BlogWrite for CEOs

Q & A on Corporate Blogging

Thanks to the those who submitted questions a while back about corporate blogging. And sorry for the delay in publishing answers. Here's a Q & A on corporate blogging:

Leanne of 30 Minute Coach writes:

Q: "Which is more effective? Adding a blog to your current business Web site or converting the entire site to a blog format?"

A: Great question. Blogs are next-generation Web sites. They're a simple and elegant content management tool which makes them an excellent choice for non techies (like me) who want a constantly-updated Web site.

That said, you'll need to find a blog-savvy Web designer who can put together a site for you based on MovableType. (I'm working on that myself. I cringe whenever I look at my main WordBiz site; it's hopelessly outdated.) Here are three sites built on MT: Blog Business Summit, SixApart (company that owns MT and TypePad) and MarketingVox.com. Key point: a site built on blog software does not need to LOOK LIKE a blog.

Oh, and Leanne, for now... including a prominent link to your blog in your site navigation is perfectly acceptable.

Q: John Cowburn writes:

"Do the search engines care whether my blog has its own domain name vs. being hosted on a service like TypePad?"

A: I'm not a search engine specialist so I don't have the definitive answer. But you should know about domain mapping. Infomaven Lois Ambash calls it a "technical trick" and explains it this way: "Your blog can be hosted by a service like TypePad but be 'pointed' toward a domain you own even though it actually resides on TypePad's servers."  I use "forwarding" so that when you type in BlogWriteForCEOs.com it resolves to blogwrite.blogs.com . I'm told this is not as good for search engine results as domain mapping.

Q: Jonathan writes:

"What do you think about non-public, internal weblogs written by upper management as a way to set the context within which a company runs its day-to-day business? It seems like a nonchalant way to rally the troops without having the hard-to-get-right all-employee meeting."

A: I think it's a great idea. In fact, internal blogs may make more sense for large corporations than external blogs. I've suggested that HP's deposed CEO Carly Fiorina should have had an internal blog to speak directly to HP employees... many of whom were apparently disenchanted with her style.

Q: Paul Short writes:

"How does one communicate the real benefits of blogs and blogging to the Internet marketing and direct marketing crowd? It seems that most marketers I talk to only think of blogs as SEO tools, a place to push affiliate programs or as new content pages to get exposure for contextual advertising."

A: I don't think you can convince these folks otherwise. (I've tried to convince Bob Bly.)  I believe that intelligently written blogs (whether internal or external) have a longer-term ROI that is more important than an immediate reward measurable in dollars and cents.  Call it "branding," if you must. But I really don't think you need to. A blog is part of an overall communications strategy built around transparency.

Finally, Benjamin Yoskovitz writes:

Q: "In an ideal world I would love to be as open as possible in a corporate blog...  discussing development strategies, i.e. where the product's going, how we're developing new features as well as business processes, how we handle customer support, how we deal with defect tracking and management, etc. But as I visualize writing posts in my head, I always bump into the same concern (perhaps it's merely paranoia)... revealing too much. How much do we want to reveal about how we do things knowing that the information could be used against us? "

A: No easy answer to that one. You have to figure out where your own "confidentiality line" is - i.e. how much (and what kind of) information is "too much" to reveal either to your competitors or your customers. I recommend sitting down with everyone in your company (you've said it's small) and hashing out a set of Corporate Blogging Guidelines. That exercise in itself will help you think through your very valid question.

Accessibility & transparency: should Carly have blogged?

Yesterday's abrupt news that Carly Fiorina was ousted as CEO of H-P got me to thinking... should Carly have had a blog?  BTW, the link on Carly's name goes to the bio page on H-P's site where the copy has already been changed to "Former Chairman and CEO." Don't write off the blogging idea as ridiculous. Consider...

An Internal Blog
If Carly had had an internal blog (i.e. behind H-P's firewall and not for public viewing), she might have been able to warm up her apparently chilly and/or distant relationship with many H-P employees. Maybe she could have reestablished some of the collegiality that defined H-P's culture not so long ago. She might have titled her internal blog "Dateline Carly..." and doled out choice anecdotes about her constant travelling. Maybe she could have blogged about how wonderful it was to fly on the corporate jet and how much she appreciated it. I bet they had great snacks on the plane. Did she have a real bed? She might have shown a photo of it. People *love* this kind of detail, especially when it's divulged by a celebrity... and it's pretty harmless info.

An External Blog
Even more daring... suppose Carly had blogged publicly, like Jonathan Schwartz of Sun. Would her every word have been parsed by Wall Street's analysts, the media and her competitors... Making it virtually impossible for her to write authentically? Possibly. But imagine if she could have been just a wee bit  more transparent about H-P's struggles to turn a profit on its personal computers division (the unwieldy result of the Compaq merger). Or perhaps she could have engaged in a bit of mud slinging with HP's  biggest rivals, Dell and IBM. Sun's Schwartz  has been openly confrontational with IBM in recent posts. And yeah...it makes for interesting reading.

Ah well... we won't know if Carly would have been a good blogger. Unless she has the nerve and savvy to start a blog now. Kind of a "What's Next" with reflections on life, what she's reading... etc. Go for it Carly! TypePad awaits you.

Useful Links  (yup, from the mainstream media...)

2/10/05 Wall Street Journal: H-P's Board Ousts Fiorina as CEO (requires registration)

2/10/05 New York Times: Fiorina's Confrontational Tenure at Hewlett Comes to a Close

2/10/05 Washington Post: Hewlett-Packard Forces Celebrity CEO to Quit

2/07/05 Fortune Mag cover story: Why Carly's Big Bet is Failing

 

Are we at The Tipping Point for Corporate Blogging?

Yes. According to Hugh MacLeod of the Hughtrain and GapingVoid. Hugh writes:

"So the blogosphere waits for the corporate-mainstream Tipping Point to arrive, the point where blogging stops being the supposed realm of freaks, weirdos, unemployed marketing consultants, unpublished novelists, political junkies and underworked cube dwellers, and starts being HUGE! An essential pillar of any corporate strategy and execution etc etc.

The GM blog sent a signal that we might, might, might have reached the corporate tipping point (we reached the individual tipping point a while ago, methinks)."

Read his whole post here. Oh, and if you haven't ordered Hugh's cool cartoon business cards from StreetCards.com, get on over there! I just ordered a second batch.

 

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...

He notes that "some of the most significant revolutions of the past 20 years have had to do with writing." I.e. email, Web pages, text messaging... and now blogs. I love that observation. Then he goes on to list  5 advantages and 4 disadvantages of blogging. I agree with the first 3 disadvantages (although there are ways around these for a business blog). Full article here.

1. "Most people don't have very much to say that's interesting... "

2. "People who have the most time to write have least to say... "

3. "Like practically everything else on the Web, blogs are easy to start and hard to maintain... "

I take issue with his 4th disadvantage:

4. "The Web makes many organizations look like disorganizations, with multiple tones and opinions. Contrary to what some might think, the average customer prefers it if the organization they are about to purchase from is at least somewhat coherent."

I don't agree when it comes to many corporate Web sites. Indeed there's often a sameness and blandness of tone (I call it marketing-speak or corporate-speak) that makes them dull as heck.

If a CEO thought leadership blog were added to a bland corporate site, it would add a human voice to the company that many would-be customers might find extremely compelling. Of course I agree that the blog should be part of an overall communications strategy. A corporate blog may appear to be a slap-it-up, real-time, informal conversation... but that's just part of the magic of blogging as a publishing tool. There should be plenty of thought behind how the tool is used.

"Corporate Blogging" story airs tonight on TV's Nightly Business Report... and I'm in it!

Just got a call from Nightly Business Report's Washington Bureau Chief Darren Gersh. They interviewed me in September, 2004 for a story on corporate blogging. And are just getting around to airing it tonight. You can catch it on your local public TV station, starting at 6:30 PM Eastern. Go to the NBR site to get your local channel and time (click on About, then click on TV Stations).  And yes, Darren is a blogger!