The Hindu Business Line : Blogs may replace typical corporate Web sites

Blog (BLAWG) n. A Web page consisting of frequently updated, chronological entries on a particular topic." Thus reads an entry on www.wordspy.com. Jorn Barger coined the word weblog in 1997, to mean a Web site that presents short dated entries in reverse chronological order, as informs www.langmaker.com in a category called neologism.

"The short form, `blog,' was coined by Peter Merholz, who jokingly broke the word `weblog' into the phrase `we blog' in the sidebar of his blog Peterme.com in April or May of 1999," states Wikipedia.

"Blogs have become so hot that some mainstream TV news reporters are quoting from the more popular blogs on the air," writes Jeremy Wright in Blog Marketing, from Tata McGraw-Hill (www.tatamcgrawhill.com) . "Blogs are not only here to stay, but they will also have an effect on your business," he declares.

The choice before you is clear: "Will you use blogs to benefit your business, or will you ignore them and perhaps experience a negative consequence that takes you completely by surprise?" An example of the latter case is of a major bike lock company that was shocked `when news surfaced in blogs that a pen could be used to open one of its world-famous locks'.

And to those who hesitate, the author explains how blogging is `a communication tool, a marketing technique, a listening device, and a way to interact directly with customers one-to-one on a global scale'.

The most powerful thing about blogging isn't the technology, but the massive community that drives the blogosphere, says the author. "With millions of bloggers expressing their thoughts, experiences, and information they've learned in their fields of interest, this medium has become a worldwide forum."

A common trap that companies that blog tend to fall into is to look at blogs `as just another way to get out the same old marketing message'. Alas, nobody wants to read that kind of thing on a blog, Wright notes. "An open and honest public blog, written by an authoritative voice from within your company, allows your business to create a different type of experience between you and your customers: it allows you to create legitimate conversations that simply weren't possible before online blogging."

Blogging is essentially about three things, says Wright. One, information, that is, "telling your customers what you're doing and finding out what they are thinking." Two, relationships. Blogs help build `a solid base of positive experiences with your customers that changes them from plain-old consumers to evangelists for your company and products'. And three, knowledge management, by making available to the right people the company's `vast stores of knowledge'.

Blogs invite comments and you need to respond to them. Three cardinal rules that Wright lays down for responding to comments are: respond quickly, be human, and follow up to ensure resolution. "The best way to make a great impression is to respond to a comment in as short a timeframe as possible so that the comment's importance has not diminished. Twenty-four hours is a good amount of time, eight hours is better, and under an hour is best."

Humanness can be achieved by appropriately phrasing the response, as say, "Thanks for the comment! We recognise that this is an area we need to improve on, and we've jotted down some thoughts for how we plan to do that here: (include the link)."

In the final chapter, the author looks at `the future of business blogging'. Blogs may eventually replace most typical corporate Web sites, he feels. "Instead of having an `About us' page that says the same, companies will have an `About us' category on their blogs that gets updated at least once a month with new company-related information.

Instead of having an `About the CEO' page, the CEO will have his or her own blog." If blogs are Web sites that empower communication, `why wouldn't a company want to empower communication across its entire Web site?' asks Wright.

Right read!

Bangalore, a victim of its own success

The report rues that Bangalore has become a victim of its own success.

The recently released Karnataka Development Report, prepared by the Planning Commission, and published by Academic Foundation (www.academicfoundation.com) , has a chapter devoted to `tourism, entertainment, and IT-enabled services (ITES)'. But the IT (information technology) industry does find mention in other chapters too.

For instance, a chapter on `the dynamics of Karnataka's growth' mentions that the State contributes around a third of the country's software exports, and a fifth of electronic hardware production. Among other statistics in the book are snatches such as that electronic and software exports constitute more than half of the state exports (2001-2003); and that software development centres numbered more than a thousand in 2003.

Exporters belong to categories such as SME (small and medium enterprises), foreign equity companies, and major Indian companies. "The relative shares of each of these categories in software exports were 13.7 per cent, 45.1 per cent, and 41.2 per cent, respectively." Wonder if the edge still continues for foreign equity companies.

In the chapter on `politics, governance, and service delivery', a box item speaks about Bhoomi, an e-governance initiative, which has computerised `two crore rural land records belonging to over 67 lakh farmers'. Citizens can obtain land records with ownership and crop details through nearly 200 government kiosks. All within 30 minutes by paying Rs 15, `as against 3-30 days under the earlier manual system'. Apart from user-friendliness, error reduction, and saving of time, `the most redeeming feature' of Bhoomi is to check bribery and corruption.

Another project, named Kaveri, facilitates `speedy registration without intermediaries and speed money'. Khajane is yet another project that connects more than 200 treasuries in the State through a computer network. These treasuries, in turn connected to around 4,500 rural local governments (panchayats at the zilla, taluka and gram levels), handle over Rs 20,000 crore annually and service nearly 5 lakh clients. Computerisation of admissions in professional colleges by making CET or Common Entrance Test transparent is one more success story in the State.

"The ITES/BPO industry, which currently employs over one lakh people, has almost a similar number employed in ancillary services comprising recruitment, training, catering, transportation, construction and real estate, security and facility management... On an average ITES/BPO companies spend anything between Rs 25,000 and Rs 30,000 per seat towards ancillary charges."

The report rues that Bangalore has become a victim of its own success. "The exponential growth as an IT hot spot has not been matched by infrastructure facilities, forcing technology companies to look outside Karnataka for expansion... The growth has resulted in traffic jams, higher levels of environmental pollution, a heavier burden on the public transportation, power shortages and insufficient civic infrastructure... "

Recommended material for the development-conscious.

Tailpiece

"He replaced his answering machine with... "

"A human?"

"No, a parrot!"

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