Companies Need Blogging Policies as More than Preventative Measures
An article from Scotsman.com floated into my RSS reader yesterday. It basically lays out what we’ve talked about a ba-jillion times: companies need a blogging policy because employees talk about work on their blogs and they might make your business look bad.
But let’s stop harping on the negative. It’s not like all of your employees are just itching to badmouth your business the minute they get off work. Apart from maybe one or two disgruntled folks, the vast majority of your workforce probably has something constructive to say about your company.
You need a blogging policy. But not just because you’re worried that your employees will spill your trade secrets on the Web. You need one because you want your employees to talk about all the good stuff that’s going on at work in ways that you sanction and support. You want your employees to put out good word of mouth about your business even when they’re not working. You should start working on a company blogging policy soon so that everyone knows the ground rules and the consequences for violating them.
We’ll be talking about company blogging policies on the first day of our upcoming conference this October. Check out the sessions page for more information.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I just don’t feel comfortable with employees blogging as official spokespeople.
I guess I prefer the Mark Cuban approach: the CEO should blog, presenting one unified communication to the public and customers and stakeholders.
I don’t see how employee blogging is any benefit, except in cases where there is a lot of human interest, like the Red Cross, employees blogging about helping Katrina victims or something.
But if employees blog, there must be a written AND enforced policy, as you recommend. What is bad about policy is that companies don’t have the guts to enforce them. Ask the IT dept. about frivolous email FWDs, user error, virus attachments, etc.
Vaspers: I agree with you that the CEO is the person who can give readers the widest perspective into a company. But employee bloggers are helpful as well.
What’s really important is that companies feel comfortable enough with the basic elements of the blogosphere to pick and choose which of them fit their company culture. Some companies need a head honcho type to be their main voice in the blogosphere, while other companies can be just as well represented by folks further down the corporate totem pole.
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