A TALE OF THREE BLOGS

I am completely new to the world of blogging, and at first blush, I though it a colossal bore—so showy and self-interested. Until this very moment, I scarcely knew who was blogging and why, let alone that corporations had blogs, and used them to reach out to customers and other stakeholders in a personal way. Thus, I examined the blogs of three corporations that I’m actually connected to, i.e., I use their products or services, and these are Dell, Google and Hewlett-Packard (HP). In using this selection criterion, I thought I would feel more vested in the examination process, in determining what’s in it for me. I must say, I was pleasantly surprised.

Dell’s blog, http://www.direct2dell.com/, is visually bland, but easily navigable, and encourages consumer feedback. As with Google, http://googleblog.blogspot.com/, and HP, http://h20325.www2.hp.com/blogs , Dell seeks to position itself as a thought leader, and it shares with HP the intent to receive comments from consumers. Dell has longer initial postings than HP, with an internal Digital Media Manager doing many of them. Dell uses more hypertext than HP, which I didn’t find at all disturbing. If I wasn’t interested, I simply moved on. HP leadership (execs, etc.) have their own blogs, and their entries tend to be shorter—maybe a paragraph rather than a page. All in all, Dell’s blog appears to receive more comments from consumers, and longer ones—sometimes several paragraphs. It’s just a chattier blog, though few pictures and such appear. It’s mainly straight text. HP’s blog contains more visual elements, such as photos, and it resembles a regular website. Ultimately, Dell’s blog gave me the impression that if I said something, they might actually act on it. I didn’t get that feeling quite as strongly from HP, mainly because I would be responding to the company’s higher echelon. Of course, I could be wrong about this. I was pleased to see that HP had a Corporate and Social Responsibility blog, which is authored by their Corporate and Social Responsibility Manager for Asia-Pacific and Japan. Neither Dell nor Google appeared to highlight this issue as prominently and clearly as HP, though Google had plenty of engaging activities on their blog.

This brings me to the Google blog, which is quite different from the other two. Any number of company representatives produce the blog with the purpose of reporting on an activity, an award, a contest, etc. The blog is fairly visually stimulating, with color, pictures, hypertext and such. Though one may respond to a blog, I don’t know if many comments are made in direct response to posted blogs because I couldn’t quite tell where these were housed. Google’s strength, not surprisingly, is serving as an aggregator of other blogs that use their service or discuss them in some way. Their corporate image appears to be fun, friendly, with razzle-dazzle, while Dell and HP are going for a more helpful and responsive image. Obviously, they're all looking to keep their customers and get new ones, but Google may also be looking to add to their staff. There were several mentions of how great a workplace they are.

As for my inital criterion--what's in it for me--I found that the battery in my Dell laptop might have been recalled! It has been acting strangely, so I will certainly be back to Dell. Also, I found it reassuring that I could relate to company reps and other consumers via blog, or at least read about how they might have discovered or solved a problem that I, too, may have.