Last Wednesday I attended a very special event at SAP Labs India – the launch of Bloggers@SAP, an initiative to promote tech blogging, among SAP Labs India colleagues, to showcase their technological expertise. Blogs, in the short time that they have existed, have emerged as the best means of two-way communication among individuals and companies across the globe, and SAP Labs India is serious about promoting a tech-blogging culture at the company. Thus, the creation of Bloggers@SAP through which SAP Labs India has constituted a core team of blog champions, will help to evangelize blogging amongst the SAP employees. The kick-off meeting for this program witnessed Bhuvaneswar Naik, HR, VP, SAP India, Anirban Dey, MD, SAP Labs India, and Anoop Johnson, the co-founder of IndiBlogger, a blogging community with more than 35,000 registered bloggers, discussing the importance of blogging with the SAP Labs India employees.
Bhuvan, who presented the welcome note, said “Blogging is the platform of choice for companies to build brand awareness. Last year witnessed the largest increase in companies using blogs to communicate their brand supremacy.” He pointed out that according to Hubspot Research 60% of the blogging companies acquire more customers than those who are not blogging.
Bhuvan also said that blogging can revitalize SAP's image as a place for technology leaders. “Share your technology expertise with the world and get people to read your blogs.” he said “This will help you obtain insights about the users and customers. This is your chance to build your brand as well as the company brand.”
Following Bhuvan's address, Anoop delivered the guest key-note. “SAP is the only company that has approached us with such an initiative,” he said. “IndiBloggers already has 12 registered bloggers who are SAP employees, and this is a huge opportunity for SAP bloggers to talk about what SAP does.”
Talking about blogging he said, “The blogging community becomes an ecosystem by building different topics, conducting creative writing contests and by meeting often. Blogging is a lifestyle choice. Write with passion, spread the word, and write responsibly. People will buy the opinion over the company info.”
Anirban Dey concluded the kick-off, by recollecting his own journey with blogging. However, he said, “the connect you feel with people when they comment on your blog post gives you a lot of satisfaction. Your blog becomes your brand, and it builds your own technological identity.”
The Bloggers@SAP kick-off has established the need for technology blogging at SAP, and has set the stage for Bloggers@SAP to bring about a culture of open communication inside and outside the company.