Comments on: Where are Canadian Corporate Blogs?

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 05 Sep 2006 15:45:11 +0000

I can tell you that it's being seriously discussed in the postsecondary education sector. Don't know when we'll see a serious attempt to transform a university into a conversation-based organization, but it's being talked about.

By: Eric E

Eric E — Mon, 04 Sep 2006 05:31:25 +0000

Tod Maffin write Inside the CBC, “the official blog of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.”
http://www.insidethecbc.com/

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 03 Sep 2006 11:27:19 +0000

Mark, great article on blogging and the sandbox its confined itself too, likely at the same time you were writing this post, I was having a conversation about Naked Conversations with a PR colleague of mine –I was of the same mind…added a post over at my blog Buzz Canuck on the ten companies that I thought should have blogs

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 01 Sep 2006 16:36:06 +0000

Actually, I remember discussing this issue at a TSX-sponsored conference a coupld of months ago, and the view of the TSX officials was that a corporate blog could violate disclosure rules if the company is public. Most large corporations are public; ergo no blogs.
I am not a lawyer, but it's certainly an interesting legal question to have answered at some point.

By: AGORACOM

AGORACOM — Wed, 30 Aug 2006 16:03:59 +0000

Mark, given the fact Agoracom provides online investor relations for small-cap public companies (using monitored discussion forums), I think I can provide some practical feedback on this matter:
1] Time - The public will have to realize that CEO's can not blog with the frequency of today's bloggers. At best, you can expect a post every couple of weeks. As such, blogging is summarily dismissed by communications directors.
HOWEVER, for the investment community, that kind of personal contact would be well accepted. Investors don't want their CEO's typing out messages everyday - but would appreciate some periodic personal contact. If we can get this message to CEO's, we might be able to knock down the big barrier of believing blogs require daily posts.
2] Comments - You can bet that comments from investors would come in fast and furious. No CEO would be able to keep up and respond. That leaves you with two options. First, responses come from staff - but that eliminates the purpose of comments. Second, you remove comments all together and hope investors are happy to just receive personal messages.
3] Legal - I agree with you that if GM and Sun can run blogs, why would anyone else worry? The threat of litigation is deeply entrenched within the corporate cultre of public copanies, so you probably need a strong personality at the top to overcome it. Expect this to be the biggest barrier.
4] Personality - You and I know that personality goes a long way to making a blog interesting and successful. Unfortunately, so many CEO's are handled, coached and use canned messages to the point they've lost their ability to just be themselves. As such, there is a huge fear factor that - in my experience with CEO's - is warranted.
Conclusion - Blogging by CEO's will roll-out very slowly for the foreseeable future. It will only accelerate once either of the following events occur:
a) A high-profile CEO begins blogging and others are forced into it;
b) Blogging becomes widely used and accepted by the investment community.
“A” could happen anytime. “B” will take 2-3 years and is the most likely scenario.
Hope this helps.
Best,
George

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 29 Aug 2006 22:55:39 +0000

My bet is that the majority of the canadian companies who would contemplate blogs are in the process of defining their strategy and socializing the concept internally. Indeed, we are behind. But make no mistake, corporate Canada is thinking about it. jules

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 29 Aug 2006 19:31:13 +0000

Mark,
Thanks for the kind mention of our book, Naked Conversations. I can certainly see why you could describe it as perhaps too enthusiastic.” As we stated early on, the book is intended to build the case for corporate blogging.” It is not intended as a balanced, jornalistic study. In both Canada and the US, corporate blogging is evolving slower than we had thought, but the flow of new blogs seems to be steadily building steam. Regulated industries such as banks, airlines, telcos and pharmas seem to be moving at predictabl slow paces. But Wells fargo has several blogs and plans more and John & Johnson is internally blogging and seems headed toward an external effort. In Canada Jim Estill, has a fine CEO blog which you can find here: http://www.jimestill.com. It may take longer than Robert and I had guessed, but I do believe that the shift from marketing monologues to conversational dialogs has gone too far and done too many companies too much good for the direction and speed of adoption to slow or reverse.

By: Stephen Hayward

Stephen Hayward — Tue, 29 Aug 2006 19:18:56 +0000

You have started some fun dialogue here. I might add the following:
1. historically Canadians seem to lag the US in the corporate world on adoption of technology or change by 12-18 months.
2. We also have a different type of corporate landscape in terms of competition than other countries. I think this changes the mindset of organizations.
3. I think it is always a challenge at the best of times for corporations to come up with communication strategies that allow for equal dialogue. I talked with a large company a couple of months ago and they really had a hard time getting their heads around this idea.
4. The time commitment also seems to be a real stumbling block.
I think the Canadian Telco and Cableco's are a perfect opportunity as they fight with the onset of global competition in the IP markets.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 29 Aug 2006 16:41:01 +0000

Here are some reasons why one does not see more corporate blogs:
1. Most Executives have little insight into the value of a company blog.
2. Most Executives are “scared” to post thoughts and ideas in a public forum.
3. Most Exectuives would commercialize the medium, therefore diluting it's purpose and value.
4. Most Executives do not have the time to write on a consistent basis.
5. Blogs and other social mediums are new, and for Most Executives new is uncomfortable. Most Executives do not like to be uncomfortable.
Overall most companies just do not view social mediums such as blogs as worthwile business tools hence the lack of corporate blogs.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 29 Aug 2006 15:47:06 +0000

Ask me again in 3 months, and I'll have a good national candidate for you.