1. Blogs or Flogs? Genre Conventions and Linguistic Practices
in Corporate Web Logs Cornelius Puschmann University of Dsseldorf
[email_address] Telematica Instituut 31 August 2007
2. Contents of this presentation
Research context
What's a corporate blog anyway?
Why do companies blog?
Three strategic
approaches:conformingwith,floutingorsubvertingconventions
Observations
3. Research context
4. The project
Doctoral thesis project:
The corporate blog as an emerging genre of
computer-mediated
communication
Focus
survey of a new form of domain-specific publishing
linguistic and extra-linguistic aspects
Questions
What functions do corporate blogs realize?
How do corporate blogs play with existing genre
conventions?
5. Data
web feeds (RSS/Atom) are used to retrieve, store and analyze
language data
A blog written and maintained by the employees of a company
that is
used to further organizational goals.
Blogs can fulfill intra- or extra-organizational functions
marketing
public relations
customer relations management
recruiting
knowledge management
communication
10. Organizational and functional types of corporate blogs
Five different types grouped according to authorship and
function:
11. Organizational and functional types of corporate blogs
Five different types grouped according to authorship and
function:
product blog
12. Organizational and functional types of corporate blogs
Five different types grouped according to authorship and
function:
product blog,image blog
13. Organizational and functional types of corporate blogs
Five different types grouped according to authorship and
function:
product blog,image blog ,knowledge blog
14. Organizational and functional types of corporate blogs
Five different types grouped according to authorship and
function:
product blog,image blog ,knowledge blog ,strategy blog
15. Organizational and functional types of corporate blogs
Five different types grouped according to authorship and
function:
product blog,image blog ,knowledge blog ,strategy blog
,multi-purpose blog
16. Corporate blogging ethics?
Robert Scoble'sCorporate Weblog Manifesto(2003)
http://scoble.weblogs.com/2003/02/26.html
#1Tell the truth
#2Post fast on good news or bad
#3Use a human voice
#5Have a thick skin
#7Talk to the grassroots first
#8If you screw up, acknowledge it
#14If you don't have the answers, say so
code of conduct, behavior beats bottom line
17. Companies that blog
18. Why do companies blog?
19. A communicative crisis?
The Cluetrain Manifesto(1999)
http://www.cluetrain.com/
#1Markets are conversations.
#2Markets consist of human beings, not demographic
sectors.
#3Conversations among human beings sound human. They are
conducted in a human voice.
#4Whether delivering information, opinions, perspectives,
dissenting arguments or humorous asides, the human voice is
typically open, natural, uncontrived.
#5People recognize each other as such from the sound of this
voice.
20. A communicative crisis?
The Cluetrain Manifesto(1999)
http://www.cluetrain.com/
#1Markets are conversations.
#2Markets consist of human beings, not demographic
sectors.
#3Conversations among human beings sound human. They are
conducted in a human voice.
#4Whether delivering information, opinions, perspectives,
dissenting arguments or humorous asides, the human voice is
typically open, natural, uncontrived.
#5People recognize each other as such from the sound of this
voice.
21. A communicative crisis?
The Cluetrain Manifesto(1999)
http://www.cluetrain.com/
#1Markets are conversations.
#2Markets consist of human beings, not demographic
sectors.
#3Conversations among human beings sound human. They are
conducted in a human voice.
#4Whether delivering information, opinions, perspectives,
dissenting arguments or humorous asides, the human voice is
typically open, natural, uncontrived.
#5People recognize each other as such from the sound of this
voice.
22. A communicative crisis?
The Cluetrain Manifesto(1999)
http://www.cluetrain.com/
#1Markets are conversations.
#2Markets consist of human beings, not demographic
sectors.
#3Conversations among human beings sound human. They are
conducted in a human voice.
#4Whether delivering information, opinions, perspectives,
dissenting arguments or humorous asides, the human voice is
typically open, natural, uncontrived.
#5People recognize each other as such from the sound of this
voice.
23. Communicating vs. Publishing spontaneous planned discursive
monologic qualified constative publishing (written) interpersonal
communication (spoken) transient persistent contextual
non-contextual
24. What's so special about blogs?
blogs are the first trulypersonalpublishing platform
blogs combine the qualities ofpublishing(one-to-many,
asynchronous, no feedback) andinterpersonal communication(one-one,
synchronous, feedback)
they have hard technically conditioned conventions...
segmentation of texts into posts
title, date and author with each post
reverse chronological order of items
permalinks ...
... and soft communicative conventions
first-person voice (I think it is a good thing that X vs. It is
a good thing that X)
meta-language (I just wanted to blog about this)
interactional queues are usually literal (What do you think?
means Leave a comment!)
author and publisher are usually identical (I means I, writer,
I, publisher and I, blog owner) ...
25. Implications for corporate blogging
people can communicate, companies can't
the corporate voice is an invention
press releases, advertisements etc either have no discernible
referents or simulate conversations (here at Company X, we are
trying to make your life better)
this worked fine in mass media (no feedback), but fails in
feedback media such as blogs Since companies can't communicate, how
can they blog?
26. Three strategic approaches:conforming
,floutingorsubvertingconventions
27. Strategy #1: Conforming author is discernible
28. The trouble with conforming
Spokesperson syndrome: any time an employee expresses a
(personal) opinion it can be interpreted as the official standpoint
of the company
no more clear, carefully targeted messages
individuals take the spotlight, companies get the
limelight
personal communicative goals can take priority over those of
the company
Useful if...
a neutral, third-party view is needed to ease an image problem
(Scoble)
behavior beats bottom line
29. Strategy #2: Flouting instead, use of the corporate we
30. The trouble with flouting
risk of being accused of not getting it
risk of being ignored
what function does this realize?
31. Strategy #3: Subverting there's an author... but he's
fictional
32. The trouble with subverting
if you get caught you're in deep trouble (Wal-Mart flog
incident)
subverting is the strategy for pursuing covert goals
problem A: you are cheating, problem B: that you are cheating
suggests that you have a hidden agenda
can you build real trust with fictional characters?
33. E) Observations
34. Observations
blogs are profoundlypersonalplatforms of communication
this means that organizations must individualize corporate
relations if they want to utilize blogs
this is associated with a number of risks
traditional, control-based approaches to marketing and PR are
least effective in the context of blogs, unless one resorts
tofloutingorsubverting
new approaches are
hard to predict in their precise effect
hard to replicate
highly dependent on the individual bloggers expertise,
sensitivity etc
only effective in the long term
35. Thanks for listening!
36. Blogs or Flogs? Exploring and Exploiting Genre Conventions
and Linguistic Practices in Corporate Web Logs Cornelius Puschmann
University of Dsseldorf [email_address] Telematica Instituut 31
August 2007