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Saying that blogging has changed the way many businesses are run, would be both painfully obvious and an understatement. The reality is that not only are bloggers dissecting and discussing the great and awful service received from any business but businesses – from large corporations to political parties – are hiring full time bloggers to let consumers know what is going on as it happens. I’m not sure how revolutionary this all is now several years into the blogging scene, but as a relative newbie, I’m still baffled about how the entire process works and how it got to where it is today.
I’ve done some hardcore bashing and lamenting on two major companies: Bank of America and Verizon. Based on personal experiences which made me want to claw my own eyes out and/or remove appendages with a dull butter knife. I have no problem sharing these things with people in my immediate surroundings as well as my readers. Which is something businesses now have to fear now more than ever; pissing off their consumers who are probably formulating blog entries as the shit hits the fan, which they (read: not 100% of bloggers but a fair amount) will broadcast to their hundreds (or thousands or millions) of readers. This is not to say that I never say nice things about service I’ve received. In fact in an overly lengthy post on things I like with the number 5 in the title – Take Fives, Five Guys – I received a very lovely email from the folks of Five Guys as well as a gift certificate, which I promptly used.
The fact is that while I’m sure this has been blogged about relentlessly, my recent inquiries into the marriage of blogging and businesses (including the giant behemoth that is advertising) is somewhat two fold. The first being a recent run in with Expedia, who I now loathe with the fire of a white hot sun and the other involving Walmart – another company I loathe - and a couple that they lied about hiring to blog across America and interview their ‘happy’ employees. Both of which leave me questioning how far I or any blogger is willing to go to voice their opinions as to how crappy a company is – in this particular case, I will never ever use Expedia again – and how far a business will go to pump their image.
There’s a part of me that gets all giddy at the thought of how much blogging can do for both consumers and businesses but then another small part wonders whether or not the sky is the limit. Which is both good and bad, but at what point if any, will the bad outweigh the good? Or is it still too (relatively) early on to question such a thing. Or, maybe I’m beating a dead horse and need to be pointed in the direction of the Land of Obvious.
