By Strategy Station I mean the 2007 meeting of the Strategic Management Society. This post is a companion to the handout I uploaded to the conference web site. If you got here via that handout, welcome! If you’re a more regular blog reader , you’re also welcome, and the last paragraph of this post is especially for you.
The paper is “Corporate blogging: Is it a nonmarket strategy?” It provides arguments both for and against the question in its title. Here’s a simplified version of the no argument that convinces me.
- Corporate blogging is a conversation between the organization and its stakeholders (including its customers).
- Markets are conversations, as Doc Searls and David Weinberger eloquently argued in The Cluetrain Manifesto.
To save you some typing, here are the other links from the handout:
- The Corporate Blogging Book site.
- Shel Israel’s blog, which started out as the site for Shel’s s book with Robert Scoble.
For most readers who arrived here through the usual blog-related channels, see the appropriate page from the conference web site for the one-page handout, and for some context. It does define the term nonmarket strategy. To such readers, the paper, even in handout form, may seem rather laborious. I agree that it has the Cluetrain pulling some rather bulky cars behind it. But laborious writing often seems like a hazard of the academic occupation.
I met this guy d searls when we had a press meltdown here of late — he’s the one to speak with! re the wp & open & ads? I think. He knows me as SB*
I think he and I think the same way?