It wasn't that long ago that when a corporation would launch their fist blog and the entire blogosphere would pile on with a scourge of comments and posts about how corporations just didn't “get it.”
Along with this would be copious amounts of advice. It must have been a lot like being lost in the woods of a very strange land.
We've come a long way since those days.
Now there a a few corporations who could school some of us on the right way to do things.
Case in point, The Blog Council, a new professional community for global brands already immersed in social media, launches tomorrow.
I sat on this news until now as I thought that it wasn't to be blogged until tomorrow, but since Mack at the Viral Garden blogged it and I got permission from my contacts at DELL to blog it, I feel pretty confident going forward (thanks John and Richard).
In other words, the cat is out of the bag.
Andy Sernovitz, the founder of the word of Mouth Marketing Association, will head up a group of corporate bloggers from global brands called The Blog Council.
Founding members include: AccuQuote, Cisco Systems, The Coca-Cola Company, Dell, Gemstar-TV Guide, General Motors, Kaiser Permanente, Microsoft, Nokia, SAP, Starwood Hotels & Resorts and Wells Fargo.
If you are a small company, a vendor, an agency or an individual you need not apply. In fact, if you are a major global brand that hasn't taken up blogging yet, you are better served going to the New Communications Forum, or one of the many other conferences aimed at those still pondering social media or dipping a toe.
We don't represent vendors, agencies or individual/small business blogs. We also don't represent big businesses that aren't blogging yet.
I am very excited to see what these leaders come up with in the areas of, as they put it, “best practices, measurement and networking.” One of their stated goals is to “develop standards-based best practices that will serve as a model for other corporate blogs.”
And if they want to figure all of this out in “private and vendor-free environment,” then so much the better.
I've noticed over the last year that the social media arena has become pretty noisy with sales pitches – some giving advice and counsel that is way off of the mark.
We all have a thing or two to learn from these pioneers. I hope they choose to use their closed garden to develop things from which the community can benefit.
Their first meeting is January 22, 2008, in Orlando. Josh Hallett is one of the presenters, along with John Pope and Richard Binhammer from DELL.
I really do hope they will share some of their new toys.
I would love to know what the readers think about this move, is it too exclusionary or is it just what the doctor ordered?
tags: The+Blog+Council, DELL, Andy+Sernovitz, WOMMA
