The Great Indian Gas Trick!

When the 5-star style hospitals are on a marketing overdrive, why should the quacks be left behind?

And will the overeducated MDs be ever able to cure medicines of their diseases?

[Pic source: email from Abhijit Gupta. Click on the pic for a larger image.]

Personal opinions and corporate blogs

In my last post, I had written about how a corporate blog had ruffled feathers across America.

Something similar has happened in our own backyard.

Anuradha Sengupta of CNN-IBN watched Sivaji--the latest Rajnikanth flick--and lambasted the film on IBNLive's blog. The post drew extremely strong reactions, with some people challenging her to visit Chennai and go back unscathed! (Her blog's comment count is 1528 as I write this and the number's ticking faster than our population.)

That's not at all surprising, going by the amount and extent of fan-frenzy Rajnikanth enjoys. What I want to point to is the fact that people treat corporate blogs as an extension of the corporate's official stand.

Here are just a few quotes (word for word) from the comments:

CNN IBN HAS GONE INSANE...I LOVED THE CHANNEL TILL THIS INCIDENT HAS HAPPENED

IBN should ensure nobody is hurt before posting such reviews

try to be more matured and smart partuiculary when you r carrying a brand behind ur name । (CNN IBN)

I strongly recommend CNN-IBN (was my favorite news channel till i read this article) not to release these kind of articles and loose the viewership and your brand image....

Irrespective of whether a corporate blogger is trying to promote his/her organisation, people are not ready to see the line between the official stand and personal opinion. At least, not just yet. That's some food for thought for corporate bloggers and corporates who run blogs.

Promoting your company through your corporate blog

...may not be as easy as it sounds.

Lauren Turner, an Account Planner with Google, saw business opportunity in a film release, and posted this on the Google Health Advertising Blog.

Then all hell broke loose and strong reactions poured forth like the Bombay monsoons.

Lauren posted a rejoinder about how her opinion need not necessarily be Google's too.

The reaction (somewhat extreme, methinks) to Lauren's post makes one thing clear--netizens see corporate blogs as an extension of the organisation's official communication.