A recent post in BusinesBlogwire showed that the number of blogs discussing “corporate blogging” (and its related keywords) has not risen much today, compared to the figure a year ago. The comments led to a possibility that maybe the word they use is “business blogging”… but I checked – the figures are about the same, with not much increase over the past year.

Easton goes on to say:

On a typical day, Technorati indexes about 40-60 blog posts mentioning the three terms mentioned above. At least several of those are duplicates of some kind (either legitimate re-posts or spam). I suspect that there about 10 bloggers that account for 30 to 50 percent of all such posts. (My gut talking.)

10 bloggers a day? Out of the previously reported 57 MILLION in October 2006? That doesn’t sound right, does it?

Unfortunately (or fortunately) the figures are correct. For the past three months or so since I started this blog, I have a Google Alert keeping me updated about any news Google finds on the web about this topic, and as far as my observations, there hasn’t yet been a lot of news about corporate blogging.

In fact, I would say at least 20% of the alerts that were sent to me were mentions more about Debbie Weil’s Corporate Blogging Book rather than a company that has really started a corporate blog! Debbie must be doing pretty well with her book! (Its the Amazon Bestseller afterall – I’ve read it myself, and there is no doubt its a great book) 🙂

We all probably have heard by now what the benefits of corporate blogging are. I, for one, am totally bought by the ideas and the evidence! I think there can be no better way today to create buzz about your brand and get direct feedback from your customers than a corporate blog.

This issue puzzled me a lot when Easton posted it. The benefits are clear, there are so many cases to prove that it works, and the best thing is – it doesn’t require a lot of resources to start a corporate blog! So why then hasn’t corporate blogging taken off yet? Will it really happen in 2007 as I’ve predicted?

I still think my prediction will turn out right

I recently had some opportunities to talk to a couple of people working in MNCs, and in our chats, I have grown to realise that many corporations (big ones especially!) are really still in the pre-year 2000 age in terms of embracing the Internet for marketing.

I also observed that smaller companies are taking up marketing on the Internet better than the big companies. I personally find the reason for this is quite clear – small businesses are more flexible and ready to change, and its easier and cheaper to market online anyway, so it really appeals to them!

So hold on, the large corporations are not unwilling to change. Corporate blogging does work. From my observations again, they do know about advantages of getting online to create buzz, the books have reached them, and the word has gone in. They are just taking more time to make the change.

This is analogous to steering a cruise ship versus a speedboat – the bigger the corporation, the longer it takes to change direction because of the inertia caused by sheer mass of the company.

Its been at least two years since the first books on blog marketing have been published, and I think its time the big ships have altered to the new direction, and soon they will be up with full throttle, maximum speed, creating new waves.

I will be reaching out a lot this year to help many of my friends in Singapore owning small and medium sized businesses get into the channel of corporate blogs.

Position yourself today and get started with corporate blog – and get ready to ride with the big waves coming up! 2007 will be the year for corporate blogging. Would you agree?