(2003-09-16) Blogger In Their Midst

Halley Suitt wrote a case for Harvard Business Review which has been ripped. "A Blogger in their Midst" concerns a CEO trying to figure out how to get a handle on the policy issues raised by an employee blogger. (Corporate Blogging) I agree largely with Ray Ozzie's points (plus some of the other people's points about public flogging for the Middle Management who let the CEO discover the situation so late in the game.

I'm a bit skeptical about this piece: Evan then described how surprised he was to hear that the company's older Steri Touch gloves had suddenly started flying out of the warehouse. "We hadn't been marketing them lately. The thing was, Glove Girl was raving about them on-line. Sales shot up right after she linked her blog to one of our Web pages. You remember that book Gonzo Marketing I gave you last year, Will? Her blog works just like that. These things get close to the customer in ways that an ad campaign just can't." Considering how much of this business is driven by a direct sales effort (roving salesmen nagging hospital supply managers), I'm a little dubious about how significant "marketing" is to sales.