 Many
corporations, prodded by magazines like BusinessWeek talking up blogs
as an important and enduring phenomenon, and by cases where companies
have been embarrassed by employee blogs and responded by firing the
employee, have been rushing to decide what, if anything, their policy
on blogs should be. Such a policy needs to address:
(a) employees' personal blogs that refer to or reflect in any way on their employer
(b) 'official' corporate blogs
(c) internal blogs on the corporate Intranet, and
(d) reading blogs as part of business research
Here's my unsolicited, cautious, and perhaps controversial advice to
businesses considering such a policy, covering all four bases:
- Develop a knowledge-sharing policy that covers all information communications,
not just blogs:
Blogs are just the tip of the iceberg of of such
extra-corporate communications, which are increasingly essential to relationship
building and to the exchange of useful business information among
organizations, employees, outside stakeholders and experts. But casual extra-corporate
communications may inadvertently divulge confidential information,
contravene the law, or embarrass the company. As the line between
business and
personal communications and relationships blurs more and more, your
policy must draw the line clearly, with clear and specific examples of what is, and what is not, appropriate.
That line must
balance the advantages of open sharing of information against its risks.
- Respect employees' rights: Any behaviour that is inappropriate for an employee
to do in any other circumstance or environment (e.g. betraying confidentiality, or holding the
employer up to ridicule) is equally inappropriate on a blog. Your existingemployee
conduct policy should therefore already cover unacceptable online
behaviour. Beyond that, respect employees' rights to their own
opinions, and have
your legal counsel make sure that your corporate policy does not
violate these rights. Dissing the boss and the company
publicly may reflect poor judgement, and limit career advancement, but
it's not legal grounds for dismissal or harassment. Understand that
overstepping your legal grounds not only will get you into embarrassing
court cases that will be PR disasters no matter the outcome, it will
also drive the criticisms underground, onto anonymous blogs and
discussion forums, and might drive some of your best employees out the
door in the process.
- Insist
that employees' personal blogs stress that that's what they are: Personal
blogs should not carry the corporate logo (unless they're
those of an executive specifically approved to do so) and if any
mention of the employer is made (or is readily ascertainable) the
blogger should make it clear that
opinions expressed are not those of the employer.
- Don't
have a policy on whether or not employees should or can have personal
blogs: It's not your business, any more than anything else an
employee does or doesn't do in their private life. Encouraging personal
blogs is as paternalistic as prohibiting them. And counseling employees
on matters of taste and discretion, or asking them to pre-clear content
with you, is insulting and overstepping. Telling employees they can't
blog on company time is redundant and offensive -- terms of employment
should already cover this.
- With
rare exceptions, don't have an 'official' company blog: Most
people are skeptical of anything they read on official company sites,
and that will usually negate any value they might have in making your
company appear more personable and responsive to customers. Blogs are
personal and casual. Most business communications are not. Be cautious
and talk to your marketing people before proceeding. Don't forget,
blogs are a significant time commitment to maintain, and a blog
that is not frequently updated or not well maintained is worse than not having one at all. If you do decide
to have a company blog, make sure you know who its intended audience is
and that this intended audience is the group who will actually be
reading your blog. Blogs (like other corporate websites) are more
likely to attract potential recruits, alumni, competitors, potential
allies and the media than customers. If your actual and intended
audiences are very different, you're wasting your time -- and your
readers'.
- Do
experiment with blogs on the Intranet: Encourage at least the three
groups who have the most to share (your company's subject matter
experts, internal newsletter publishers and community of practice
coordinators) and any individuals in the company who express enthusiasm in having an Intranet blog, to set one up. Use my 12-step
program
to manage your Intranet blog pilot. Encourage internal bloggers to
focus their content on matters that others in the company will find of
interest, such as the subjects in the illustration above. Evaluate the
possibility
of editing or repurposing the content of Intranet blogs for use on the
public corporate website, but keep in mind point #5 above.
- Read
blogs and encourage employees to do likewise:
Find the blogs and
blog posts that are most valuable to your organization, subscribe to
their RSS feeds, and circulate them to others in the organization.
Assign your researchers and reward employees for identifying and
circulating useful articles from blogs, and for bringing to your
attention online
comments from customers and others about your company. Reading others'
blogs can be useful to your company as a source of education, synopsis,
analysis, competitive and customer intelligence. But don't over-invest
in reading blogs either: Without focus, this can be a huge time-waster,
and use caution when reacting to what you read, since blogs are often
not well fact-checked, and they usually represent just one person's
(often atypical) perspective.
This
advice is a lot less aggressive than what you may be hearing from
either enthusiasts or detractors of the blogging phenomenon. But I
think it's prudent for business not to over-react. Blogs are not going
to single-handedly revolutionize business, nor do they pose new or significant threats
to it. With the seven steps above, your company can explore blogs'
opportunities, mitigate the risks, and take them in stride.
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