Leaders of corporate businesses still do not understand blogging. That’s the conclusion you can draw from a recent study of CEOs.
The study reveals that half of the CEOs do not think that blogging is a good way of communicating with customers. Err…what? These leaders of top businesses reckon that blogging is not a good way of communicating? Are they barmy?
No, they can’t be that mad – after all you don’t get to be a CEO unless you have some intelligence. So, are they blinkered? Well, the research shows that the number of CEO blog sceptics has risen over the last year. This suggests that CEOs are not seeing any benefits in the corporate blogs that have been created thus far.
So what’s wrong? The problem is that most corporate blogs don’t actually communicate. They are largely messages about what is happening within the corporates themselves, instead of being about what their customers want to hear about. That’s why they are not working.
It’s the same tale that has been around for years over public relations. You find CEOs hire a PR company, use them for a couple of years and then complain that PR doesn’t work. So they ditch the company. Then a couple of years afterwards, they try PR again. It doesn’t work, so they switch agencies. Then they give up PR again, before taking it up the following year. I have seen this happen so many times, with CEOs complaining that agencies don’t understand them or that PR is a waste of cash. Tell that to David Beckham or Richard Branson..!
Now, in the world of blogging, we are seeing exactly the same. CEOs tried blogging a year or so ago, now they are showing signs of dislike. It is not that blogging has a problem. It’s the CEOs. They don’t take the time to understand the system in which they are investing. And it is an investment. Just like PR, blogging can produce immense value for the company. But CEOs don’t see it as central to their business.
They spend considerable time on financial investment, but investment in communication they “outsource”. When it doesn’t work, they blame the outsource system, in this case blogging. However, few CEOs outsource financial decisions. They need to realise, like some well known CEOs, that you can make the greatest financial decisions you like, but if no-one knows because your communications are garbage, you may as well have not made those decisions in the first place.
Blogging is essential in the modern business world. Those CEOs who are now turning away from it may well find themselves in more difficulty in the coming year than they bargained for.
