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[HK_ADS(mcdonalds)]
Mcdonald's adopted a corporate blog strategy in October of 2005. The strategy was spearheaded by Steve
Wilson, senior director of global Web communications for McDonalds.
Mcdonald's Corporation is not exactly a technology company, let alone
one that you would expect to adopt a blog strategy. Speaking at a
social media event recently, Mr. Wilson stated "If
your task
is to move the culture of a company, you're not going to move it by the
flip of a switch, you have to show that an open dialogue
can occur, and create an ongoing dialogue to move from point A to point
B." The strategy at Mcdonald's is being termed a pilot program that is
being rolled out to key executives and different departments. This type
of blogging is behind the corporate firewall and operates as or in some
instances replaces the corporate intranet strategy. This means that
only internal employees can use the system and collaborate and comment.
It definitely shortens the distance between those at the top of the
management chain and those workers on the ground floor.
Mcdonald's COO Michael Roberts and other senior executives
gathered around to watch as employees were given the chance to ask
Roberts questions during a two hour launch session. "We
got questions that ranged from why people weren't getting a certain
size bonus to why we were making the menu more complex," Wilson said.
"If you looked at those executives around the table, you could see the
fear of what would happen if a tough question was asked. When one was
asked, we got through it with a matter-of-fact response, and you could
see the relief."
For
many corporations Internal blogging platforms are going to become a
more conservative first step before implementing external blogging
strategies.
Written by Tony Colan, free-lance writer and
owner of Blogster.com a closed community blogging platform that sells
corporate blogging solutions for businesses of all sizes.
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