Here's an interesting nugget from SNCR's Inaugural Research Symposium in Boston today. It's a great look inside a Fortune 500 and how they're managing employee blogging.

Four reprimands to IBM bloggers in 18 months

IBM's Christopher Barger, known as Blogger-in-Chief, just told the audience he's only had to "drop the hammer" four times on IBM bloggers since Big Blue launched their blogging initiative 18 months ago.

Barger is on the New

Here's an interesting nugget from SNCR's Inaugural Research Symposium in Boston today. It's a great look inside a Fortune 500 and how they're managing employee blogging.

Four reprimands to IBM bloggers in 18 months

IBM's Christopher Barger, known as Blogger-in-Chief, just told the audience he's only had to "drop the hammer" four times on IBM bloggers since Big Blue launched their blogging initiative 18 months ago.

Barger is on the New Media Communications Team at IBM, which is part of the Strategic Communications group (publishes the annual report, etc.). Formerly a speechwriter for IBM, he moved to his current position after his managers discovered an external personal blog he'd been writing for a year. Rather than disciplining him, they said "Hey, we gotta deal with this stuff and…

Kudos to the always clever Eric Kintz over at HP for his creative blog entry (and illustration at left), rounding up pronouncements about blogging from a handful of marketing experts: blogging vs. PR vs. corporate communications (adversaries or peacefully coexisting?); the new blogger influencers at the end of The Long Tail; the blogosphere is beginning to be a "must" in integrated marketing;  customer "intimacy" (a blog) vs. your 1-800 number

Kudos to the always clever Eric Kintz over at HP for his creative blog entry (and illustration at left), rounding up pronouncements about blogging from a handful of marketing experts: blogging vs. PR vs. corporate communications (adversaries or peacefully coexisting?); the new blogger influencers at the end of The Long Tail; the blogosphere is beginning to be a "must" in integrated marketing;  customer "intimacy" (a blog) vs. your 1-800 number (is there a disconnect?); etc.

I shouldn't be a bad sport but I can't help but be a bit annoyed that his little "club" of experts is all male. Eric, uh, the blogosphere (and even the corporate blogosphere) is a very multi- place. Multi-opinion, multi-perspective, multi-nationality, multi-gender. Too bad that wasn't reflected in your entry, Why Blogging Matters.

Fun to meet up in London last night with a group of UK bloggers. We met at the Hereford Arms, around the corner from my hotel in South Kensington. Very simpatico group: Neville Hobson, Mark White, Martyn Davies, Tom Shelley, Keith Collins and Alex Manchester (editor & blogger for Melcrum).

Lots of discussion - and little agreement - on the recent Edelman / Wal-Marting episode and what it means for Edelman's reputation as *the* PR firm that

Fun to meet up in London last night with a group of UK bloggers. We met at the Hereford Arms, around the corner from my hotel in South Kensington. Very simpatico group: Neville Hobson, Mark White, Martyn Davies, Tom Shelley, Keith Collins and Alex Manchester (editor & blogger for Melcrum).

Lots of discussion - and little agreement - on the recent Edelman / Wal-Marting episode and what it means for Edelman's reputation as *the* PR firm that can help big clients negotiate the blogosphere.

Edelman's biggest goof was their silence. It took the firm five days (an eternity in the blogosphere) to fess up publicly to their role in Wal-Mart's fake blog. Still, I think the incident may blow over.

Update: Richard Edelman responds here (90 96 comments) and then here. Steve Rubel here (over 50 comments).

I'm a huge fan of the folks at Edelman, particularly Steve Rubel and Phil Gomes and Guillaume du Gardier in Paris. So I have no idea what's up with Edelman's non-response to the outing of the Wal-Marting Across America blog as a paid-for publicity stunt.

Definition of flogging

Flogging refers to a new blog-ism: fake blogging - as

Update: Richard Edelman responds here (90 96 comments) and then here. Steve Rubel here (over 50 comments).

I'm a huge fan of the folks at Edelman, particularly Steve Rubel and Phil Gomes and Guillaume du Gardier in Paris. So I have no idea what's up with Edelman's non-response to the outing of the Wal-Marting Across America blog as a paid-for publicity stunt.

Definition of flogging

Flogging refers to a new blog-ism: fake blogging - as coined used by MediaPost reporter Tom Siebert in his article: Pro-Wal-Mart Travel Blog Screeches to a Halt. Full disclosure: Tom interviewed me and quotes me in the article. He also quoted me in his follow-up article (see below).

[Correction: flog was coined by Matthew Oliphant.] …

Remember the corporate blogging inflection point I was blabbing about a few days ago? It's here! In the past few weeks, Verizon launched a PoliBlog.

Wells Fargo's new student loan blog seems to be  picking up steam. It's got some great info in it, BTW. The latest entry, which should be of interest to parents as well as students, is titled: Student loan or home equity financing? (Good keywords too.)

And now there's a new public blog for

Remember the corporate blogging inflection point I was blabbing about a few days ago? It's here! In the past few weeks, Verizon launched a PoliBlog.

Wells Fargo's new student loan blog seems to be  picking up steam. It's got some great info in it, BTW. The latest entry, which should be of interest to parents as well as students, is titled: Student loan or home equity financing? (Good keywords too.)

And now there's a new public blog for Intel.* It looks good so far. Nice design (easy to find the "about this blog" and "about the bloggers" links, etc.) and it's quite well written. This is another multiple author blog.

*Intel's famous internal CEO blog penned by Paul Otellini is coming up on its second anniversary.…

Verizon, #18 on the Fortune 500 list, jumped into the blogosphere today with its Verizon PoliBlog. It will cover technology and telecom policy. Check out the drop-down which reveals that there will be nine polibloggers, including CZ, John "CZ" Czwartacki, Verizon's executive director of external communications.

CZ cleverly announced the launch of the blog by leaving a comment on Edelman senior VP Steve Rubel's widely-read Micro Persuasion

Verizon, #18 on the Fortune 500 list, jumped into the blogosphere today with its Verizon PoliBlog. It will cover technology and telecom policy. Check out the drop-down which reveals that there will be nine polibloggers, including CZ, John "CZ" Czwartacki, Verizon's executive director of external communications.

CZ cleverly announced the launch of the blog by leaving a comment on Edelman senior VP Steve Rubel's widely-read Micro Persuasion blog. Haven't seen a press release or other old-media announcement. This is considered *best practices* these days for how to quietly launch a corporate blog.

Verizon also recently announced that it will launch a no-holds-barred, 24X7 customer response blog before the end of the year.

Where are the Blog Naming Police?

I don't want to sound like…