Companies have mixed feelings about launching a blog. Blogs are new, powerful, appealing to customers, easy and inexpensive to set up, but … they’re new.

If a business wants to test the blogging waters before diving into the blogosphere, internal blogs are the way to go. In fact, a November 2006 article in BtoB reported that internal blogs are springing up everywhere.

But companies like McDonald’s Corp. and P&G aren’t blogging internally to cautiously experiment–more sophisticated marketers there could not be. Industry leaders blog internally because it makes business sense.

So how can a company use internal blogs?

1. Software searches and implementations. These projects typically involved scores of people running around in a hundred directions collecting, reporting and digesting information. It’s almost impossible for key players to keep current, though they expend an enormous amount of energy trying. Wouldn’t it be nice if there were one place every key player could go to review, by topic, everything everybody has to say about software vendor options? An internal blog can be that place.

During implementation, need to see how other employees are handling a particular procedural change with the new software? The blog functions as a comprehensive online help manual. Internal blogs bring communication efficiency to a new level–thus reducing the dread implemenation trauma.

2. Policy manual revisions. Projects like this require input and review by many people inside and outside the organization. As above, an internal blog is ideal for collecting and organizing information. Equally important in this case, an internal blog allows the project leader to control content, and access to the information. From an information security standpoint, a blog is more secure than bouncing around policy ideas via e-mail.

3. Market intelligence. Usually, the collective market wisdom within the ranks of a company is awesome–but invisible. Why? Because sharing industry news across the entire organization is a hit-or-miss proposition. With an internal blog, sales reps, buyers, executives, perhaps even vendors, can go to a single place to comment on what they observe in the marketplace. The result–an invaluable resource for selling, marketing, and strategic planning. Talk about an intangible asset! Moreover–this application of internal blogging demonstrates another key benefit. On a blog, the information lasts forever. If a marketer needs to know everything there is to know about a particular competitor over the last 5 years, he can retrieve it almost instantly on the internal blog.

To sum up. If a company wants to organize critical information securely and permanently, an internal blog does the job.

Questions? Let’s talk!

Word Sell … Scrambled Toast