There seem to be two opinions in the blogging world as to whom should be allowed to blog for their company. One group believes that it should be open to all employees while another group believes that blogging should only be reserved for the executives or CEO. Both groups propose good arguements and both are right depending on the individual company. When not considering the individual company and instead dealing with this issue in one bold decisive stroke, then the answer is with the group that blogging should be reserved for only the executives or the CEO of a company.
Blogging is a form of communication and all communication that goes outside of a company must be reviewed to ensure many things including accuracy and legality of the statements. Regardless of company spin - a company can get into a great deal of legal problems if their statements are misleading, false, or worse.
Blogging opens casual channels of communication - but casual does not mean unrestrained and careless. Frank conversations can be held with company VIPs that more accurately portray the company's cohesive stance on a given issue beeing discusses as the person answering such blogs is also the company decision maker.
Opening blogging up to anyone in the company could easily result in many distaters including misleading, misrepresenting, and miscommunicating the company's position to a blog post. People interested in a company want to hear from the top people anyway - it's like any form of journalism - a reliable source is key.
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2 comments:
ILoveDC-
I couldn't disagree more with your stance on corporate blogging. Although people may be interested in hearing from executives, I believe that just as many people would be interested in hearing from corporate bloggers in different departments and from varying levels. I appreciate the way that companies such as Google have blog entries from Googlers throughout the organization. Someone may not connect with the VP of Online Advertising, but may have a connection with a product representative. Entries from individuals of varying departments and positions give users a glimpse into the big picture of a company.
As far as those lower level individuals misrepresenting the company, I'm sure they all moderate/review the entries anyway-- even if it's written by an associate level employee, it's still on the official corporate blogs and those corporations aren't going to risk their reputation/credibility from a particular entry.
It's true that a company has the ability to monitor their own blogs. However, people from various departments rarely have the large picture of the company in mind, but instead are focused on the productivity of their particular department.
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