Interesting discussion going on about whether PR agencies should blog over at Brian Solis’ PR 2.0 Blog. Part of the post applies to all businesses:
“First and foremost, not everyone needs to, or should blog.
Some people just don’t have anything interesting to say and that’s OK. Not everyone needs to write a book, skydive, or sing karaoke either.
Yes, so openness and transparency are “the new black.” But don’t take it at face value. Think about it first.”
I probably talk myself out of a lot of business this way, but I ask most companies who call me about starting a blog:
o Are you prepared to research and write a blog post every day for the next five years or more?
o Have you got a budget for advertising, promotion and PR for the blog?
o Does your legal department have to vet every post and comment?
o Do you have at least an hour or two a day to devote to blogging, reading other blogs, commenting on blogs, participating in social networks?
o Will you allow negative comments on your blog?
o Are you prepared to respond to negative comments or negative posts on other blogs?
If you answered “NO” to any of the above, except the third one (Thanks Dave Wheeler for the comment with the correction!) do your company a favor and don’t start a blog.
Related:
– Top 10 Reasons Your Company Shouldn’t Blog
– Why Most Corporations Should Not Blog Posted by B.L. Ochman
Either it was a typo … or I don’t understand your point…
Your post, if I read it correctly, says having “your legal department have to vet every post and comment” is a good thing?
If I answered NO to this…meaning I don’t have to run everything by legal… I would expect a better blogging experience.
So, was it me or a typo?
Many good things coming out of this discussion, but thanks for highlighting that point. Your list of questions is something we can all keep on-hand when evaluating our own decision to blog (as PR companies) and our recommendation to clients.
BL — a couple of additions to add to your list: will your corporate culture support the culture of social media and how will a blog support your marketing/business objectives?
Of all the entries I have read about businesses and blogs, this is probably the first time I have read an article that tells businesses not to blog. Or at least, some businesses. But you do have a valid point. If there’s nothing to talk about, building a blog might end up hurting your business more. So tread carefully with this one.
You make a very interesting point. I agree with most of the points that you go over in terms of being able to blog in the first place. They are pretty valid, although if you do answer yes to most of the questions above I believe blogging can be quite beneficial.
Should Every Company Blog? I don’t know.
But every CEO must have a business blog. Sure, he must deal with all obstacles you mentioned in your post.
Blog from a CEO has a lot of credibility, a lot of impact to the media, even on companies’ employees.
With what I do not agree is that a CEO must post frequently.
Business blogs (this is how I call blogs from a CEO or other high-ranking companies’ authority) do not necessarily have to be updated frequently. It can be as rare as once per month (in my opinion posting once per month is the minimum frequency for a business blog) – if posts are very frequent, a CEO can come out of post ideas, have no time and other negatives that keep you out of the blogosphere.
In fact, this is a complicated issue. I wrote an entire e-book on this topic – “The New Rules of Business Blogs”. You are welcome to check it out in my blog at positioningstrategy.com
Linda – blogs, by defiition, as frequently updated. A blog updated once a month is just a column, or a website that gets a little freshening up occasionally.
Every CEO absolutely does NOT need to have a blog. Please re-read the post.
“Blog from a CEO has a lot of credibility, a lot of impact to the media, even on companies’ employees.” Some of them do. If they meet the criteria for an effective blog.
Please also refer to this post “How to Have a Totally Fucking Amazing Corporate Blog.”
http://tinyurl.com/2fb52r
Linas, not Linda… :)
Company’s or corporate blog and a business blog from a CEO is two different things. I don’t know about corporate blog, and maybe you are right, not every company should have a blog, but IMHO every CEO must have a personal business blog.
What’s worse – lack of frequency or lack of content? In my opinion if a CEO can’t clearly communicate his company’s difference from competitors, he is a bad CEO. As simply as that.
Yes, a lot of today’s CEO’s are bad communicators. This is one of the reasons why we today have such a mess in the corporate world.
The trouble is because today’s CEO’s are from finance world. Yes they need legal, PR and all other departments, they are uncomfortable in conventional conversation with customers. But this corporate world is a mess.
Personal business blog is from a CEO and this really helps the company. A CEO must learn to communicate in clear, simple language with his customers. This communication will help not only in marketing terms, this will also help the CEO to make better decisions.
I totally agree with you what you wrote in “How to Have a Totally Fucking Amazing Corporate Blog”. But I am writing not about corporate blog, I am writing about personal business blog of a founder, owner, CEO, or other high ranking authority. And it is better to have business blog by a CEO with rare, but insightful posts than not to have at all.
Profuse apologies for screwing up your name! I hate when people do that to me. Sorry.
As for your opinions, I think you are very confused. Good thing you have your own blog so you can on and on about this topic over there.