Corporate blogs have become a vital element of the corporate communications and marketing repertoire. US corporate blogs such as the „FastLane Blog“ by General Motors or „Nuts about Southwest“ by Southwest Airlines are an important communication channel to customers, employees and other target groups. In other countries such as Germany, companies have been more cautious in implementing corporate blogs. Examples such as the „Daimler-Blog“ or Opel‘s third corporate blog „Meriva-Blog“ are exceptions from the traditional one-way communication strategies. The reasons for the slow acceptance of corporate blogs in Germany and other countries are varied. In many companies the debate on corporate blogging and other social media applications is dominated by the fear of dialogue, and the anticipated loss of control is giving communicators a headache. Scientific research is suitable to address many communicators’ resistance. A research project by the University of Magdeburg is therefore investigating corporate blog users’ reading and commenting behavior. A part of the project consists of an international blog reader survey in three languages – English, German and Russian – in order to evaluate the many factors that influence user behavior. Ho do design and media usage affect corporate blog reading and commenting? What roles do writing style, credibility or frequency? How do various reader groups (e.g. age, gender or ethnic groups) differ in their reading and commenting behavior? The goal of the study is to identify corporate blog characteristics that are particularly important for readers and to show to what extent the attitudes of varying reader groups differ

Methodically, the study is based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) by Frank Davis, which was developed to evaluate users‘ attitudes towards information technologies in the light of their usefulness, ease of use and entertainment value. The basic model can be visualized as follows:

In addition, a range of further factors such as cultural dimensions, age and experience factors have also been included in the model.

I would be very grateful for your participation and for spreading the link. Furthermore, there will be a draw of 20 Amazon coupons among participants and interested participants will be able to request a free copy of the final study results.

To participate in the survey please click here.

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The German corporate blogosphere seems lifting off. IBM started launched its carefully prepared BlueBlog earlier this month. This week, we saw actually two new arrivals to the corporate blogosphere:

On monday, Opel started a new blog chapter, when the technicians of the Opel Insignia handed over the baton to the designers of the upcoming Opel Astra. Opel’s head of design Uwe Müller is already levelling the field for the world premier of the allnew Astra at the IAA this year – and receives respectable 30+ comments.

Today, the second Blog by German carmaker Daimler AG (btw my employer) first saw the light of day: the car2go-Blog. Wer are certainly a bit proud of our little brother. Interesting is the fact that the car2go-blog has a different concept – not only employees will publish texts here, but actual users of the 100 Smart cars in Ulm, Germany.

So I assume (though carefully) that blogging companies actually see the value of blogs for their communication needs, because all three firms are actually starting their second blogs! (IBM has been blogging in Germany since last year at the Lotus Blog a bit hidden in the width of the blogosphere)

So let’s hope for a final break-through and see what comes flown to us the next days and weeks!

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Matthias Schwenk from bwl zwei null really makes me curious as he announces to start Blogoscoop, a new blog-ranking-tool for the German blogosphere. Together with Martin Kunzelnick as developer he promises a tool that will become a benchmark service and also hints to a future international expansion. Though the secret is still securely kept in place, Matthias’ involvement signals a big thing – I’m excited.

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For those who always wondered what actually happens with their blog-posts once they press the publish-button, Wired has created an excellent visual explanation of this complex process here.

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As a first post I would like to outline how I diffentiate corporate blogs. If one simply looks at a few CBs, one quickly notices that a simple comparison is impossible. Therefore, a classification system is needed, that differentiates the type and goal of corporate blogging.

I differentiate six corporate blog categories:

Company Blogs Here, a company is blogging “as a whole” – introducing products, activities and insights.

Insider Blogs This means employees (from one CEO up to hundreds) blog and show insights into company life.

Marketing Blogs This refers to a company that is blogging only about one product or a product category.

Event Blogs Using this type, companies reflect on certain activities such as fairs or seminars.

Issue Blogs Here, employees adress a certain field of company expertise (e.g. a tech-topic).

Service Blogs In service blogs, companies offer additional information and help regarding a product (e.g. usage, functions, updates).

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So, nachdem auf dieser Domain lange Zeit Flaute herrschte, habe ich mich entschieden meine Blogging-Aktivitäten ein wenig zu restrukturieren und hier ein etwas persönlicheres Blog zu entwickeln. Ich beschäftige mich schon eine Weile mit Corporate Blogs und der Blogosphäre und möchte nun über diese Plattform ein wenig regelmäßiger in die Diskussionen einsteigen. Eventuell werde ich noch von meinen alten Blogs ein paar Beiträge herüberholen um das Archiv etwas zu füllen und eine Arbeitsgrundlage zu schaffen.

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