Advantages & Disadvanatages of Blogs

What are the advantages and disadvantages of implementing internal versus external employee blogs in a corporate setting? Are there certain industries where one of these strategies makes more sense?

Advantages of both Internal and External
Authors of blogs have the luxury of focusing on a single issue as long as they want to
Bloggers can supply a mix of supporting information such as background research, links to other online materials, copies of other documents, and photographs
No space restriction, can post or link to all relevant information
Ability to disseminate information even quicker than traditional publication channels
Technologies to support blogging are widespread and often free
Keeping up with blog posts made infinitely easier by RSS
External blogs can be a source of revenue with ads
Posts to external blogs often give a behind-the-scenes look at the company
Internal blogs create a loyal following; help raise awareness of issues that need to be addressed
“Blog Monitoring” helps companies mine for external blogs for customer sentiments about the company and its products
External blogs are a good marketing tool, can be used to advertise in a tone and language to match brand campaign of a new product
Internal blogs allow for collaboration across functions, increased cooperation and the ability to share information quickly and efficiently
Blogs, both internal and external, create a record of an organization’s thoughts and conversations; this record is then searchable and consultable
Blogging is a growing trend in communication around the world
Internal blogging helps with knowledge sharing
Blogging creates an aspect of self-gratification that can not be measured
Blogs increase transparency and ultimately benefit companies who can be quick to issue corrections

Disadvantages of both Internal and External
Blogs are unsupervised, unedited, and unpremeditated
May be a waste of time for employees, it can be tedious in terms of upkeep
External corporate bloggers do not have complete freedom, companies often provide guidelines
External blogs are risky because the author could reveal a company secret, violate client confidentiality, or attract unwanted attention from a regulator or enforcer
External blogs would have to be reviewed by some kind of internal media relations group
Legal and compliance officers were weary of external company blogs arguing that not everyone has the right “voice” or “skill set” to blog

Blogs can be used in any industry. Blogs are a place for a group of similar-minded people to discuss any topic. Bloggers can comment on reviews on new products. Bloggers can comment on new software or IT problems and solutions. Bloggers might want to discuss child-rearing, finance, or exercise. Bloggers can blog about their daily lives, be it boring and exciting, and still develop a loyal following. The extremely rapid growth in blogs as shown in Exhibit 2 indicates that people are blogging and they are blogging about anything and everything. The sky’s the limit.