We’ve had several meetings lately with corporate PR and Marketing departments who are apprehensive of blogging. They voice several concerns, not the least of which has to do with the posting of comments. The big question is “what if people say bad things about us on our blog?”
A response we give that tends to resonate with executives is that people will say negative things anyway, (and it all shows up in Google,) so why not have your own platform with which to respond?
Jonathan Schwartz wrote a great piece on executive blogging for the Harvard Business Review (November 2005 issue) titled “if you want to lead, blog.”
“Remember when, not long ago, CEOs would ask their assistants to print out their e-mails for them, and they’d dictate responses to be typewritten and sent via snail mail? Where are those leaders now? (The last of my contacts of that breed just retired.) In ten years, most of us will communicate directly with customers, employees, and the broader business community through blogs. For executives, having a blog is not going to be a matter of choice, any more than using e-mail is today. If you’re not part of the conversation, others will speak on your behalf- and I’m not talking about your employees.”
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alex 02.27.06 at 3:02 am
Yes, I read that article and it was a great piece indeed. It is going to take an effort for people trained in the traditional marketing and PR methods to understand this is an open world. People who have an opinion require no authorization from anybody to express it and corporate efforts cannot shut-down the expression of public opinion. It is increasingly difficult to “prescribe” what people (customers, employees, partners, competitors, special interest groups…) should think about a company: image emerges more often than not from a dynamic process that is difficult to control.
So, yes, I agree with the fact that companies had better accept what is now a fact and adopt the tools and attitudes that can make them successful in this new era of business communication.