Discussion sites have been the scourge of corporates, but firms are starting to regard them as a way to enhance their image The internet's inherent capacity for spreading bad news quickly has claimed a number of high-profile scalps in recent years. Just ask United States lock maker Kryptonite. When a blogger discovered one of the firm's locks was susceptible to attack from a Bic biro, the damage ran to millions of dollars in product replacements and repairing a bruised reputation. Likewise US Vice-President Dick Cheney, whose wayward shooting incurred the mirth - and wrath - of thousands of bloggers who then demonstrated their desire to broadcast opinions to anyone prepared to listen when given the tools to do so. No wonder cyberspace, and more specifically the army of bloggers residing there, is often described as a corporation's and politician's worst nightmare. Yet a growing number of firms are looking at the blogosphere less as a source of fear than of opportunity, seeing a chance to improve their corporate image and enhance the following of their brands. The launch last week of Microsoft's Xbox 360 games console in Asia is a prime example. While it included all the typical elements of a hi-tech product launch, the firm also unveiled a series of websites across the region designed to let 360 developers, gamers and bloggers post their views of the Xbox ahead of its release. The sites have received 800,000 hits in South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore since their launch, according to Microsoft's public relations firm Edelman. But given the average blogger's propensity for criticism, wasn't the move a recipe for disaster? 'There is definitely a perception of risk-reward,' acknowledged Edelman's Asia-Pacific president Alan VanderMolen. 'But we see it as a reward-reward because every company needs to participate in a dialogue with its customers. A company can learn from the feedback it receives but also communicate ideas and explain decisions directly to its stakeholders.' Globally, Microsoft is among the earliest proponents of harnessing rules of the blogosphere to improve its own image among internet users. The firm hired prominent blogger Robert Scoble to discuss all subjects relating to Microsoft and allowed him to deviate from the company line on his blog scobleizer.com. The result is a more humanised perception of Microsoft in cyberspace, according to a recent Forrester Research report. Microsoft's move was a response to what Forrester describes as the emerging trend of 'social computing', a key characteristic of the Web 2.0 era in which power is shifting from established institutions to communities of internet users. 'Individuals increasingly take cues from one another rather than from institutional sources like corporations, media outlets, religions and political bodies,' the report said. 'To capture the value of social computing, CEOs and managers must respond by ceding control; offering communities a platform to discuss and decide what they want, and then providing it.' Chief executives from IBM and Boeing to General Motors have all launched blogs in an attempt to bring industry discussions taking place in the blogosphere back under their corporate umbrellas. To varying degrees, the blogs allow readers to leave feedback and bring up points of discussion and criticism of the chief executives' position on issues. According to Mr VanderMolen, the trend is less obvious in Asia, although the number of personal bloggers in Korea, China and Japan suggests it may soon catch on. Telstra is a high-profile example of corporate blogging in Australia. 'With the rise of peer-to-peer communication, stakeholders want to hear directly from a company on specific issues and they want to have a dialogue with that company,' he said. 'Most companies are still frightened of a direct dialogue with their stakeholders and customers because it exposes them on issues of pricing, product quality and content of goods and services.' In fact, companies have good reason to be nervous of feedback, which is often rabidly polarised for or against a particular product or brand, sometimes based on facts but just as often on conjecture. Early attempts, albeit clumsy ones, to harness blogging for company purposes have also resulted in some high-profile public relations disasters. Mazda was found to have invented a blogger to dole out online praise for one of its cars. Last week, The New York Times ran an article exposing several pro-Wal-Mart bloggers for posting sentences e-mailed to them by Wal-Mart's public relations firm, Edelman. 'The challenge is that when corporations ignore what is being said about them on blogs it can develop into serious problems,' said OgivyOne Hong Kong managing director Sean Rach. 'Likewise, the desire to produce fake blogs aimed at creating a positive image for the companies in cyberspace has turned into a nightmare for the ones that are caught. The important thing is to be completely transparent.' Ultimately, results depend on trust. Customers would gravitate towards a corporate blog they perceived to be open about itself in much the same way they read their favourite newspaper columnist, Mr Rach said. But for firms willing to take the leap, the result can extend far beyond receiving instant feedback on products and potential reduction in marketing costs. According to Forrester, placing internet users and customers as the focal point of the discussion can enhance innovation and create more dynamic products. 'Cheap communication and storage enabled complete strangers to co-develop open source software and the information bank Wikipedia,' the report said. 'Soliciting user input is cheaper, better and faster than more structured, top-down methods of product development.'