blogs. But what about Michel-Edouard Leclerc’s blog that has been online since 2004?

Why is there a delay and a wide array of differences in the blogging practices?