Blogopoly

Everyone has heard the stories of employees being fired for their blogs. However some companies have a more tolerant attitude. What is really good to hear is that Macromedia actually encourages employees to blog so they can answer questions from customers. In fact it is a core part of Macromedia's marketing plan.

''We needed a mechanism to communicate incredibly quickly,'' said Tom Hale, Macromedia's senior vice president of business strategy. ''We hit upon the blog strategy as a mechanism to do that....People really liked hearing directly from Macromedia experts, and getting really fast response,''. Currently there are at least 16 blogs run by employees at Macromedia assisting customers with their questions.

This is an excellent practice by a company that doesn't need the extra exposure that blogs can offer. Instead it is using blogs to make the company more approachable. Something that larger corporations are often criticized for not being. This is probably why Microsoft is so tolerant towards employee blogs, including John Porcaro, a group manager for Microsoft's Home and Entertainment Division who makes no secret of his Microsoft employment.