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10 March 2010
Too many blogs
Content Strategist Read all Frank's posts
There are too many corporate blogs.
This may seem a strange complaint given recent research from the University of Massachusetts suggesting that only 22 per cent of Fortune 500 companies have a public-facing corporate blog, and our own research that shows only a small number of FTSE 100 companies publish a blog.
Saturation point
According to some, however, corporate blogging may be reaching saturation point.
This is borne out to a degree by our own experience monitoring the corporate blogosphere. We rarely come across new blogs from large, well-known companies. At this point, if a Fortune 500 or FTSE 100 company doesn't have a blog, they are unlikely to adopt one.
On the other (rather large) hand, we come across LOTS of new blogs every week. So many, in fact, that we haven't had time to add them all to our corporate blogging directory. Usually our weekly blog provides a brief commentary on each new addition but today we've had to add around 60 in one go just to clear the backlog (see below).
Some conclusions
So where do all these blogs come from and what can they tell us about corporate blogging?
- Smaller companies are driving blog numbers: Most of the new blogs we're coming across are from SMEs. Many of these are tech companies but the directory also includes real estate agents, recycling companies, teamakers, pub owners and an online bank. More and more, these are the companies that are reaching out to customers through blogs
- Startups blog as a matter of course: Our (admittedly informal) monitoring suggests that startups almost invariably produce a corporate blog
Read our blog on startups and corporate blogging - Private companies are more likely to blog than public ones: The same University of Massachusetts report mentioned above shows that 45 per cent of the Inc. 500, a list of the fastest-growing private companies in the US, produce a corporate blog – compared to 22 per cent for the Fortune 500
- UK companies still lag behind: Despite a slight increase since we last blogged about UK corporate blogging, companies on the side of the water, whether large or small, are still far less likely to blog than their counterparts in the US. Of the blogs we come across only a small percentage are from the UK
While there may be a bottleneck at the top of the food chain, across the business world blogging is, anecdotally at least, on the increase. Whether this means blogging is heading more rapidly toward saturation point or consolidating its position as a useful communications tool remains to be seen.
Appendix: New additions to the corporate blogging directory
To ease the blog backlog mentioned above we're going to add all the blogs in the database without a commentary. Here are the new additions:
Flagship blogs
AccuQuote
Admiral Taverns
Altia
Aprilaire
Avaya
Avis
Bigelow Tea
Boxee
Brightcove
Brightroll
Communispace
Demand Media
Evernote
Federated Media
Global Crossing
Graco
Hulu
ID Experts
Infibeam
Invacare
Lantronix
Lulu
Mashery
Microvision
MissionMode
Mozilla
Mzinga
Openwave
Palm
PayPal
Picnik
Quickoffice
Radian6
Rogers Communication
Rogue Amoeba
Seesmic
SmartyPig
Socialcast
Socialtext
Stonesoft
Telligent
Tweetdeck
Xobni
Zillow
CEO blogs
John Sargent (Macmillan)
Kel Kelly (Kel & Partners)
Alex Yoder (Webtrends)
Corporate responsibility blog
Blog portals
Brightcove
CIMA
Webtrends
Insight blogs
Insight blogs are not strictly corporate blogs. However, we feel they are part of the corporate blogosphere as commentators on areas such as social media, PR and corporate responsibility help us better understand what companies do and why they do it.
Social media blogs
Fresh Networks
Jacob Morgan
Matt Singley
Rich Baker
PR & marketing blogs
Collaborate Marketing
Drew B
Lois Paul & Partners
Mr Youth
Silverscape
The Grilling
Trey Pennington
Investor relations blogs
Posted by kel kelly at 10 March 2010
frank, your insight is very aligned with what we are seeing at k&p. we work with a lot of early-stage, venture-backed clients. in spite of all the plates they are spinning, they always spin on a dime when we encourage them to start blogging. on the other hand, i have a client who is a multi-billion industry titan who will wait for pigs to fly before they ever start blogging. haha.
Reply from Frank at 11 March 2010
Thanks for that, Kel. I suppose startups and smaller companies are by their nature nimbler and less bureaucratic than multi-billion dollar titans. and maybe more eager to spread the word about their product/company. it'll be interesting to see if a groundswell of blogging among SMEs will convince larger companies of the merits of blogging or if they'll continue to eye it with distrust.
Frank
Any statements made in these blog posts are the views of the blogger and do not necessarily represent the views of The Group.
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