Courtesy of Laurent at ballpark.ch/ this prediction from Jupiter is quite consequential.
Jupiter: Corporate Blog Deployments to Double in 2006 @ Media Buyer Planner
Some 35 percent of large companies plan to initiate corporate blogs this year – and combined with the existing deployed base of 34 percent, nearly 70 percent of such companies will have deployed corporate blogs by the end of 2006, according to a JupiterResearch
While it doesn’t delineate between internal or external, the point is that 3/4 of companies are into blogging. It would be interesting to see these statistics by industry. I am curious if the 3/4 holds up in Banking. I remain convinced Banks have as large a potential benefit as any firm, to open up to their customers, and humanise themselves with blogging.
So far Wells have a toe in the water, but its not customer focussed, but rather a safe outlet. Its not on their front page yet, but under “about Wells”. However kudos to them for the experiment.
The Jupiter article continues:
“By engaging prospective customers in active dialogue, companies can showcase their expertise and domain knowledge, creating a forum for communication of their strategies and visions,” said David Schatsky, President of JupiterKagan. “In doing so, companies can generate buzz around their products or services, while eliciting feedback and collaboration from product evangelists.”
Technorati Tags: bank_blogs
Bankwatch 
There’s a slightly different point of view on that Jupiter blogging report out at the Church of the Customer Blog
http://customerevangelists.typepad.com/blog/2006/06/the_influence_o.html
It appears this Jupiter report is getting slammed by all any sundry as being poorly & inadequately researched. As I noted in my post the information doesn’t seem to delineate between internal and external blogs, but without seeing the original research I cannot comment more.
Here are two links of many.
http://bloombergmarketing.blogs.com/bloomberg_marketing/2006/06/jupiter_researc.html
http://customerevangelists.typepad.com/blog/2006/06/the_influence_o.html
The original press release is here, an Jupiter have not publicly, commented yet. Greg Dowling is not one of the Jupiter Analysts with a blog, which is too bad. This is the perfect situation to deal with in a blog, and only he can do that now.
http://www.jupiterresearch.com/bin/item.pl/press:press_release/2006/id=06.06.26-corporate_weblogs.html
“I remain convinced Banks have as large a potential benefit as any firm, to open up to their customers, and humanise themselves with blogging.” – I wholeheartedly agree, and I’ve found that even in financial services sectors that lend themselves to the transparency required by blogging (namely credit unions), blogging isn’t catching on quickly.
Out of 9000 or so US credit unions, 4 blog with their members. WF would be a great model to follow, but doesn’t it seem that blogging would be a much better fit with ING or HSBC? Maybe they’ll catch on.
You are so right! Internet provides a different model for any firm, and blogs must form a key component in the tool kit for personalising the bank, and getting in touch with the customers.