A few comments recently on corporate blogs have confirmed my view that most corporates are still working to understand whether blogging fits into, or perhaps alongside, their communications activities.

The Wall St Journal reports on the dire state of corporate blogs in: Most Corporate Blogs are Unimaginative Failures. I'd agree. Also, by definition A Corporate Blog is probably thematically doomed to failure.

Elsewhere, Intel has taken an initiative to bring a disparate group of blogging pioneers into the process by forming the Insiders Social Media Team. This step could be seen by cynics as a way of pushing yourself into the conversation, or if taken at face value Intel is exploring new ways to accelerate participation and encourage adoption of social media within the corporation. Which is still a tough assignment inside most technology organizations, never mind in other sectors.

Right now I'm having to gather some thoughts for a couple of clients about how their formal (web) and informal (blogs) channels of communication work in synchronization - or more precisely in harmonious and efficient parallel, probably not in perfect synchronization. More about this shortly.

Tags: blogging, Intel, Wall St Journal