Another Article with the Words “Blog” and “Peril” in the Title.

The Guardian’s online technology section ran an article today about some new research on blogging in Europe. The basic message was a familiar one, “businesspeople, the bloggers are powerful and they can ruin your business.”

It’s a pretty common theme in the blogosphere, and one that a number of business bloggers are starting to find rather tiresome. How many times can we really hear the Kryptonite bike lock story followed by the Raging Cow Blog story without starting to feel like we’ve had the same song stuck in our heads for a long, long time?

Yes we’ve talked about blogosphere horror stories and the mistakes that companies can make. And we’ll continue to talk about these stories because it’s important for our readers to hear them. But it’s crucial that we keep this stuff in the proper context, because the reality is that these stories scare people - and that fear isn’t getting them to blog, it’s making them bury their heads in the sand.

Here’s an even deeper reality for you: it’s really hard to screw up in the blogosphere. You have to work really, really hard to dig yourself the kind of hole that Dell and McDonald’s now find themselves in. What’s more, if any of the aforementioned companies made a concerted effort at having a relationship with the blogosphere, they would likely be able to dig themselves out relatively quickly.

Just look at what happened when Dave Taylor interviewed Donna Tocci of Kryptonite. The interview offered a very interesting counterpoint to the story that’s typically told throughout the blogosphere. According to Technorati there are 48 inboundlinks to Taylor’s post about Kryptonite, many of which take the rounded-out perspective that Tocci offers to heart. Kryptonite wasn’t clueless or caught unawares, they just cared about their customers more than they did about what the blogosphere was saying at that particular time. Yeah they may have been slow to respond, but they’re getting their story out there now.

And here’s another example. Remember GourmetStation, the site that started a character blog and was then excoriated by the blogosphere for it? GourmetStation did a great job of engaging their detractors head-on, and eventually those detractors found other blogs to criticize. And Kryptonite Locks is living proof that engaging detractors in the long-term can kill controversy and negative buzz.

With that in mind, I think we can safely say that the only thing businesses have to fear from the blogosphere is not getting involved with it in some capacity. If you make a mistake, you can admit it, drive to closure and move on. Where else in the business world will mistakes be so easily forgiven?

And as Janet Johnson told me in our podcast interview if we start telling those success stories more often, maybe more businesses will decide to become involved in the blogosphere.

In a shameless plug for our services, I’d like to remind our readers that the Blog Business Summit is uniquely poised to help you move into the blogosphere without fear or trouble. Get in touch with us and tell us about your business. We’d love to help you figure out how to make your own success story in the blogosphere.