Blogs - Do not ignore the free voice of people!!

Leveling the playing ground: The free voice of people: Blogs

Do not be the board room member/executive who ignores the free voice of the people:


The power of blogs struck me hard after reading the article “Bloggers send a warning shot to corporate America”, from the 02/07/2005 article of the Financial Times. I have long been a proponent of the fight against certain big companies such as Verizon who have been known to exploit its consumer base through misleading advertisements and higher prices. Verizon has been pretty exploitative in the past with its high prices on plans along with its usually cheaper yet pricier phones. This situation was very unnerving back then when there was less competition in the home phone and cell phone industry.

Along with mass competition from other cell phone companies and Internet phone companies such as Vonage and Skype, Verizon has quickly learned that it has to pay attention to all lines of communication and complaints from its customers especially from blogs. My position on blogs is that since you get both good and bad comments it’s really up to a company to filter the constructive complaints and act accordingly to correct any issues with products and services. This should not be too difficult because volume speaks worlds about the validity of any complaint posted on a blog. The truly valid blogs receive more hits and subsequent blog add-ons.

The next big thing I would hope to see evolve in the corporate environment is the facilitation of communication through company created blog links whereby employees can not only share ideas on development, technology etc, but also provide a medium to discuss issues that the company faces. We have all worked for companies or known people in those situations who have had to be greatly affected by certain “bad” decisions made by company executives. For example, deciding to eliminate certain health plan benefits for employees without getting a pulse of the impact to people or even a discussion of work-around health plan if the stimulus related to cost-cutting.

Bottom line communication is key and blogging is a great medium to facilitate it. We need to listen to people who are our customer base of work to attract to our customer base. Are the repercussions of a class-action law suit worth it? Why didn’t management at Verizon pay attention to the flood of blog complaints on the Internet? These are questions that I am sure the people at Verizon have pondered. The Microsoft example as it relates to their actions on blogging is plausible. I hope companies like Verizon follow suit in relating and responding to the views of their customers and even taking such pro-active actions even further.