“Corporate Blog” is as much an oxymoron as “Jumbo Shrimp,” “Military Intelligence,” and “Safe Drugs” (I welcome your best pharma oxymoron in comments to this post).
I realized this after reading a comment made by Alex Savic to my “New Year’s Resolutions for Pharma Marketers” post, which noted that at least two pharmaceutical “corporate blogs” — GSK’s alliConnect Blog and Centocor’s CNTO411 — have gone silent.
Alex said: “Probably lots of companies get into blogging because of the hype but don’t really buy into it internally.”
I don’t think so. I think it’s more of a personnel problem.
A blog is a personal narrative and when the person leaves, the blog is dead in the water! This is exactly what happened to CNTO411 and alliConnect. Another case in point is Pharmalot, which will fade away without Ed Silverman (see “Pharmalot Nevermore“).
One thing’s for certain in this current economic atmosphere: people in corporations — even CEOs — are expendable. And the most expendable people are probably the ones that are inclined to write blogs!
What about a corporate blog written by a team or committee?
PLUH-EASE!
P.S. Don’t worry about Pharma Marketing Blog. It will continue until it is “ripped out of my cold, dead fingers.”
