Companies need to recognise the importance of blogs

Some companies do know that blogs are increasingly important to safeguard the corporate reputation and they start mining blogs and other Internet forums for information from consumers that can than be incorporated into their own business planning.

This is nothing surprising (well may be for those that don't do this), since the number of blogs increase rapidly. In fact, blogs became so important that the word "blog" was voted word of the year recently, which really should be a wake-up call.

Blogs or webpages "against" corporations are growing in numbers - a new survey found out that "There are currently more than 10,500 sites aimed at major global brands on the internet. This is a dramatic increase over the end of 2000 when there were 1,900 hate sites, and the end of 1997 when there were 550. In 1995, there was just one hate site." The survey, initiated by London-based mi2g uses harsh words - I wouldn't call it "hate sites" - or, at least not all sites are hate-sites. And, not to forget, of course, there are raving reviews of corporations on the web as well - just do a search for something like "I Love Ikea" and you will get to that one.

So there is praise and there are those that are critical. What's new is, and I have to repeat it, that it is important for corporations to look more detailed into what is happening on the web, and include it into their own business strategies, and don't also clamp down on those that blog about their company.

(By Asia Business Consulting)