Collaboration Cast

Today the Security Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that they are officially allowing companies to blog instead of filing a press release. The announcement liberates companies from having to pay PR wire services to distribute their disclosures.

This announcement will greatly encourage companies to make investments to improve their investor relations website and facilitate the user of blogs for communication with investors.

Previous law dictated that corporate websites could only be used as part of the disclosure process, but with the new guidance corporate websites or blogs can now be the sole means of disclosure. The SEC also leaves wiggle room in their statement to include Video and Audio release fillings.

Companies will need to recognize the web as a recognized channel of distribution and ensure that information is “posted and accessible and, therefore, ‘disseminated.’   Additionally, companies will also need to ensure that their websites met the simultaneous or prompt timing requirements for public disclosures under Regulation FD.  More specific requirements will soon be released by the SEC.

It is good to see that the government is keeping pace with technology and customer demand.  Today only 60 out of the fortune 500 companies are blogging.  This new government change will surely give the rest of the non-blogging companies more financial incentives to start blogging.

Recently Bill Marriott in a MSNBC news interviewed called himself the blogger and chief of the Marriott hotel chain.  He told MSNBC that he writes all of his blogs on paper first before posting them. He also proudly boasted that his blog has helped his hotel chain generate over $4 million in hotel bookings.  Bill has set the bar for other companies who are looking to blog.

As Marriott has proven, a Blog can help a company generate sales and for a $4 million return a Chief Executive Blogger dedicated to blogging initiatives may prove a great return-in-investment.  Out of the Fortune 500 companies, 60 companies are taking blogs seriously.  This number has tripled from two years ago.

Some of these companies include:

Coca Cola
Dell
Southwest Airlines 
Kodak 

As Marriott has done, companies should start thinking about blogging and how to drive and track revenues from this new channel of conversation and customer engagement.