Maybe the message about the power of blogs is finally getting through to executive suite…
As I was browsing through the news stories this morning, two headlines jumped out at me:
What other companies are encouraging their employees to blog?
Blogging consultant, Stephanie Booth, has posted a good slideshow about the importance of corporate blogging on her blog, Climb to the Stars (Stephanie Booth). (Be sure to read through the notes and follow the links!) This post and her notes make me sorry that I missed her presentation.
In fact, Hewlett Packard has included encouraging employees to blog as item #5 on its list of the characteristics of ambitious companies.
People are talking about your company anyway. Encouranging blogging and having guidelines in place allows your business to make the most of those conversations that are already happening.
Of course, if a company is going to encourage its employees to blog (and I believe that companies should encourage blogging), then it should have some guidelines in place.
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First and foremost, an employee blog should have a disclaimer stating that it is not representing the company’s viewpoint.
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Secondly, employees who work in sensitive areas should have limits on what they can blog about. I wouldn’t want my banker blogging about my account number, for example.
In most cases, employees who blog help the company rather than harm the company. It’s actually a good idea for management to read employee blogs to get new insight into what’s happening with their employees. If they see a recurring theme, that may be a sign that it is time to take action about that whatever the employees are talking about.
Of course, there’s always an exception and what happened to Cisco just might be it. You can read about the Cisco lawsuit at Forbes.com. (The article doesn’t say, but I have wonder what Cisco’s blogging policy is…)
Does your business encourage employees to blog? Do you have a corporate blogging policy in place? Why, or why not?
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