Fortune A Blog Evangelist?

Is Fortune magazine turning into an evangelist for business/marketing blogs? David Kirkpatrick has written two article in the course of four days about the benefits of blogging. Why There's No Escaping the Blog on Jan 10 and Want Truth In Advertising? Try A Blog on Jan 14.

In his Jan 14 article, Kirkpatrick continues writing about his interview with Steve Hayden, vice chairman of New York-based Ogilvy & Mather. The article puts a positive spin on the benefits of a corporate blog and is well worth a read.

In the blogosphere, we learn not to reinvent the wheel, or the post, if someone else has done an it well. Evelyn Rodriguez, Crossroads Dispatches, has written an excellent summary of the article; following is a snippet.

1. Blogs can serve as a trusted source. "When those magazines review a product it’s generally a universally good review, because they don’t want to lose the advertising revenues. So you go to the blog to get the real review."

2. They can provide companies with reliable feedback. "The advertiser has to accept that what’s on any blog won’t all be positive. Negative things will be said. But consumers are sophisticated enough to filter out the good from the bad."

3. They provide an outlet for happy and unhappy customers. "But the point is that even with all the ranting and raving over a number of problems with the [Porsche] Cayenne because it was a new model—it didn’t interrupt sales. On the message boards and blogs the overall conclusion was it was still a great car. There was an acceptance of the problems.”

4. They can serve as a reality check.  "People believe stuff that is flavored with the reality of bad news. Yet typically when you go to a marketing department or an ad agency, the first thing you hear is that everything we say about this product must be positive.”

5. They can help companies reach an influential audience. "What the bloggers say is pretty significant to us as a research tool."

Kirkpatrick concludes:

Has your company’s CEO blogged, or spoken to a blog, yet? Maybe it's about time.