Has corporate blogging reached its tipping point?

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Despite the fact that, statistically, corporations aren’t adopt blogs at a rapid pace, it’s possible we’ve passed the point of exclaiming each time a big company does opt to start a conversation with its customers or other constitutents.

Time was, a new blog by a major brand roused all kinds of attention. Early adopters were quick to criticize the newcomers’ shortcomings while others heaped praise on the company for its gutsy decision to initiate a real dialogue. It’s not just companies like Dell—already embroiled in controversy—that got this kind of attention. Marriott International is just one example of a company that garnered a lot of digital ink when its CEO, Bill Marriott, began blogging.

The recent launch of Delta Air Lines’ blog, however, has passed with barely a whisper of notice. That’s noteworthy as Delta’s blog, “Under the Wing,” is only the second from a major airline (Southwest Airlines has been publishing its ”Nuts About Southwest” blog for some time; Delta’s blog is similar, a group blog that will “take you under the wing and behind the scenes sharing stories on ideas, changes, our people, and their working lives").

Delta has made its blog easy to find, listing it among first-tier menu items on the corporate home page. There was no press release on the blog, though, which grew out of a page where passengers could submit ideas for improving the Delta experience. (In fact, going to delta.com/change—the URL for that idea submission page—now brings you directly to the blog.)

So far, the posts have been fairly benign, addressing things like a new in-flight entertainment system and the decision to list the music played on planes during boarding (Delta has created its own iTunes iMix of boarding music). The blog has also covered improvements to self-service features on its website and efforts to beef up customer service at JFK.

Despite the lack of hoopla around the blog, which kicked off on August 23, people have managed to discover it. Each post has been met with comments and it doesn’t appear that negative comments are being censored, although the conversation so far has been amazingly civilized considering the kind of emotions bad flying experiences can produce.

But a search of Google News and Technorati surfaces very little discussion about a new corporate blog from a major international airline. Chrysler’s new blog has also been largely ignored by those who used to report on every new big business entry into the blogosphere. Have we passed the tipping point for corporate blogging? Has the introduction of a new corporate blog become as ho-hum as the introduction of a new corporate website was back around 1998?

1. I think that we certainly have reached the point where we need to shout with joy that another big corporation has gotten the message and started a blog.
   The fact that bloggers are ignoring the launch of some of these corporate blogs does not really matter. What matters is that people are engaging with the blogs via the comment section, and it seems that Delta is doing a great job of responding (though I’m not sure about some of the other corporations).
   On another note, I like the way the Delta blog is designed so that each comment is high-lighted when your mouse cursor moves over it. Nice work, flyboys.
   Corporate website, corporate blog, what’s the next step?

   Posted by Parker  on  09/04  at  08:30 AM

2. I don’t think corporate blogs will get nearly as much attention as the GMs of the world. But I don’t think new corporate blogs are ho-hum. We the consumers will dictate whether or not corporations should have them. It’s those that listen well enough to fire them up that will win the conversations with consumers battle over the long haul.

   While I don’t think a new corporate blog will be “news” anymore, I do thing those corporations that find ways to engage their customers in conversations will make “news” for themselves and their brands.

   Great post!

   Posted by Jason Falls  on  09/04  at  11:34 AM

3. Jason and Parker, thanks for your comments.

   I certainly don’t think corporate blogs are ho-hum at all—just the announcement of them as news. I remember when “The Industry Standard” published a chart each week showing the volume of press release mentions of the web as an indicator of the web’s importance. These days, it’s just part of the infrastructure for many organizations. Indeed, it’s the conversation with customers and other constituents that matters. I was just wondering whether we’ve passed the point where the launch of a corporate blog is newsworthy.

   Posted by Shel Holtz  on  09/04  at  02:32 PM

4. Not the same situation in Argentina, sure… Corporate blogs are not so common here, though they are increasing quite rapidly.

   Posted by Ignacio Duelo  on  09/05  at  01:15 PM

5. You raise an excellent and important point, Ignacio, that I was remiss not to bring up. North America and Europe are in different situations than much of the rest of the world when it comes to business adoption of social media.

   Posted by Shel Holtz  on  09/05  at  01:21 PM

6. Is it a case of a ho-hum blog or a ho-hum topic [for the MSM]? This might seem like splitting hairs, but to me it seems less of a tipping point and more like the down slope of the hype curve? I guess maybe a bit of both.

   Posted by Alex Manchester  on  09/10  at  04:55 PM