Still, the only company that’s been responsive to bloggers in the fly fishing space (it’s not a random example; I have a top fly fishing blog) is one of the biggest.

The smaller companies — who have the most to gain and (supposedly) fewer barriers — are simply waiting.

Anecdotal for sure, but is it playing out across other industries? Are small and medium-sized companies long on opportunity but short on bandwidth and vision?

In slightly larger companies, the current marketing/pr function very often seems to be engaged with fulfillment rather than generating the actual content, or business proposition – which may well be down to the product manager or business unit owner. There is this division of labour.

The people with the message don’t currently have the skills to deliver the message either.

My view is that existing company structures will actually work against the online world of instantaenous and spontaneous corporate blogging, because not only will decisions take far too long, the tools don’t exist for inside the company for proper collaboration (internal blogs and wikis anyone?).

Emailing 6 people (groan) asking for their veiws just doesn’t make for a responsive situation. And blogging by committee will probably deliver that lifeless and dull voice that Tom mentioned above.

In the smaller business, on whether to accept the content of a blog post – the decision maker is usually the producer of that post – reducing decision time…of course.

Yes, I definitely see smaller companies not only adopting blogs more quickly but more completely than the larger companies. The smaller the company the quicker they will adopt blogs, and with more enthusiasm, once they recognize and understand what blogs can and will do for them and their business. Getting the word out to the small companies about blogs, what the benefits are, and how they can get their message out with little effort is vital.

Using blogs, much smaller companies can compete with the bigger players and beat them easily with little, if any cost, and on their own terms. Smaller companies can tell it like it is and produce very accurate and useful content that has real value to readers. The big boys will have to submit their own content to so many different editing groups and layers who will alter, eliminate, and reduce the content to remain in the protection mode. Or they will produce so much excessive wordy content to cover their posterior t that it will not be relevant or readable

Good point.

I’m also thinking most bigger companies will produce what I call “corporate blogs” – channels that reflect most corporate communications (which is to say lifeless and impersonal).

In a competitive market situation, it’s possible a small company blog would prevail simply because it’s more engaging; small organizations have the ability to be more “real” than big companies.

Do you see smaller companies adopting blogs more quickly than larger organizations?

Content seems to be the gating factor for both…

So I say, let the corporations wait, as the smart businesses jump in first. Coming in later with big bucks and a big bang will not help the wealthy corporations, because it is truly an even playing field.

I’m dabbling in one not-inconsequential market that’s seemingly designed for blogging – where a company willing to blog would gain a huge advantage.

The response from the half-dozen marketing managers/directors/imposters I’ve approached has been a variation on a theme: everyone will have one of these in a couple years, but we’re not ready yet.

A lot of people struggle to find metrics to measure ROI, but most small and medium sized firms aren’t blogging for more basic reasons.

They don’t have a lot to say; don’t know how to say it; or don’t know who’s going to say it for them.

Throughout marketing, PR and business mindsets as a whole, many are aware of the need to start engaging but are waiting and watching to see if others get their fingers burnt, rather than taking the risk themselves.

The door is still wide open for early adopters to gain an advantage on their rivals by engaging with their marketplace and improving the way they market themselves online.