HP guides to blogging

Two moves by Hewlett-Packard into the blogging area. Well, as least guidance about blogging:

HP US just published a guide to blogging for small- and medium-size businesses –

Hewlett-Packard US | Small & Medium Business: technology tips | 101 Series: Blogging

This is a very concise but quite a good guide to business blogging. And it makes reference to the Cluetrain Manifesto, saying, “[it] explains why businesses need to engage in a new kind of conversation with customers, one among real human beings.” Now that would be very interesting if this reflects some new HP thinking.

And HP UK has just published a similar guide but aimed squarely at kids –

Hewlett-Packard UK | Get Creative: Home Advisor: Articles | 5 steps to blogging

Maybe this is the start of a move by HP into the blogosphere. But they’re not blogging yet – a simple search on HP’s websites for ‘weblog’ and ‘blog’ turns up only one reference, the Semantic Blogging Demonstrator, authored by Steve Cayzer, a research engineer at HP Laboratories in Bristol, England.

I wonder if we can we expect to see HP soon following the path of Microsoft and Sun Microsystems, for example, with enabling employees to blog publicly. As the text of the HP US blogging guide says:

You can use blogs to connect with customers in a more casual and authentic way. Direct and unfiltered information shows your company’s true personality, which helps customers make a more personal connection to you and can even form a kind of community surrounding your business. Furthermore, feedback and comments from the public can provide valuable insights into what customers want and how to improve your products.