Employees blogs gives readers a peek inside their daily world: their addiction to TV shows, favourite jokes, etc.

But their blogs talks also about the product they are working on, its bugs, and inside dope for users such as the “hide underline letters checkbox issue.” There’s also their day-in-the-life workplace diary. Customers post replies. Ideas are swapped. Bonds are formed.

Employee blogs are now mushrooming across Corporate America — and a growing number of companies approve as they see employee blogs as a way to transform a transaction with a faceless behemoth into a personal relationship with an employee. Blogs are also efficient at driving product innovation. And they create loyal audiences, establishing “a connection through real human beings speaking like real human beings, which is something companies have forgotten how to do.

However, blogs can be dangerous. Microsoft’s most famous blogger, Robert “Scobleizer” Scoble once got into big trouble in a previous job for talking up a rival’s products. There lies the ambiguity: The more truthful they are, the more valuable blogs are to customers. It’s likely only a matter of time before some workplace pundit spills a trade secret, leaks a clandestine launch date, or takes a swipe at a CEO that turns into slander.

For now, though, many are running the risk. In an era of fragmented media, with companies struggling to get their message out any which way, blogs are becoming a kind of undercover megaphone.

From Business Week, via Hochan.