BlogWrite for CEOs

Why you should play nice in the blogosphere

SixApart co-founder and president Mena Trott made some interesting comments about blogging and civility at LesBlogs this week in Paris (Dec. 5-6, 2005). Then, while she was still on stage, she and an audience member exchanged some contentious words. Stick to your guns, Mena. You're a good thinker and a good writer and I happen to agree with your perspective on civility.

Read the text of Mena's LesBlogs speech here on her blog.

Follow the blogging trail about the LesBlogs incident here on Technorati. Or watch the video of the incident. Unnerving if only as a reminder that nothing, absolutely nothing, is immune from being captured online.

But back to Mena's thoughts on blogging and civility. Her point, really, was that what you say on a blog is permanent and that you're accountable for creating that record.  Why stir up a controversy or create a negative record (which will show up in Google search results) when perhaps... it would be better not to. In other words, just because you can (publish anything instantly and effortlessly via a blog) doesn't mean you should.

As she puts it in her follow-up post:

I think accountability and responsibility is about holding off seemingly anonymous attacks, giving people the benefit of the doubt and understanding that what you say online not only affects others but is part of a permanent record -- a record that, right now, is scary to some watching from afar.

More on whether GM's Fastlane blog should talk about the company's massive lay-offs, declining market share and other not-so-cheery news

More on this intriguing topic: should GM's Fastlane blog, osensibly focused on products (i.e. cars), be talking about or making direct reference to the recent news that the #3 company on the Fortune 500 is planning another round of massive layoffs, etc.

From Shel Holtz: GM isn't censoring Fastlane

From Stephen Davies: Should the GM blog address layoffs?

From Dave Taylor: Further discussion about the GM Fastlane blog

Call me a corporate stoodge... but I still agree with my earlier position that the Fastlane bloggers don't need to say much about GM's financial woes, at least not directly.

However, as I said in March 2005 about Corporate tell-it-not blogs, the GM bloggers do need to acknowledge the elephant in the room. (A number of executives contribute to the blog in addition to Bob Lutz.)

And I do wish Fastlane would tone down the cheeriness a tad... it does strike a truly discordant note with what's in the news these days about GM (declining market share, declining stock price, you name it).

It will be interesting to see how they handle the bad news on the blog going forward.

From the how-to-say-it without saying it department

Michael Wiley, GM's Director of New Media and a member of the Fastlane blog team, left this comment on Dave Taylor's Intuitive Life blog [scroll down to the third comment]:

"You're right that blogging at GM is a balancing act of many different stories, stakeholders and approaches that constantly demands focus. We decided early on that the blog's primary focus is on product, product development, vehicle design and quality. A vehicle company's reason for existence is to sell cars, so the selling piece gets some attention, too. Corporate issues such as staffing levels [my edit: layoffs] and facility usage [er, factory shut-downs] are not the blog's focus."

Michael, I know you well. It's OK to use the word layoffs, really.

On the other hand... I just thought of this.

Michael is savvy enough to know that someone doing a fine-tooth combed search for "GM" and "lay-offs" on Google just might unearth the comment he left on Dave Taylor's blog. And I suspect he'd rather his words not come up in that search result. No dumb bunny, he.

Weird and woolly...

Steve Rubel's Ten Blogging Hacks

What can I say? Steve Rubel of Micro Persuasion fame is just too clever. No time to wax eloquent. Buried in the book.

Here are Steve Rubel's 10 Blogging Hacks. Learn about Writely (document writing and sharing via the Web), automatic posting of your daily del.icio.us links, Bookmarklets, blogging from your cell phone, Iconizing your blog, using Plazes to tell everyone where you are geographically, auto-inserting Technorati tags, using Cafepress to make money selling blog schwag and more... Does this guy ever ever sleep?!

Useful Links

More hacks (i.e. clever ways to use tech tools) from Steve Rubel:

Ten RSS Hacks

Ten Technorati Hacks

Ten Wikipedia Hacks

New! Five Blog Reading Hacks

Synthetic transparency: a new term for corporate blogging?

Provocative.

A group of students in "Advanced Organizational Communication" at Northeastern University are penning a blog along with their professor and they've come up with a new way of describing a corporate blog:

"Synthetic transparency involves using blogs to give the impression of openness, honesty, and transparency but without really doing so.

This notion is based on Norman Fairclough's* idea of "synthetic personalization"** which he defines as:

... a compensatory tendency to give the impression of treating each of the people 'handled' en masse as an individual. Examples would be air travel (have a nice day!), restaurants (Welcome to Wimpy!) and the simulated conversation (for example, chat shows) and bonhomie which litter the media..."

Waddya think?

[via Fredrik Wackå]

GM's Bob Lutz, blogger and vice chairman, is writing the Foreword to The Corporate Blogging Book

This is cool. I'm thrilled to announce that Bob Lutz, GM's vice chairman of global product development, is writing the Foreword to my book.

Bob is GM's most high-profile blogger, as you probably know. I guess you could call him one of the first A-list bloggers for the Fortune 500.

I asked him... and he said Yes. He just emailed me a draft of the foreword. More than a draft really. It's terrific. He's an awfully good writer and yes, I think he wrote it himself. Thanks Bob, for a wonderful contribution to the book.

How blogging is different from journalism

International Herald Tribune reporter Thomas Crampton guest blogs for A-list* blogger Joi Ito and, after 30 days of blog duty, provides these thoughts on how blogging differs from journalism. Blogging means:

• Involvement (different from the "lecturing" stance most journalists take)
• Informal tone
• Strong opinions (again discouraged in journalism unless it's an op-ed piece)
• Length (doesn't have to be long)
• Reporting (minimal, he says; other than quick Web searches)
• Time (not as much as he feared...)

He's pretty much dead on. Although several of those who've left comments on the entry say it does take time. I agree. Read the full post plus comments from (A-lister) David Weinberger and others here.

* So what's an A-list blogger, you ask? Good question and one I'm addressing in The Corporate Blogging Book. Among the A-listers are the original bloggers (starting in 2000 or so) who set the standards for the kind of smart writing, unswerving instinct for what's worth writing about and sheer doggedness that we associate with good blogging. A few A-listers: Doc Searls, Denise Howell, Halley Suitt and lots lots more.

CEO blogger Zane Safrit asks: Once you start blogging, can you ever stop? [Podcast]

"Once you start blogging, can you ever stop?" asks prolific blogger Zane Safrit, CEO of Conference Calls Unlimited. To be precise, he didn't say those exact words during our podcast [click to download the MP3 or listen]. But it's a great question. Zane, my advice to you is: "Don't stop."  You're good and getting better all the time.

He blogs about current events, the economy, outsourcing, health insurance and other stuff. Oh, and he just blogged about our podcast here.

Zane is in fact kind of zany, defined as "amusingly unconventional and idiosyncratic." (Surely I'm not the first to point that out :-) He's been blogging regularly since December 2004 as a way to create a "voice" (pardon the pun) for his teleconferencing company.

So what's his differentiator in a very crowded marketplace? A customer-centric approach. An informed, energetic, real-live-person answers every time you call CCU. Everyone, including "the IT guy," answers the phones, Zane said. And they're charged with "doing whatever it takes to make the customer happy."

If you're a customer, you soon learn their names (Cindy and Chaz and others).

Our impromptu podcast started out as a phone interview, with me asking Zane a bunch of questions for The Corporate Blogging Book I'm writing. I'm on a cell phone so my end of the conversation sounds a bit muffled. Zane comes in loud and clear. We decided half way through the call to turn it into a podcast. Nothing fancy; no cool intro music.

Oh, and one of the key takeaways: Zane says he writes "for an hour or two" every day. Ninety percent of the time he's online and blogging directly into TypePad's interface. He "Publishes" almost immediately. Then goes back later to do a quick edit, if needed.

He starts out with a goal of "four lines." But often finds he writes 1000 words. "With a cup of coffee the sky's the limit," he says. He doesn't consider himself "a word craftsman" but finds that his writing has become "more concise, clearer, a little crisper" over time. (I agree, having been reading his blog for months.)

One thing Zane says he gets out of regular blogging:

Clarity.

"It helps me articulate and refine ideas in a linear fashion, ideas that I'm thinking about for our company. So it improves my ability to communicate within the company."

Another benefit of blogging:

He's made "high-profile contacts" through his blog. Trackbacks and emails have connected him with "sneezers" (Seth Godin's term for influencers), Zane said.

It was Seth who inspired him to start blogging for real. "I had had a blog account with TypePad for eight months but I didn't get it. I didn't really know what blogging was."

Download or listen to the MP3. Podcast subscribe link TK.

Useful Links

Zane's version of our podcast (good reading)

Why CEOs Should Blog by Jeneane D. Sessum

ReturnPath CEO Matt Blumberg makes the same point in Jeneane's article:  “One of the best things publishing a blog has done has been to force me to spend a few minutes here and there thinking about issues I encounter in a more structured way and crystallizing my point of view on them,”  Blumberg wrote in 2004. “[That’s] invaluable, but mostly for me.”

Technorati tags: CEO, CEO blogs,   business blogging,   corporate blogging

 

Time Still the Top "Fear Factor" When It Comes to Corporate Blogging

In response to a WordBiz survey, 65% cite "the time it would take to write" as their most important concern about starting and maintaining a corporate blog. 51% worry what to write about. 27% wonder who in their company should write the blog.

Despite these legitimate concerns, 80% of the over 700 respondents say blogs are NOT just a fad; 55% say blogs will become a "must-have" corporate marketing tool. The survey was conducted in July and August 2005 through my newsletter, WordBiz Report.  [Download PDF of survey results.]

Wow. I was fascinated by these results.* They tell me that respondents are admitting to a healthy mixture of excitement and skepticism when it comes to corporate blogging. They see the advantages clearly: a way to give companies a human voice, to build community and to improve search engine rankings.

But they see that executing on the promise of blogging is more difficult than the immediate attraction of easy set-up and one-click publishing to the Web. Whether it's crafting appropriate corporate blogging guidelines or navigating potential legal pitfalls, it looks like there might be more to corporate blogging than we initially thought. At least, those of us captivated by the idea of corporate transparency and authenticity. (And yeah, count me among those.)

It's the underbelly of the corporate blogging phenomenon that I'm exploring (and trying to clearly explain) in my book. I'm not a naysayer. Far from it. But I'm trying to anticipate where this corporate blogging wave is going and where we'll be a year from now. Questions I'm asking: Who'll still be blogging (I hope GM's Bob Lutz doesn't run out of steam... ), what other innovative things will companies be doing with blogs and what results will they be seeing? Oh, and I'm burrowed in to write. I shouldn't be out here in the daylight to blog this.

* Interestingly, these results mirror almost exactly those from an October 2004 WordBiz survey on blogging: 71% said "the time it would take to maintain" was their biggest concern about blogging; 46% worried what to write about; 14% fretted over who would write the blog.

Useful Links

My press release on the survey results.

Includes stats on the "non-adoption" thus far of RSS newsreaders as a way to subscribe to blogs. And another interesting stat: 70% of the over 700 who responded are familiar with the term "podcast." The media blitz on podcasting appears to be successful.

As blogging grows, companies eye legal pitfalls (Reuters article)

"Cost in terms of man hours" seen as roadblock to corporate blogging (Backbone Blogging Survey)

Pew Internet Survey on Tech Term Awareness (Most Internet users don't know what an RSS feed is)

"Only one in 10 Weblog readers using RSS" (Nielsen/NetRatings August 2005 survey)

Read on to learn more about why - or why not - blogging will become a "must-have" corporate marketing tool...

Note to self: cut the corporate-speak when I'm writing

I can feel it seeping in, insidiously... a tendency to write in longer, more formal, more tortuous sentences like, well, like this one. Maybe it has to do with focusing on the topic of corporate blogging. Is 'corporate blogging" the ultimate oxymoron? Not necessarily. But it does pose the particular challenge of finding the right voice. Just because your topic is serious or complex or filled with jargon and acronyms doesn't mean you have to write about it in a ponderous way.

So Debbie, listen up... cut the corporate-speak on your blog and just... say it.

A couple of useful resources for writing a blog:

- Slide presentation by Molly Holzschlag and Darren Barefoot from their Blog Writing Style session at last week's Blog Business Summit in San Francisco

- Top 7 Tips to Write an Effective Business Blog (PDF). By yours truly. Yes, you can download it and freely pass it around.

Part 2: Steve Rubel's blogging playbook

Here's Part 2 of my Starbucks interview with Steve Rubel on How the Soup Gets Made, as he put it. But first, the inside skinny...

I was so engrossed in talking to the famed author of Micro Persuasion and then writing up our interview that I missed my train back to D.C. Caught the next one...

Sometimes I get tired of being perceived as too nice. I don't mean about missing the train. That was my own damn fault. I mean being viewed as a kind of  "Heidi" of corporate blogging, as Halley Suitt (a friend) said to me during our interview for my book. She said it, er, nicely and wasn't being critical.

So let me open up just a teeny bit... about Steve Rubel. I was nervous about meeting him. I was pretty sure he doesn't think I'm "cool" enough. I've noticed that BlogWrite for CEOs is not on his Bloglines list of 350 blogs that he scans every day. (Hey Steve, you will add it, won't you? thanks for including.)

And finally, I figured he'd be pretty self important. He's considered an A-list blogger, was quoted in the Business Week cover story about blogs and all that.

But Steve's just a nice guy. He comes across as hard-working, smart, eager and genuine. Maybe a tad geeky, not particularly cool and even a bit shy. Oh, and he's a REALLY fast talker (think Seinfeld). Funny how you can't tell everything about a person from his or her blog...

That's a joke, in case you didn't get it.  Oh, and I'm a little bit cool, really. Now for the good stuff...

Part 2: Steve Rubel's blogging playbook

Part 1: Steve Rubel reveals his 4-hour a day blogging playbook

Steve, 35, joined Cooper Katz, a 20-person business communications firm, in 2001. He's now VP of Client Services and started Cooper Katz's blogging practice in Feb. 2005. More about the blogging practice, dubbed Micro Persuasion, here. 

Why he blogs

Three reasons, he said...

Writing for strangers vs. friends

Intriguing riff by Seth Godin on two types of writing: for friends or colleagues (who know you and, presumably, your subject matter) vs. for strangers (i.e. those nice folks who take the time to read your blog). Cut the "inside baseball" stuff when you're writing for strangers, he says. Make it shorter. Use images. Do it gradually.

This is so true... And yet can be hard to do.

I'm thinking about this kind of writing all the time these days. Because I'm writing a book about business blogging for those NOT in the know. The uncool, non-techie types who are not early adopters. But who are smart folks nonetheless.

Steve Rubel reveals his 4-hour a day blogging playbook

How does he do it?

Haven’t you wondered… how does the prolific author of Micro Persuasion find time to eat or sleep,  much less do his full-time day job as VP Client Services for PR firm Cooper Katz? Steve Rubel posts an average of five blog entries every day (yes, he blogs seven days a week) on topics related to blogging, technology, the media and PR.

He's a one-man news service and - for the rest of us laggards - a phenomenal resource.

I met Steve at a Starbucks on 3rd Avenue in New York City this morning for a rapid fire interview for my blogging book. He's as fast-talking in person as you might infer from his blog. (He's also warmer and friendlier.)

He apologized for having only 30 minutes. Then cut to the chase...

He dismissed my initial question (“Pretend it’s a year from now: does a company need an agency to start a blogging program”) with a simple no. “Blogging should be integrated with PR,” he said.

Then Steve described step-by-step how he publishes Micro Persuasion. It’s the first time he’s revealed his “blogging playbook” publicly, he said.

In a nutshell, he's got a system. He's fast, efficient, thorough... and dogged. And he uses every available useful blogging tool. (Sorry, he didn't reveal any shortcuts.)

[Addendum: Steve's Bloglines page if you want to see the 350 blogs he scans each day. And Part 2 of interview with Steve here.]

How Steve Rubel blogs

He starts at 4:30 or 5 AM every morning... 

Business casual is the appropriate style for blogging

Great side-bar in the August 2005 issue of Fast Company gives a run-down of proper blogging etiquette, comparing it to hosting a successful cocktail party:

1. Make introductions (i.e. link to other useful and relevant blogs)

2. Be authentic (i.e. if you're not normally scintillating, no worries; just be useful by linking to other resources)

3. Dress business casual: "Stay away from topics you wouldn't share with your mother -- or without a nondisclosure agreement."

4. Don't scrimp (i.e. blogs are low-cost to launch but be sure to spend enough time to keep yours fresh and updated)

5. Have a contingency plan (i.e. if you're criticized or an issue blows up in your face, be prepared to respond honestly and openly).

Sun Microsystem's Jonathan Schwartz can't play practical jokes on his blog

Intriguing interview in ZDNet Australia with Sun Microsystem's CIO Bill Vass. Says that Sun's chief blogger Jonathan Schwartz has been advised he can't play practical jokes on his blog. For example, suggesting on April Fool's day that Sun is planning to buy Novell. Aaah, the sobering realities of abiding by SEC rules governing Fortune 500 companies. Note: Jonathan must be on vacation because he hasn't posted since June 16th.

From the article:

"(Vass) said Sun president Jonathan Schwartz -- who keeps a public blog -- was frustrated when April Fool's day came around, because he couldn't use his blog to play a practical joke.

"A few times, he's said things like 'maybe we should acquire Novell', and it changed the stock price," Vass said of Schwartz's blog. "You have to be careful ... if ever he's writing anything controversial he has to get the lawyers to look at it."

Sun faced fewer issues with blogs written by non-Section 10 employees said Vass, but the company's legal team still read all the postings. Vass said he suspected the blogs were "making some of the lawyers pull their hair out"."

P.S. I confess. I don't know what a Section 10 employee is (although I can guess). Can anyone enlighten me with a link? Thanks.

1st blogging summit for advocacy, PR & government affairs folks

Some 125 advocacy, PR, trade association and government affairs types packed into the hall of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in D.C. yesterday for Blogging 101 for K Street. Impressive turnout! I shared a panel with Ken Deutsch, executive VP of Issue Dynamics, Inc. and Pat Cleary, senior VP, communications and chief blogger for the National Association of Manufacturers. Henry Copeland of Blogads (I love the way Henry talks; definitely the visionary type) and Peter Hirshberg of Technorati also presented, among others. A few highlights from our panel:

Blogger Relations

Ken recently launched a Blogger Relations practice for IDI. BR, as it's called, means monitoring the blogosphere both proactively and reactively to see what's being said about your company, brand or issue. Here are two of his hands-on tips:

1. When you're searching on Technorati.com, enter the complete URL for a particular blog entry (i.e. the permalink) to determine how many other bloggers are linking to it. Remember that "who" is as important as how many. One link from an influential A-list blogger can create a lot of buzz.

2. Set up an RSS feed (i.e. a news alert) on a search term or keyword phrase you want to monitor, such as your company name or political issue. That way you'll get an automatic alert (via your RSS newsreader) when searches are made on those keywords. This is one quick way to monitor the buzz around your brand or advocacy campaign. (Note to Ken: can you do this through Technorati's Watchlist? Let us know.)

Writing a Daily Business Blog

From Pat, who single-handedly pens the informative and snappy NAM blog:

1. To keep up with his daily entries in NAM's blog, he writes every night from 9 PM to midnight. Yes, he likes to write and yes, his wife is a saint.

2. He tries to keep his entries short but finds that a natural length for him is 500 words. Too long for a typical blog post, he told yesterday's audience.

3. As to why he writes the blog himself without help from other staffers... "it's easier to make sure the blog stays on NAM's message and because I know where not to cross the line."

4. Finally, although he hopes readers will come to the blog to read his trenchant observations about policies affecting U.S. manufacturers, Pat said he gets the most reponse from his Friday Follies, a weekly feature about weird and pointless stuff he finds on the Net.

Pat, we sympathize. Isn't it always like that? You sweat bullets over the serious stuff. What people love is the silly stuff.

P.S. Read Pat Cleary's write up of the conference here.

Go Daddy CEO Bob Parsons on stirring up controversy - and sales - with his blog

"Nothing I do gets sanitized. Every once in a while I venture into an area that's a bit controversial and I'll take the beating that goes along with it." - Bob Parsons

I interviewed Go Daddy CEO blogger Bob Parsons yesterday for the book. He's a character. Flamboyant, irreverent and an entrepreneur to the core. Offensive? Maybe.  Refreshing and provocative? Yes. I've got pages of notes. Here are a few highlights:

He's currently spending three to fours a day blogging. ("That leaves 20 or 21 hours to do other stuff.") He blogs because he enjoys it. He likes to write. He'd "rather blog than watch a movie." He likes to stir up controversy (cf the Gitmo blog storm). [Addendum: make that "thrives" on controversy. Read his post about Go Daddy Girl dancers.] And he loves the negative feedback on his blog, where he writes about politics (he's an ex-Marine who served on the ground in Vietnam) and the Internet.

Here's the kicker...

Far from prompting customers to defect from Go Daddy's registration and Web services, Bob's (offensive to some) postings on Gitmo's interrogation techniques resulted in higher sales, he told me. New domain registrations along with domain transfers into Go Daddy are up "by several percentage points," he said.

And if those stats aren't exciting enough for you, Go Daddy's marketshare of worldwide domain name registrations has jumped from 16 to 28 percent since February, Bob said. That's when there was the brouhaha over Go Daddy's $2.4M Superbowl ad featuring the scantily clad woman testifying at a Congressional hearing.

Bob calls it the shock-jock Howard Stern approach to publicity. As he put it: "No matter what Howard Stern does, his ratings go up."

And then there's his newest publicity outlet: Go Daddy Radio. That's just for entertainment, he told me. He thinks of the blog as more of an "op-ed" and plans to use some of his blog essays as a foundation for a book.

So go, Bob, go... we may not agree with everything you say or write. But we can't help noticing. And isn't that a key rationale for a corporate blog - to increase awareness of your brand?

Oh, and one more thing. On the subject of whether a CEO can have a blog that is distinct from his or her company, Bob says his blog "has nothing to do with (Go Daddy). But there are benefits that impart to the business and there are consequences to the business." Splitting hairs maybe.

P.S. Follow this link if you want to view a video of Go Daddy's Superbowl commercial.

 

Carole Matthews of Inc.com on Fear of Blogging

Was interviewed yesterday by Carole Matthews, senior editor of Inc.com. She's writing an article about "top blogging tips" (I'll post the URL when it's published) and asked me a bunch of questions. It was more than an interview really. We had a great conversation. We found ourselves musing over "fear of blogging" as a possible impediment to businesss blogs. We agreed that there are several components to the "fear":

1. Stagefright... fear of writing and being published
2. Fear of what other bloggers are saying about you or your company
3. Fear of negative comments that readers might leave on your blog

As for #3, I tell business types that getting any comments at all should be a greater concern. If you're lucky enough to get dozens of comments (as GM's Fastlane and Go Daddy's Bob Parsons do) then start worrying about negative comments. Hey, you can always delete them.

There's a bit of a self corrective mechanism at work when it comes to Comments: the commenters know (or should know) that they're leaving a permanent, public statement on your blog site. Most folks don't want to leave a public trail of vitriol on the Web.

More on mixing politics with business blogging

It's treacherous territory but I'm reconsidering my earlier posts here and here. I initially said Go Daddy CEO Bob Parsons made a huge goof in posting an essay about interrogation techniques at Guantanamo Bay to his blog. Yes, it was offensive to many. But, according to Parsons, many others responded positively in private emails. Parsons clearly has a big following on his blog. (His blog is the 23rd most popular blog site, according to a Go Daddy press release. Hmmm, the computation based on combining his Alexa ranking with the Technorati Top 100 seems a bit garbled. No matter, his blog gets a lot of traffic.)

As I opined in my second post, maybe stirring up a bit of controversy was worth the increased exposure, even though much of it was negative. But there's still the nagging question... if you're a CEO, can you really have a blog that is separate from your company, i.e. that doesn't represent your company in some way? I think not.

Survey says corporate blogging lives up to all the hype

A new survey says (according to a Yahoo! press release) that corporate blogging does in fact live up to "all the hype." Specifically, a thoughtful and authentic corporate blog can 1) establish a company as a, well, thought leader and 2) improve search engine rankings. You can  download the 68-page PDF from this page (scroll down and look for the download banner on the right-hand side). The survey includes case studies of blogs run by IBM, Microsoft, Maytag and Macromedia. It was conducted by a Boston marketing agency, Backbone Media.

As with any "blogging survey," take the results with a grain of salt. For you stats hounds, it was based on a 32-question survey taken online by 97 people, 65 of whom identified themselves as corporate bloggers.  The Backbone authors note: "Anecdotally, we were surprised to discover that there are not as many corporate blogs on the Internet as the volume of current media interest might indicate."

Some nifty charts illustrate the answers to each question. Of particular interest:

• 53% of those responding said that a contact from a journalist resulted in a published article. (My note:  yeah, journalists are starved for sources when it comes to corporate blogging.)
• The biggest concern about starting a blog was how much time it will take. The second biggest roadblock was concern about legal liability. (This echoes audience questions we got at the IABC's blogging panel this week as well as results of an informal WordBiz survey on blogging that I did in October 2004.)
• Re size of companies blogging: 73% of respondents were from companies with 1 - 100 employees; 19% had over 500 employees; and 8% had 101 - 500.

If you're following the corporate blogging phenomenon, this report is definitely worth downloading. It's reassuring to know that my anecdotal hunches are on the mark: a small number of Fortune 500 companies are blogging, that number appears to be growing, we need more examples. (Got any? Submit them on my book blog!)

Bottom line: does corporate blogging live up to all the hype? I'm afraid it's too soon to tell even though it makes a great headline for a press release... Only 4% of major corporations are blogging, according to Pete Blackshaw (I think) of Intelliseek.
 
P.S. I just ran across another agency report on corporate blogging: Developing Effective Communication Strategies for the Blogosphere.  Download it here (7-page PDF). It's published by Euro RSCG Magnet.  Useful is the note that you can interact with blogs and bloggers three ways: 1) responding to blogs (having your say after the fact); 2) blog outreach (finding blogs relevant to your company or industry); and 3) becoming a blogger and getting in on the action.

When you don't know what to write on your blog

This is hilarious... well, funny. It's a master list of Top 10 wise comments you can "paste in" to your blog to sound like you're plugged in and part of the blogging cognoscenti. Most of the blognoscenti are opining the same thing... about the importance - or non-importance - of blogging as a phenomenon. About whether blogs replace traditional PR, etc. So pick from the list and you'll sound just fine.

The list is written for PR practitioners. But I guarantee you'll find it useful. A sampling:

1) Stop saying PR is dead. My CEO might cut my budget again.

2) Any company that hasn't implemented a blog by December 31, 2005 at midnight will suddenly lose all ability to function. They should hire blog consultants to avoid this catastrophe. (For background material, see archival information on the Y2K crisis.)

3) Don't believe that blogs will solve all problems.

4) I'm sorry I made the comment in my previous post. The person mentioned never did what I said they did, and has every right to beat me senseless.

Etc.

Hat tip to Doc Searls for the link. And to Eric Eggertson for being clever. (Of course, add "hat tip" to your blogging lexicon.)

Oh, and the master list continues here. It's on a Wiki so anyone can add to it.

Sun Microsystems' Jonathan Schwartz on what's cool

This is what you get on a blog that you won't get on a static page of a corporate Web site. Writes Jonathan Schwartz, COO of Sun Microsystems:

One of the big upsides of my job is hobnobbing. I clearly didn't check with our corporate communications team before saying that, but let's be honest - it's cool to sit with a head of state, or a head of a corporation, or a CIO with an IT department bigger than Sun's entire employee base.

More on Go Daddy CEO Bob Parsons' blog

P.S. Bob Parsons and Go Daddy are no strangers to a bit of controversy. Bob was criticized for spending a reported $2.4M on a TV Super Bowl ad to gain exposure for his fledgling domain name company. His reponse to that here.

And I've been thinking... maybe I shouldn't jump on Bob so fast about his Gitmo blog essay. If he's willing to be that transparent about his politics and - this is the caveat - willing to acknowledge that his conservative political leanings do color our perception of his company( for better or for worse), then so be it.

Blog away... this is how the snowball effect (aka snowblogging) occurs. Say something controversial. Prompt lots of response. Get lots of links. And the snowball of conversation about Go Daddy just gets bigger. Which is the whole point of effective blogging, isn't it?

In this case, I think he's crossed the line from controversial to inappropriate. Mix terrorism into any discussion of politics and the results are bound to be inflammatory, misconstrued, etc. But that's my definition of a line not to cross in corporate blogging. Perhaps I'm being a purist. Waddya think?? Click Comments and speak up even if you want to give me a hard time. It's OK, really...

Go Daddy CEO Bob Parsons opens mouth and inserts foot on his blog

Did Go Daddy CEO Bob Parsons miss the memo on corporate blogging guidelines when they sent it around the office? #1 Rule: be smart. Come to think of it, this particular faux pas is not spelled out in any guidelines I've read.

Here's what you should NOT do on a CEO blog: wax eloquent about sensitive political issues. Just... don't go there. In a recent lengthy post, Go Daddy CEO Bob Parsons segued from re-living the horror of 9-11 to endorsing abusive interrogation techniques at Guantanamo Bay. Oops... He got hammered by comments from readers. Amended his post. Retracted. Got slammed as a right-wing nut. He responded, etc. Parsons wrote:

"I also have been accused of mixing business with politics because I put a link to my blog on the Go Daddy home page. I will say that the opinions here are mine personally. This is, after all, my personal blog. Go Daddy, the company, has no political leanings of any kind. That said, I am proud to say that Go Daddy is an American company."

Oops again. An American company?? Welcome to corporate blogging, Bob. If you're a CEO your blog is never just "personal." You represent the company you run, whether you intend to or not. Why risk alienating a significant chunk of your customer base (presumably, those registering domain names are of every stripe, color, gender and nationality, including non-Americans) by talking about hot-button political issues? It doesn't matter who's right or who's wrong on the Gitmo base issue. What matters is that you've stuck your foot in your mouth. You've managed to backpedal rather nicely. But the damage is done.

Oh, and a blog post never really dies. You can delete it but it lives on, somewhere, in the blogosphere. (I know this contradicts what I tell clients: that you can delete posts anytime. It's a technicality. You can delete them. But the orphan link to the original post lives on.)

I think this is the first truly inappropriate use of a blog by a CEO that I've seen. Anyone have other examples of CEO blogging missteps? Click over to my book blog and let me know if you have an anecdote or case study about corporate blogging you'd like to pass on. Thanks!

 

How GM's Fastlane blog was born

From an interview I did today with GM's Gary Grates, VP Communications for North America, for the book:

"Bob Lutz, our 73-year-old vice chairman, was on a plane coming back from Europe when he started writing a response to some posts about GM he'd read on other blogs. He said, 'What do I do with this?'"

Grates told GM's communications techies to drop what Lutz had written about the new Saturn design into the Movable Type template being readied. And Fastlane was born (on Jan. 5, 2005)...

(GM's Web techies had been pushing for a blog and the compay had already hired a PR agency, Haas MS & L, to design it.)

Apocryphal? I think not. Speaking with Grates today I was struck by his comfort level with the extemporaneous, reactive and in-the-moment nature of blogging -- scary stuff for most big companies intent on controlling the message.

He used phrases like: "The worst thing we (GM) can do is make (blogging) a process or a program that needs to be serviced or funded." Currently about 3 techies and 3 or 4 communications managers work on the blog but it's not an official part of anyone's job description.

Grates and several direct reports review the hundreds of comments posted to Fastlane before they go live. They usually get the comments up within 24 hours. (They delete very few of them, he told me.) Grates loves the long comments from passionate customers and thinks they're getting ever more "constructive" even if many are critical.

And yes, Lutz writes all his own posts and then emails them to the tech staff who drop them into the blog."I'd love to say that communications is helping him," said Grates.  "But they're not."

As for what Lutz chooses to write about, "He juxtaposes his response to reader comments with what he wants to write about next," Grates said. "There's no science to it."

This makes GM sound like a poster child for corporate blogging, doesn't it?! Maybe I'm an easy sell but I believe it. Click Comments below and tell me to jump in a lake if you disagree.

I've got more good stuff from the interview but I'll save it for the book... Gotta hold something back, right?!

 

"Dance like nobody's watching" when you blog

I'm one of those people who can't remember the words to a song. It's awful... lots of tunes floating around in my head but I don't know what they are.  I was reminded this week of how powerful good lyrics are. "Dance like nobody's watching... " could be the byword of good blogging. I.e., write from the heart. Take a few risks. Don't focus on what others will think of you. Although that's awfully hard to do. I always have a moment of panic when I hit "publish." Will it sound OK? Have I made a fool of myself??

"Dance like nobody's watching... " comes from country singer Kathy Mattea's 1989 song, "Come From The Heart."  The other lines go: "Sing like you don't need the money... Love like you'll never get hurt." I Googled this to be sure it's right!

Why more CEOs aren't blogging (yet), according to USA Today

Front-page article in today's USA Today (I'm quoted!) says CEOs refuse to get tangled up in messy blogs. Steve Rubel makes two points about the story: 1. It can be more effective to have a lower-level employee blog "from the gut" of a company and 2. Only a few CEO bloggers are "naturals." For example, Mark Cuban, Bob Liodice, Alan Meckler and Bob Lutz. I left Steve the following comment:

Great point that some CEOs are "naturals" who can "blog from the gut." Makes me wonder if they're also exceptionally good communicators offline. I.e. genuine, straight, no bullshit. And if "good blogging" can be taught to senior execs for whom it doesn't come naturally. Waddya think?? - DW

Addendum: didn't notice at first that I was quoted in the USAToday article. I spoke with reporter Del Jones weeks ago but had forgotten about it. (In fact, I gave him the names of most of the high-profile exec bloggers he mentions.)  Quote is about half way down, in the paragraph where Warren Buffett's name is highlighted: "Corporate blogging consultant Debbie Weil says there's an untapped opportunity for an early CEO adopter with the right touch... " And then further on: "I would be really disappointed to think that CEOs couldn't blog," Weil says. "But it is a lot more difficult for a CEO to be that open." ... wouldn't it be cool if Buffett had a blog?

 

Blogging 101 Resources

Been collecting these for a week or so.

• Ran across this nifty page on Robert's Echo blog. Includes everything from the "origin" of blogs, stats on blog readership, recommended PR blogs, link to a Forrester Research executive summary, lists of internal and external corporate blogs and more.

• Another page with all things blog (including links to RSS tutorials and basic blog definitions) penned by the Singapore-based Rambling Librarian.

• Comprehensive list from Dave Taylor's Intuitive Life blog with links to other articles.

• 101 writing tips from Kari Chisholm on writing a thought leadership blog. (He writes a grassroots advocacy blog.)

BlogWrite as a career resource

Just found this blog listed on the WashingtonPost.com in a section on News & Advice for Careers. Cool, huh?! Reinforces my assertion that good blogging is good writing. And a way to make yourself stand out, either in your current job or if you're on the prowl for a new opportunity.

Jack Welch's book-blog on Winning

I picked up Jack Welch's new book, Winning, over the weekend and have thoroughly enjoyed it. It's a quick read. More important, it's written in blog-speak! I.e. in a surprisingly informal voice. Turns out Jack "talked" the book and, with a lot of help from wife Suzy (former editor of Harvard Business Review, etc. etc.), got it organized and down on paper. Here's an interesting  Q & A with Welch that explains the process.  Hmmm... could this be a new trend? Blog writing style seeping into mainstream publishing?? Perhaps another reason for CEOs and top execs to think about writing a blog. Press a key, do a few edits... and you've got a book.

Top 7 tips to write an effective business blog

Update: Want a longer, PDF version of this Top 7 Tips article with more tips and resources? Click here.

Here's the Russian translation of this article. Cool, huh?!

I contributed this article to the forthcoming Guerrilla Marketing for Job Hunters due out in October, 2005 and co-authored by David Perry with Jay Conrad Levinson. The premise is how to blog your way to a new job but the tips apply equally to writing a blog that effectively markets you or your company. Here are my Top 7 Tips To Write an Effective Blog.

"Think of a blog as the 3D version of your resume or capabilities statement. One in which you provide context and meaning to the work experience and educational background you've so carefully wordsmithed in your resume or showcased on your site. It's the online version of You, Inc. It's a microsite where you can showcase your thinking and writing skills."  Continued below...

Here's a provocative opposing view from the Tao of Mac: 10 Reasons Why Blogging Doesn't Matter (and why it might NOT be good for your career). Thanks to Seth Godin for the link.

More tips on how to write a blog

Great tips from B.L. Ochman. My favorites:

"Write like it counts.
"No matter what your audience size, you ought to write as if your readership consisted of paid subscribers whose subscriptions were perpetually about to expire. There's no need to pander. Compel them to re-subscribe." said Dennis Mahoney on A List Apart.

White space is your friend.
It makes reading from the screen easier. Nothing is harder to read than a solid block of copy on a computer screen."

Related post: Are you writing for the Web when you blog?

Are you writing for the Web when you blog?

Surprisingly, the answer is yes. I've been thinking about this recently as I write this blog and also post to www.debbieweil.com. Writing for the Web means writing for scanners. Best practices are to use:

• sub-heads
• bullets
• short paragraphs
• a graphic if appropriate

Chunk your content
In short, chunking and packaging your words makes them easier and more appealing to read. It also gives you an excuse to write less. And "shorter" seems less intimidating when you've got 100 other things to do besides adding witty repartee (ha!) to your blog. Don't you agree??

Web writing resource
One of my favorite resources for Web and email writing is E-WRITE, a nifty training and consulting company based here in Washington D.C. Check out the tools and resources on their site including their EQ (E-mail Quotient) Challenge.

 

Why blog and what makes a blog successful?

Steven Streight is writing a book, Secrets of the Blogging Pros, that includes input from well-known bloggers. As he put it in his original email to me, he wants to include pointers from "innovators, CEOs, VPs, marketing gurus, political pundits, tech geniuses, manufacturers, writers, artists, computer gamers, PR firms, book publishers, satirists, entrepreneurs, etc." I am flattered he asked me to participate! He's already gotten feedback from a list that includes: Cory Doctorow (Boing Boing), Laura Ries, Mark Cuban, Richard Edelman, Dave Taylor, John Moore, Steve Rubel and many others.

Needless to say, I procrastinated for almost two weeks before responding to his two simple questions: 1.) Why did you start your blog? and 2.) What makes a blog successful? Here are my answers (they address the issue of procrastination)...

Good blogging is good writing... with a twist

Halley Suitt is cool. Period. I loved her presentation this week at BBS 2005 on The Art and Science of Blog Writing. It's a topic I feel passionately about. In fact, the point of this blog is to deconstruct and articulate what effective blog writing is. It's a big topic... I'll keep chipping away.

A key point is the intersection between good blogging and good journalism. Your blog doesn't need to cover current events. Yet  you need to write like a great reporter (use specific examples, tell stories, attribute your sources, etc.) in order to be compelling. But wait, there's more...

Then you have to let it all hang out... let your voice develop. Get a little raggedy sometimes. Don't polish your prose too much.I need to do more of that myself.I tend to be a bit too proper in my blog writing style... probably because I WAS a reporter and editor for several decades.

Here are Halley's top 7 tips:

1. Always tell a story.

She refers to Malcom Gladwell's new book, Blink. He tells stories to explain his ideas.

2. Tell the truth

If your CEO can't do that then maybe he/she shouldn't be blogging.

3. Be passionate

Halley: "The writing has to have passion... for your industry or your topic... or nobody will care."

4. Write about "things of this world"

Halley: "Anything that people are jumping all over… the Tsunami or credibility and ethics in writing as it's being discussed at a Harvard conference. You have to take a stand. You have to put yourself out there and let your head get chopped off."

5. Brevity

Halley: "Better to write 12 posts than 12 paragraphs. (In blog writing) brevity IS the soul of wit."

6. Freshness

Halley: "You need to be posting a lot every day. At least one thing a day, the more often the better."

Note: I disagree... this just isn't practical if you've working either in a job or independent consultancy where you're strapped for time. Yes, I know that Microsoft's Scoble posts a dozen or more times a day. But he's not your ordinary blogger.

7. Voice

Halley: "The blogs you want to read have a voice. When people meet me they say I sound like my blog." (Is that a compliment, she wonders??)

Halley, cont. "Be careful. Especially with corporate blogs. You can’t sound PR-ish."

8.  BONUS TIP… know when NOT to write something!

Halley: "Learn when to take your hand away from the keyboard."

Are you an A+ blog reader... but a C+ blogger?

Not to worry. ActiveWords CEO Buzz Bruggeman says (without apology) this is the "grade" that A-list blogger Doc Searls gives him. BUT Bruggeman, who runs a 5-person company, has managed to get major media exposure (and thousands of trial downloads of his product) through his blogging efforts. For the record, I give his buzzmodo blog at least a B. He quotes Shakespeare and the New York Times, writes about The Smell of Fear (Florida's hurricanes)... and posts fairly regularly. It's listed below as a CEO Thought Leadership blog. He's also got a more product-centered blog, buzznovation.

4 disadvantages of blogging... according to Gerry McGovern

Web content expert Gerry McGovern has published a useful and authoritative e-newsletter every week (he's never missed a deadline, he told me) since 1996. It's a text-only email but almost always has a gem or two related to content management.  New Thinking archives here. I just ran across an article he published in August, 2004 on Blogs and blogging: advantages and disadvantages. He makes some excellent points about blogs and writing...

How to READ a blog

John Dvorak's tips for newbies on how to understand and read a blog. Scroll down for the cool graphic that illustrates comments, permalinks, blockquotes and more. Courtesy of Steve Rubel.

Repeat: you don't need to be Hemingway or Proust...

British communications writer Neville Hobson challenges something I wrote recently. To wit, that "good writing" is an essential part of blogging. Not so, he says. You just need a "voice" and some personality. And then you can "have at it," as they say. I disagree. But perhaps we're talking shades of gray. Yes, you gotta have an interesting voice, a point of view and something to say. But no, you don't need to be a professional writer... a Hemingway or a Proust. And if you had to choose between one or the other writing style to mimic, for god's sake go with Hemingway. If you've ever tried to get past the opening sentence of Proust's A La Recherche du Temps Perdu you know the guy couldn't resist showing off his grasp of syntax. Blog in shorter sentences, puhleeze. Back to the subject at hand, here's how I responded to Neville...

Corporate America can't write

I love it when The New York Times says it for me: What Corporate America Can't Build: A Sentence. Article on front page of today's paper bemoans astounding lack of basic writing skills among corporate employees. Reporter Sam Dillon cites a study commissioned by the National Commission on Writing (didn't know there was such a thing):

"... a third of employees in the nation's blue-chip companies (write) poorly and businesses (are) spending as much as $3.1 billion annually on remedial training."

But email is not the culprit. There's NO reason a corporate email communication can't be as soundly and succinctly written as a good memo. And as for blogging... ditto. A bad blog is almost always poorly written, in addition to being full of drivel. Writing ability counts big time in the blogosphere. (You may have to register to read the NYTimes article.)

The three P's of blogging

Dave Pankhurst wisely points out one of the secrets of blogging software... it has a draft function. Here's how to use it: any time you have a "bloggy moment" open up your blogging app, jot down your observation and save it as a draft. Be sure to include the URL for what you plan to link to (another blog post, an article, etc.). Then go back later when you have a bit more time to collect your thoughts. Polish up your post. And hit publish. Aren't there three P's here...  ? Post, Polish, Publish.

Find out what OTHER blogs are saying about your company

Jupiter Analyst Michael Gartenberg makes a good point in his Nov. 15 article in Computerworld about the "double edge" of business blogs. In addition to posting interesting content to your own corporate blog... you've gotta worry about what folks are saying about you and your company on OTHER blogs. As Gartenberg puts it, "Get ahead of the negative buzz... " Luckily there are a couple of cool tools to help you do this. Take a look at Feedster, PubSub and (one Gartenberg doesn't mention) BlogPulse.

Seth Godin on CEO Blogs

Seth Godin has this to say about CEO blogs:
"Beware... It's apparently the newest thing. I just got off the phone with one CEO who's itching to start, and read an email from another who just did.

Here's the problem. Blogs work when they are based on:
Candor
Urgency
Timeliness
Pithiness and
Controversy

(maybe Utility if you want six).

Does this sound like a CEO to you?

Short and sweet, folks: If you can't be at least four of the five things listed above, please don't bother. People have a choice (4.5 million choices, in fact) and nobody is going to read your blog, link to your blog or quote your blog unless there's something in it for them.

Save the fluff for the annual report."

Here's my take on it: yes, CEOs can write a blog. But it's a learned writing style. Let's put it this way. What CEO is not already writing candid, urgent, timely, pithy, (possibly) controversial, useful personal emails every day... to friends, colleagues, etc. A Weblog is no different. It's just that the writing is for public consumption. And you get a whole lot more mileage out of it. Rather than having your pithy observations sink to the bottom of a colleague's email inbox, they'll be published, public... and attracting search engines. I still believe in brand. And who better to embody a company's brand than a smart, plugged-in CEO who can articulate what issues are important and why. Note: I did NOT say who can plug his or her company's products or services. No siree. That's not how a good blog is written and certainly not why an effective blog develops a loyal readership. It's well-articulated, smart thinking that draws followers and makes yours into a thought leadership blog. Seth, thanks for raising the bar, per usual. Yup, CEO blogs are the newest thing. See Alan Meckler, Brian Carroll and Matt Blumberg as examples.

The real "Step 1:" blog your passion

I erred when I said that finding your voice was Step 1 to writing a thought leadership blog. It's not. Step 1 is to find your passion... and then blog, er, write about it. I say that from personal experience. And also from studying dozens of other effective business blogs. Doesn't matter whether it's the business of Internet media or trademark law or public relations. You've got to care passionately about what you're writing about. Otherwise you won't be able to motivate yourself to keep writing. And it ain't a thought leadership blog unless 1) you keep blogging... and 2) you develop a following of influential readers. Your thoughts? Jump in and leave a comment below...

Top 5, er 7, tips for writing a blog

I asked a handful of top bloggers for their top Do or Don't for writing a business blog. Here is what Microsoft's Robert Scoble, Seth Godin, Halley Suitt and others told me. No, these folks are not CEOs or CXX execs but they know how to write a blog and they have many thousands of avid readers who follow their every post. Seth (author of Permission Marketing, Purple Cow, etc.) has evolved into a big name brand, partially because of the exposure he's gotten through his blog.

Free guide to Weblog writing style

New from BusinessLogs is a short white paper with style tips on writing a business blog. It's a 101 guide but worth a right-click to get it. The BusinessLogs folks sensibly point out one key difference between personal vs. business blogs: once you start writing a corporate blog it's hard to stop. Kind of looks like a failed initiative.

"... a business site, by starting a blog, is starting a relationship that it won't be easy to get out of. Personal sites, while part of this ever burgeoning prevalence, fall by the wayside all too often... "

Hmmm... these guys need an editor - ever burgeoning prevalence??

Step 1: Find your blogging voice

Yup, you can blog your way to the top. Might have been far-fetched a year ago. Maybe even six months ago. But CEOs from Australia to the U.S. and a dozen countries in between are starting to blog. It's a way to speak directly to your customers, your competitors, the media, analysts... or to anyone else in the corporate blogosphere.

COO of Sun Microsystems' Jonathan Schwartz calls his blog "a platform from which to lobby, network and even influence sales." A blog, he says, is "a must-have tool for every executive."

So let's get started... what's your blogging voice? How do you find it? Do you dare??