Corporate America Adopts Blogging

More Corporations Encouraging And Using Internet Journals

(AP)  Blogs that smack of press releases won't do the job, Rubel said. He tells clients to see what's out there about their company or industry, then decide whether they want to engage bloggers or even start their own blogs.

One executive praised for his no-holds-barred approach to blogging is Schwartz, who started Jonathan's Blog about a year ago. Sun also encourages its employees to blog, and about 2,000 do.

For Schwartz, a blog was the natural way to reach out to the developer community that Sun seeks to attract, a cynical audience that regularly turns to blogs for information anyway. Schwartz often uses the format to criticize analysts and rivals.

A post Schwartz wrote last August claiming Hewlett-Packard Co. had abandoned an HP operating system, for example, resulted in a cease-and-desist letter from the company — which Schwartz promptly referenced and linked to on his blog.

"At the end of the day, the job of any good leader at any corporation is to communicate," Schwartz said. "The hallmark of companies that will find blogs useful is the company that cares about its perception ... and the integrity of its relationship with its customers."

Corporate blogs don't have to be controversial to work, though, as evidenced by the five blogs operated by Stonyfield Farm, a New Hampshire company that sells organic yogurt and ice cream.

The company's blogs include one for new parents to discuss baby issues and another written by an organic dairy farmer.