Pat’s Point of View

It seems as though corporations are monitoring what people are blogging. Presumably looking for sales opportunities, but also for marketing and PR purposes too. Recently I’ve had companies contact me after I have posted comments regarding their products and services, in an effort to address the issue and make me a happy customer again.

So what’s the problem, this is evidence of the corporate world listening to customers, isn’t it? True, but this kind of thing won’t go unnoticed and I have to wonder what effect this might have on how we blog. Blogging became an ideal and popular way for us to say what we thought without having to worry about who might be reading. But would you say the same things if you knew any time you mention a brand, the issue will be addressed (or you’ll be redressed) by the company who owns it? How long will it be before “help us improve our service” becomes “you shouldn’t have said that”—not that I’m suggesting my blog is so influential as to have companies worried that the untapped customer base is in jeopardy :)

It’s not that far a stretch, in recent years there has been many stories of wiki-meddling and online stand-over tactics being employed by political parties trying to stop bad press.

On the other hand, does a blog post constitute a complaint to the company concerned and thus give them the right to respond? After all, it’s long been accepted that if you put it out there, you have to be prepared to answer for it. I guess it depends on the response you get to your posts (if only we could have telephone trackbacks!). Maybe things swing the other way too; bloggers being rewarded for saying positive things about certain products (although you need look no further than Amazon user ratings for evidence of this).

Well I for one won’t change my blogging habits, I don’t care who’s listening. Buy Dell. There would be no bigger shame than to have the river of free-speech that is the blogosphere be strangled by commercial snoops. Drink Pepsi. No sir, ain’t nothing going to change here. Intel inside. You can’t buy me off (if anyone from Porsche is reading this, I might be willing to negotiate).

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