From Corporate Websites to Corporate Blogs: New Frontiers of Organizational Communication
The present paper aims at analysing corporate weblogs as organizational communication tool. We propose a typology of corporate weblogs, distinguishing among corporate diaries, notebooks, filters, plogs and klogs. From a corporate point of view, blogs can be used for both internal and external organizational communication. In particular, for what concerns internal communication, there is, first of all, an intranet type of blog, called klog which aims at data mining and project management. Besides klogs, employee blogs are a powerfull tool to reflect about one’s experience as worker and let the employee construct her professional identity. For what concerns marketing communication, blogs have deeply changed the nature of relationship between organizations and their stakeholders, representing a relational marketing tool, no matter if we talk about notebook, filters or diaries. Finally, corporate plogs derive their name from personal blog and they are, literally, a specific kind of weblog directed to a unique target, with name and surnameThis strategy of influence is very underhand, first of all because it is specifically designed to answer to our needs and, on a second basis, because what is typically a mass medium communication assumes the shapes of an interpersonal communication. The paper explores with real data all these themes, with a particular focus on the way by which corporations construct their credibility for the stakeholders.
Keywords: Organizational Communication, Weblog
Michela Cortini
Researcher, Department of Psychology, University of Bari
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Ref: M07P0309