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.)

Update on IABC blogging panel

I'm delighted to report that Gary Grates, VP Corporate Communications, North America for General Motors has accepted my invite to be the third panelist on IABC's corporate blogging panel on June 27, 2005. (Here is the description of the session, part of IABC's international annual conference in Washington DC.) Gary, who is known as a "thought leader" on change management and effective employee-management relations, is a regular contributor to GM's Fastlane blog. The other two panelists are Paul Rosenfeld, GM of Intuit's QuickBooks Online Edition and Kevin Holland, VP Communications of the Air Conditioning Contractors of America and the force behind ACCABuzz.

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.

Moderating IABC blog panel on June 27, 2005

Cool news. I've been asked to moderate a panel on corporate blogging for IABC's annual conference in Washington D.C. on June 27, 2005. I've invited Paul Rosenfeld, GM of Intuit's QuickBooks Online Edition and the force behind QuickBooks Online blog, along with Kevin Holland, VP Communications of Air Conditioning Contractors of America and creator of the ACCABuzz blog to join me. To round out the panel I've invited one of the top-dog bloggers for GM's Fastlane blog (not Bob Lutz but someone who should be even better because of his inside perspective). Waiting to hear back.

Here's what IABC chairman Warren Bickford says  about our event in his new blog. He mentions it in the same breath as the announcement that Mark Hurd,  HP's new CEO, will be the plenary speaker. Hey, business blogging is going big time! More TK...

Blogs as big as the printing press, according to BusinessWeek

Blogs Will Change Your Business says the lastest issue of BusinessWeek. A great read (written in chronological blog format) with good  resources and links. Don't miss the sidebars: 6 Tips for Corporate Bloggers, Blogging: A Primer, and Stonyfield Farm's Blog Culture.

Intuit Case Study: All Action, No Talk for QuickBooks Online blog

Paul Rosenfeld, General Manager of Intuit’s QuickBooks Online, and his team had a great idea: why not start a blog to communicate with – and learn from - their 35,000 customers?

Paul is an informal kind of guy. A staff member suggested the blog one sunny Friday in Mountain View, CA. Paul said, "Why not." When he came in on Monday, lo and behold, the staffer had created a QuickBooks Online blog using TypePad. It was customized with the green header of the QuickBooks Online product page but wasn’t an exact replica.

“Hey,” Paul said. “This is great. Let’s go with it!”  Or something to that effect. The point, as he puts it, was to just start. (And by hosting the blog externally, he didn't have to get on corporate IT's lengthy action list.)

More Action / Less Talk
”Everyone (in big companies) thinks in terms of PowerPoint and big projects and lots of money. Our blog is an example of a lot of action and very little talking,” he said in an interview. “We’re very proud of it. It’s the first blog at Intuit.” (One other exists, for TurboTax, but it’s only open to registered users.)

Here’s a look at how Rosenfeld has developed the QuickBooks Online blog with the help of a handful of staffers, what they write about and lessons learned for other corporate managers harboring secret thoughts of blogging…

Bob Lutz veers close to earnings drop in his Fastlane blog

Well I'd say Bob Lutz is veering pretty darn close to mentioning GM's earnings drop in his latest post on  a re-shuffling of GM's product plans. So ha... to those of you who say he can't talk about the "real news" at GM because the focus of his Fastlane blog is solely cars. Click this link and then scroll down to read the comments in response to my earlier post: GM & Boeing: Corporate Tell-It-Not Blogs.  Looks like Lutz is pretty skillfully discussing both cars and GM's bottom line in his latest post. Go, Bob...

Sensible template for Corporate Blogging Guidelines

Looking for a template you can copy or use as a starting point to create guidelines for employee blogs? You might start with Michael Hyatt's Corporate Blogging Rules. He created them for employees of  Thomas Nelson Publishers. (Michael is COO.) They sound sensible and lawyerly. Of note, Thomas Nelson has created a BOC (blog oversight committee) and is encouraging employees to blog. The rules underlie the launch of the company's blog aggregator site. Note that Microsoft has an aggregator page featuring the latest postings from 1,443 employee blogs. I suppose aggregating blogs, even within your own company, is a bit like herding cats. But it does send a clear signal that an employee's blog, however independent in voice and spirit, represents your company at some level.

GM & Boeing: Corporate "Tell-It-Not" Blogs

See update: Bob Lutz veers close to mentioning earnings drop

Two of the CEO Thought Leadership blogs I feature on this blog (see right-hand column) have neglected to mention the real dirt at their companies recently. Bottom line in blogging... if you don't "tell it like it is" then effectively you're stonewalling and "telling it not." You just can't leave high profile news about your company out of a corporate blog. New Boeing blogger Randy Baseler (VP Marketing) gets a demerit for skipping right over the recent scandal involving Boeing CEO Harry Stonecipher who stepped down March 7, 2005 after admitting an affair with a subordinate. High profile GM blogger Bob Lutz doesn't say a word about his company's big news this week: an 80% cut in GM's earnings forecast for this year. Guys, if you want to play in the blogosphere you gotta play by the rules! Speak the truth or something close to it. As in: "Yeah, I'm down about our earnings forecast but let me tell you what brightens my day: the 93 comments on my post about our new Chevy Cobalt... " At least say something!! An article on the front page of today's Washington Post comments on this evasive tendency: More PR Than No-Holds-Barred on Bosses' Corporate Blogs.

Should you take down a blog post?

Over at Robert Scoble and Shel Israel's The Red Couch they're talking about whether you should remove a blog post once it's up. I usually think in terms of "self censorship" (i.e. I don't like something after I've written it and want to change it). But they're referring to a company asking an employee to remove a post deemed "inappropriate" in some way. Which begs the question of developing Corporate Blogging Guidelines. Interesting discussion. Waddya think?? When I say "click that comment" link below I mean it.

Note the string of posts about this topic on The Red Couch. See here and here.