Who do you believe?

So for my Capstone class, we had to pick a company and identify a strategic problem. Since we couldn't do Apple, our group decided to do one of their competitors - Meizu.

Meizu, is the Apple clone of China. Since this is a relatively new company, and well, from China, there was very little information given by the company about the release of their iPhone look-a-like -- the miniOne. But there was an abundance of blogs speculating on everything from launch date to product features. Though these blogs were very helpful finding the general consensus on this product (the blogging community seems to embrace the iPhone rip off), I found it hard to decide what was credible. With the launch date for example, I ended up citing information I found in a news article rather than the dates listed in these blogs.

This ties in this Scoble and Israel's chapter on "Direct Acccess." Blogs are valuable tool for companies, especially executives, to create a direct line of communication. Eliminate the third party to protect accuracy. I wish Meizu had a corporate blog...maybe they do but it's not translated. Anyway, I just wanted to add that yea, the news messes up. But I think if you were to poll the general public, people would say that major newspapers, news channels, and radio shows are more credible and accurate than something found on a blog. There's still a lack of trust involving the Internet. Also, I think people don't know necessarily where to find these blogs either. TV, papers, and radio require very little from the audience but to watch, read, or listen. Blogs on the other hand, I think there is more of a search.

Though an official corporate blog is of course going to be credible, what does a company do about all the unofficial blogs? What about the wealth of inaccuracies, misrepresentation, and biases on the Web?