I've talked a lot about how a corporate blog can help an organization to get noticed through being part of the online conversation and helping with search engine marketing. However, another great use of a corporate blog is to quickly respond to other bloggers in a crisis situation.
A recent case involving Sony BMG Music and the company's use of copy protection software was seen by many as a form of spyware. There were hundreds of blog posts on the topic. Read an Information Week article on the topic here.
This story broke exceptionally fast. Had Sony responded via a corporate blog, instead of ignoring the problem early on, it might have been less controversial and resulted in less negative press.
In this age of lightning fast corporate reputation challenges via blogs, there is a strong need to understand what people are saying about your company and your products. Services such as Factiva Insight help companies monitor blogs and premium news so they can quickly respond to emerging opportunities and threats.
And the best response is to respond quickly in the same format that bloggers do: via your own blog.
