Blog, blog, blah

The attention people are giving to the power of blogs and the influence of the blogosphere is understandable and justified. By all reports, individual points-of-view have leapfrogged public confidence in what companies and institutions say; and blogs have made every individual a publisher.

My concern, though, is that by focusing on what’s new, we may be overlooking what’s true.

Should a company be aware of what is being said and who is saying it? Sure. Should the company have people who participate in the discussion? That's OK, too. But is there a chance a company can prevent something from taking root in the blogosphere? Nope. As an indication, it could not be done even before the blogosphere's “big bang.”

Think about the stories of satanic symbolism in the P&G logo, spider eggs in Bubble Yum or prune juice in Dr. Pepper (that one is from the 1930s!). All pervaded nicely, thank you, well before the blogosphere. All required diligent, consistent and sometimes legal response. All required a review of practices and engagement with the media of the moment. All tested the faith of each company’s constituents.

And that is the point. The traps may be digital, but the best communications strategy remains flesh-and-blood. When someone speaks ill of you, who will refute it?

Technology is putting pressure on the most un-technological aspects of a company. Do we have positive values? Are we living by those values? Do we have a track record that can help make a misstep an event and not an on-going saga? Did we move quickly to repair the damage?

Like a mayor or governor or senator, communications executives ought to be dealing with the blogosphere by getting in front of it; by getting our own houses in order, as these days they are all made of glass.

It requires, today as it always has, getting closer to employees, customers, partners and investors – the full set of a company’s constituents. And everyday requires proof of the promises we’ve made, even though, unlike in politics, success can come at less than a vote of 50.1 percent.

What the blogosphere has done is remove the last thin wall between what companies say and do from being seen and heard anywhere. But the response can’t just be to do a bet