Blogs and Wikis, Essay Example

Blogs and Wikis can be tremendously helpful to businesses. They can increase communication, make a business seem trendier, and help a company present itself more personally to customers. Yet the use of both blogs and wikis can be detrimental to a business.  While most companies would benefit by publishing a business blog, not every company had the resources to cope with the harms the improper use of such a medium can inflict on a company.

According to Grzegorz Mazurek (2008) of Kozminski University, blogs have limitless benefits. Among them are the following: increased internet traffic, increased company branding, and a better flow of information. However, says Mazurek, they can also jeopardize privacy, cause problems with accountability and cause leaders to lose control of their communications strategies. Furthermore, says Mazurek, some companies decline to publish blogs, because their culture does not support the sort of informal, public sort of informational transactions that blogs promote.  Others simply do not have the time to keep blogs current (Mazurek, 2008).

If companies do not have the time to keep their web logs current, the impression customers might draw from viewing such blogs might be that the company is out-of-date, rather than trendy. Furthermore, if those responsible for blog publications are not careful with their grammar and statements, they can give outsiders a poor image of the company that might not be reflective of its true nature. Large companies might be able to afford to hire fact and grammar checkers for their blogs, but small companies might not have enough resources at their disposal. It might be better for these not to host blogs.

Blogs can also lead to problems of legality and liability. Former Delta Airlines Employee, Ellen Simonetti, for instance, published mildly risqué pictures of herself in Delta’s uniform. Delta, concerned about the image this presented of the company, fired Ms. Simonetti. She, in turn, filed a lawsuit against the company for sex discrimination, claiming that Delta had not taken similar measures against male employees who had been photographed in uniform, while off duty (AP, 2005)

In another case, employee Mark Jen worked for Google until he posted a criticism of the company on his blog. He was subsequently fired. Jen remarked that the easiest way for Google to have dealt with the problem would have been to have him take it down. Now that he is fired, he has put his blog back up (Roberts, 2005). A few years later, CNN fired “American Morning” senior producer Chez Pazienza for failing to comply with its journalistic standards. According to Pazienza, he was fired for making a post on his personal blog. Pazienza wrote controversial statements on the blog, such as the following:

I wake up every morning baffled as to why America hasn’t thrown George Bush and Dick Cheney in prison, Hollywood hasn’t stopped trying to convince me that Sarah Jessica Parker is attractive, gullible soccer moms haven’t realized that they share absolutely no kinship with Oprah, and Fox canceled ‘Firefly.’

CNN requires its employees to seek its permission before writing for outside outlets. Pazienza did not seek its permission (Chan, 2008).

Blogs like these present a number of problems for corporations. When they are left to stand, they can damage a company’s reputation. Readers of Simonette’s blog might get the impression that Delta condoned risqué behavior if the company said nothing. Readers of Jen’s would see that Google’s benefits were not as generous as they expected. Readers of Pazienza’s blog might get the idea that CNN supported imprisoning Republican politicians. Yet, when companies fire employees over inappropriate postings, they open themselves up to lawsuits and liability.

Simonette filed charges against Delta because she felt they were discriminating against her because of her sex. Others feel that terminating employees for non-company blogging is an encroachment on their freedom of speech. While many employees are “at will employees,” who, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, can be fired for any reason, anger against that perceived encroachment can hurt a company’s image (Wallack, 2005). When employees are employed “at will”, companies are legally justified in firing them. When an employee posts material that can damage a company’s reputation, as in the Simonette case, the company is also justified in doing so. However, if a company fires an employee to prevent justified criticism, as in the Jens case, it is harder to sympathize with the company.

These legal and social problems can be very expensive – perhaps more expensive than any damage done by personal blogging. It seems wise, then, for companies to distance themselves from personal comments made by bloggers, without necessarily resorting to firing employees. On the other hand, if a company’s CEO created an official blog for his company, he might be able to counter some of the negative impressions made by personal blogs.

Some CEO bloggers have been very successful in conveying a positive message. Brand strategist David Henderson praises CEOs Tony Hsieh of Zappos and Mark Cuban of the Dallas Mavericks for using their blogs to “achieve unique differentiation.” (Henderson, 2009) Cuban has also used his blog to combat criticism from other CEOs. He lets users respond in his comment section and even manages to convince some who originally argue against him that he is right. For a capable CEO with time to invest in responding to comments, blogging can do a lot of good. But not every CEO has the time or the capability to respond so well. Blogs have many benefits, but they are not for every company.

Wikis, like blogs, have many advantages and disadvantages. They allow for smooth and easy collaboration. Wiki information can be created and edited quickly. It is easy to update, because it is not dependent on any one user. Yet, because multiple users participate in them, they can lose both coherence and accuracy. Wikis that are open to everyone can be easily hijacked by spammers and pranksters. This can render the information on them useless or less useful than it might otherwise have been.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Wikipedia (perhaps the best known Wiki) has been plagued with vandals. Many are unsure about its accuracy. According to The Journal, one Wikipedia article altered the biography of retired journalist John Seigenthaler Sr. and inaccurately linked him to the Kennedy assassinations. This episode demonstrates very clearly the sort of damage that can be done by inaccurate wiki reporting. On the other hand, Wikipedia has made encyclopedia articles widely and freely available. Those who cannot afford a $70 a year subscription to Encyclopaedia Britannica certainly benefit from the wealth of information Wikipedia provides (Will Wikipedia Mean the End Of Traditional Encyclopedias? , 2006).

Although Wikipedia is the most well-known wiki, it is far from the only one. Wikis are often used for project management in tech-oriented businesses. According to CIO Online, they are, “deceptively easy to use and install.” (Schwartz, 2008) They also allow customers and clients to collaborate with one another and help companies develop online communities around their projects. But according to Ephraim Schwartz, they can be very difficult for IT teams to manage. Trying to manage them can, he says, sometimes feel like a game of “Whack-a-Mole,” as different workers begin putting tons of data into them all at once (Schwartz, 2008). Organizing wikis, then, can become almost a full-time job, according to Schwartz. This is not a great prospect if a company has not hired someone specifically to play that role. If wiki-monitoring becomes so time consuming, employees tasked with organizing them may neglect the jobs they were hired to do.

Nevertheless, wikis provide a wealth of knowledge to their users and a platform through which the knowledgeable can share information with those who need it. While they may, at times, be disorganized, they seem well worth using. Blogs and wikis, when used properly, can be tremendously effective communications tools. Yet, when used inappropriately, they can do a great deal of damage to a business.

References

Will Wikipedia Mean the End Of Traditional Encyclopedias? . (2006, September 12). Retrieved February 19, 2010, from The Wall Street Journal Online: http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB115756239753455284-A4hdSU1xZOC9Y9PFhJZV16jFlLM_20070911.html?mod=blogs

(2005, September 8). Delta employee fired over blog sues airline. Retrieved Feb 20, 2010, from MSNBC: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9259944/

Chan, S. (2008, February 14). CNN Producer Says He Was Fired for Blogging. Retrieved February 20, 2010, from The New York Times Online: http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/14/cnn-producer-says-he-was-fired-for-blogging/

Henderson, D. (2009, March 28). CEO Blogs: Pros and Cons. Retrieved February 20, 2010, from David E. Henderson Online: http://www.davidhenderson.com/2009/03/28/ceo-blogs-pros-and-cons/

Mazurek, G. (2008). Corporate blogs – innovative communication tool or another internet hype? empirical research study . Proceedings of the International Multiconference on Computer Science and Information Technology (pp. 403-406). Wislaw, Poland: IEEE.

Roberts, J. (2005, March 7). Fired For Blogging. Retrieved February 19, 2010, from CBS News: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/03/07/tech/main678554.shtml

Schwartz, E. (2008, September 03). The Advantages and Disadvantages of Using a Wiki to Manage Your IT Projects. Retrieved February 20, 2010, from CIO Online: http://www.cio.com/article/447199/The_Advantages_and_Disadvantages_of_Using_a_Wiki_to_Manage_Your_IT_Projectshttp://www.cio.com/article/447199/The_Advantages_and_Disadvantages_of_Using_a_Wiki_to_Manage_Your_IT_Projects

Wallack, T. (2005, January 24). Blogs/ Beware if your blog is related to work. Retrieved February 20, 2010, from The San Francisco Chronicle: http://articles.sfgate.com/2005-01-24/business/17354408_1_blog-co-workers-co-workers/3