Amost three-quarters (72 percent) of public relations and marketing professionals cite the creation of artificial, overly-promotional corporate blogs as the principal mistake that companies make when attempting to blog, according toa new survey conducted by strategic communications firm Peppercom.

In addition, 50 percent cite “obvious ghostwriting” as another significant blunder that they have witnessed with corporate blogs.  And a similar number (50 percent) cite companies that just “blog for blog’s sake” as a problem that they have seen.

“Many marketing communications managers are scrambling to jump on the blog bandwagon,” said Steve Cody, author and publisher of Repmanblog.com, a blog concerning reputation management issues and managing partner and co-founder of Peppercom.  “In doing so, this survey clearly shows that some are not taking the proper approach, which is resulting in a considerable amount of corporate blogs that are basically just modified press releases peppered with company propaganda.”

Although PR and marketing professionals acknowledge the mistakes that are being made with corporate blogs, the majority remain positive about the potential for blogging as an effective communications channel.

Most respondents (62 percent) agree that the blogosphere is an appropriate venue for corporations to communicate with stakeholders; 80 percent of respondents feel that a corporate blog can help improve the dialogue between a company and its stakeholders, customers, and employees; and 79 percent feel that a corporate blog helps position the company / chief blogger as a thought leader.

Says Cody, “The tremendous popularity of this self-publishing medium has largely been due to its ability to offer individuals the chance to speak their minds in an honest and open environment, free of any type of commercialization.  Corporate bloggers must play by the same rules and assimilate into the blogosphere if they want their blogs to have a profound impact on targeted audiences.”