Corporate Blog Tracks Company's Demise

Posted on August 4, 2005

In May, Paul Purdue, the president of ecommerce shipping company iFulfill.com, launched a blog about running the multimillion dollar internet company. BusinessWeek reports that the blog was supposed to help iFulfill bring in new customers if they could just get a buzz going about the blog. Unfortunately, the buzz about the blog wasn't humming until iFulfill.com ran into financial problems. And now the blog is tracking the company's closure.

And wouldn't you know it? That's when his blog took off. As bloggers spread the word about the drama at iFulfill.com, Purdue's blog at last began to generate buzz -- though hardly the kind he had envisioned. No, it became an online exhibit of a company's demise, in real time. As Purdue explained why he was shutting the doors, customers weighed in with comments, many of them expressing fury. Competing shippers in the fulfillment industry popped up on the blog, offering their services.

The BusinessWeek article called Blogging as You Go Belly Up is worth reading -- as is Purdue's blog -- since you rarely see in the innerworkings of a company's demise as it is taking place.

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