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Blogging may seem old hat – but it can still be a powerful tool for a company.  Consider the recent Wells Fargo / Wachovia merger blog… A merger blog?  Yes, a blog all about the impending merger of Wells Fargo and Wachovia.   It sounds boring as hell to me but if you are a customer, an investor, a front line employee — well, then it might very well be of great interest.  I saw this on its first day because the social media circles were talking about the nifty comments box that appeared at the top of the blog (as opposed to just at the bottom).
But after a few days the blog got a whole lot more interesting and illustrative of the best that a blog has to offer in terms of reaching out to stakeholders, listening and connecting.

It begins with a simple, Obama-esque post

Once Matt introduces himself, he is clear on his intent:

The blog is about the merger and how it will affect customers of both banks (and employees)…  The comments came in fast and furious…  There are the standard “good for you” comments:

But many of the posts begin asking some serious questions about how the merger will affect bank policy and services.  Some of these are simple (below) and some get very complicated.

Interspersed in the comments Matt and a few others are responding and answering questions:

There are people who think the blog is an extension of the soulless corporate leviathan (my words not theirs):

Matt Wadley lets it stay (good move) and doesn’t respond (they aren’t asking for a response – just an airing of complaint…) As with many healthy blogs that have a good sized audience there are critics but also defenders:

Finally, if anyone is thinking of adding a comment Wells/Wachovia have made their guidelines clear right where you comment.  Including the request that all employees disclose their affiliation.

In Summary, these are some of the good practices shown on this single post:

• Let your personality show
• Have a clear focus
• Listen well and respond to comments
• Allow reasonable, negative comments (unless profane etc.)
• Be transparent about your subject matter
• Use “real” language when addressing business issues
• Make your commenting terms clear

While these practices (and others) have been well covered in books like Scoble and Israel’s Naked Conversations — I thought that this single post summarized a lot about how blogs work (and why).  I encourage you read through it (here is the link again) – there is a lot there….

This post once again reminds me that these social tools (blogs, wikis, social networks etc.) have nothing to do with technology -after all blogs are a one-click operation to set up… These tools are about shifting the dialogue from corporate-to-customer to person-to-person.  In that shift there are so many things that a corporation isn’t used to (loss of power, shift in tone and the move from business contract to the social contract).   More on that in the upcoming post:  Relationships beat Transactions.