The point below is often overlooked when talking about blogs and Microsoft, but it’s an important point to emphasize. What Microsoft has done is decouple their various business units from their corporate communications functions, although to be clear they haven’t done away with their comm group or PR agency! From my vantage point what they have done is streamline their PR process to enable product and service groups to communicate directly with constituencies, and that simplification results in better reach and depth of the functions involved. It’s working, I know more about what Microsoft is working on, and in greater detail, than ever before.

Microsoft Monitor: Microsoft Blogs:

It’s quite common now for Microsoft to make major products announcements via blogs, and it’s not uncommon for the posts to be the only communication. No press releases. In fact, I would contend that blogs are now Microsoft’s major communication vehicle for reaching pretty much everybody. Microsoft partners and competitors–and the news media, for that matter–should take note.

Technorati Tags: blogs, marketing, microsoft, PR, public relations