The story of Robert Scoble and his blogging exploits at Microsoft provides an illustration of what can go right and what can go wrong with this form of informal corporate communications.

Scoble has just quit Microsoft after many years to join a startup business in the area of video blogging. Since he set up his blog in 2000 he has been seen as the ultimate geek blogger, an accolade which has apparently helped give a more human face to the software giant.

The blog, called Scobleizer, contained all sorts of informal and even highly personal information, such as family details and bereavements, information that his salary was ‘less than $100,000’, as well as what came to be closely-followed observations on Microsoft’s products.

Sometimes these were less than flattering, but Scoble’s writings started attracting such high volumes of traffic that any attempts by the software company to shut him down were quickly abandoned.

Indeed, as the Wall Street Journal put it when it carried the news of Scoble’s departure, his tactic – if indeed it was a deliberate one – ‘helped build the company’s credibility as web logs evolved into a news medium and a tool for corporate public relations’.

Scoble exposed the way some Microsoft staff had tried to play a prank on the press by inventing terms in middleware jargon. Many of his fans were then drawn to the company’s Channel 9 news site, which holds video interviews with Microsoft employees and asks them about their projects. This communicates a great deal more than the standard public relations exercise.

That site has attracted as many as 3.5 million unique visitors a month, Scoble has claimed, while dedicated blog search engine Technorati ranks his main site as the world’s 22nd most popular blog.

Scoble also recently published a book on the art of business blogging, called Naked Conversations: How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers. His new job, incidentally, pays him a salary of ‘over $100,000’.

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