Corporate blogs - officially sanctioned online diaries (like this one) written by company employees - are gaining increasing acceptance in the United States, according to a story in Business Week, and the trend looks likely to keep growing as consumers demand information in "a more unvarnished way".
Until recently, the thought of employees blabbing freely to the masses about their work on company time -- without the suits from PR hovering over them to stay "on message" -- would have created panic in the executive suite. But in the past year, employee blogs have begun to multiply across Corporate America -- and a growing number of companies approve.
Increasingly, execs see employee blogs as a way to transform a transaction with a faceless behemoth into a personal relationship with an employee. Blogs are also hyper efficient at driving product innovation. And they create loyal audiences. Once people get hooked, they keep coming back for more.