A year ago, with sales dwindling and its stock in the toilet, (where it remains), Dell started a customer-focused blog.


The blog got off to a rocky start since it shared a URL with a porn site, and it initially refused to talk about the elephant in the room - Dell Hell.
Has Dell's reputation for abysmal customer service permanently soiled the brand? It remains to be seen.
It is certain, however, that since last year Dell has improved its blog and done some very progressive things with Studio Dell and the innovative Dell IdeaStorm community, which claims that it's received 5072 ideas from visitors. They definitely are trying.
So how come there is no link to any of these sites from Dell's home page? You have to click three times from the Dell homepage to get to a page that explains the various community efforts the company is making. The blog is hiding in plain site.
Dell is not alone in hiding its blog.
There's still no link from HP's homepage to Eric Kintz' popular blog. You still can't get to Bob Lutz's blog from the GM home page. And, incredibly, despite the fact that scores of IBM employees blog, you would never know that from the company's home page.
Some companies link to their blogs through their "About Us" page, but who'd look there for a link to a blog?
I think a lot of companies are still not sure they trust this "new" medium not to inflict a stock-crashing blog storm on them. So their toes are in the water, but they're still behaving like those old folks at the beach who don't want to get their suits wet.
Hey c'mon dive in. The water's fine. Mostly.