Example of the Use of Blogs within Organizations

The use of blogs within today's organizations is becoming increasingly widespread. Today, many large firms use blogs to communicate with existing and potential customers as well as employees and others in order to improve the quality of their products and services. An example of a highly successful and very well-known business using blogs is Starbucks. In addition to having blogs where customers are asked for their opinion and feedback on the company's products, Starbucks has created"My Starbucks Idea" on its' official website in order to get its clients involved by asking their input for new product ideas. Moreover, this website which is formatted as a blog enables Starbucks customers all around the world to share potential new product ideas, view suggested ideas by others as well as vote for and discuss existing ideas. Therefore, the use of blogs in an organizational context such as that of Starbucks has many advantages and disadvantages. The advantages include the long term health and safety of consumers as they are better informed, stronger customer relationships and brand loyalty, sharing knowledge and ideas within the organization, getting customer and employee feedback, and last but not least getting to know the customers better by allowing them to build a profile. Conversely, the disadvantages of using blogs in organizations consist of: individuals' inability to clearly express their ideas, the time-consuming nature of blogs which prevents individuals with good ideas and little time to post those ideas, difficulty of maintaining the blog and finally the disorganized and multi-tone nature of blogs which may create a negative image of the organization.
References:
http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/nt/2004/nt_2004_08_23_blogging.htm
http://mystarbucksidea.force.com/