Kodak sucks the coolness from blogging

Sometimes, you get a press release that's so accidentally, astonishingly funny that you can't stop laughing long enough to make fun of it. This morning's latte-through-the-nose nominee is the deadpan announcement "Kodak Names Chief Blogger: Company Extends its Revolutionary Approach to Product Innovation with Cutting-edge Approach to Social Media."

According to the release, "Just over 10 percent of Fortune 500 companies have public blogs. Fewer still have Chief Bloggers, and Kodak is among the first to name a female Chief Blogger." Wow. I had thought that writing, customer service, and public relations jobs were chock full 'o women, but now I discover that Chief Blogger was a job title heretofore out of my chromosomal reach. So much more rewarding than CTO or CFO.

Now, there are lots of corporate blogs and bloggers out there (can I officially coin the terms "clog" and "clogger"?), some of whom I even read, like Adobe's John Nack. But really, once you've appointed an official blogging overlord and publicly announce it just to impress Wall Street analysts, blogs take on all the glamour and interest of CRM.

[zigra74]

Blogger in Chief

Maybe you can call him the "Blogger in Chief", and elect him to the role of Blogger in Chief for 4 years. After he delivers his "Mission Accomplished" speech and drives Kodak into the ground, you can then re-elect him for another 4 years. <br />Yes, that makes more sense.

[Jack K1]

Chief Blog Officer

CBO - just another in a series of worthless CxO titles. <br /><br />At least this one sounds as attractive as it is.<br /><br />J.

[thescale]

...coolness from blogging?

Like drawing water from a stone? I never knew blogging was cool to begin with. But, hey, if you want to keep on telling yourself you're cool for being a blogger, go right ahead.

[jimmyjoe]

Kodak Misses the Point of a Blog

A Blog was, in my understanding, a post from an individual who had an opinion from their point of view on a topic. It provided us some insight into a topic from someone other than ourselves. We might agree or disagree - but the fact that we heard from someone else is informative and interesting.<br /><br />Now, having a corporate mouth piece that can spew the opinions of the corporation via a Blog is the perfect way for Kodak to devalue Blogging altogether. Using Blogging as an alternate to press releases, presentations and analyst meetings changes Blogging into just another method of attempting to change public opinion by another vehicle. <br /><br />Perhaps Kodak should rethink this strategy of the fox paying the hen to lay the golden blogs it wants. Instead, perhaps they should sponsor a few independant bloggers who are going to offer meaningful and, perhaps, painful assessments of Kodaks industry.<br /><br />THAT would be revolutionary. THAT could make them dangerous. But having the first female corporate funded blogger - that's just a demonstration that THEY DON'T GET IT.

[tom_at_kodak]

We get it, big time! - Kodak

Hey jimmyjoe. Please check out our blogs before you render judgment. We have been doing this since September, 2006 and have been recognized as a company who has been doing it right. Well, at least until this review ;-)<br />Seriously, we are proud of our efforts and are true to the tenets of transparency and are not putting forth corporate PR repacked as a blog.<br />A cute name like "clogging" can be coined but I think that does a disservice to companies who truly have a story to tell. <br />Here are some links, as I would rather have our blogs speak for itself:<br /><a href="http://1000words.kodak.com">A Thousand Words</a> - Stories, photos tips from Kodak people (real people ;-)<br /><a href="http://1000nerds.kodak.com">A Thousand Nerds</a> and innovation blog, also by "real" people!<br />And if you want to know a bit more about me these are my <a href="http://tomhoehn.1000words.kodak.com">posts</a>.

[Sellers63]

clog it

clog fits perfectly!

[blackshutter23]

Let me tell you about "cool" - NOT

I find it a little laffable that people who are hip-deep in geeky reviews of nearly identical Canon SD digital cameras are suddenly emboldened enough to portray themselves as arbiters of cool. A 'chief blogger' title may be a stretch, but you'd do better to spend time with the blog itself, and experience the wide variety of interests of its participants.

[Uilleam]

Can't we all just get along

Kind of petty, aren't you.

[laurahmarshall]

Clogging is taken

Just ask anyone who's ever watched the dance. (See <a class="jive-link-external" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clogging" target="_newWindow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clogging</a>)<br /><br />But that doesn't mean Kodak didn't seriously blow this one.

[whatayaknow]

Bitter Much?

I suspect that this story will stay up until Ms Lori Grunin is named "Chief Blogger" for CNET at which point the post will come down, the accolades will be given to Ms Grunin and she will humbly accept. Geez, here is a company that is trying to make it, has had a hard time, is doing something REALLY cool and now you are coming down on them for it. You are a bitter little pill and I would think you could look at other things to blog about that would actually make a difference.

[smoothcnetreader]

More CxO Stupidity

Even though both of the Kodak 1000 blogs are basically corporate PR with blog style presentation, they were more interesting to read than press releases.<br /><br />Kodak management should have given Cisney a pay raise instead of crowning her with the dubius title of CBO. The subtext of the press release leads this reader to believe that this is yet another example of a corporation appointing a token female to an unimportant CxO position.