There has been a big push over the past eighteen months. Consultants, conferences, experts, news media, and Joe Blogger have been preaching that “Companies need to blog!”. An entire industry of corporate blog consultants has emerged out of the blogosphere to enlighten the heathen non-blogging companies. I’m not quite sure what these blog consulting folks are doing. They seem to be going to a lot of conferences with each other. (Sorry Will - I just couldn't help myself)
Please don’t get me wrong. I think blogging in business is important. Heck, this is CEOBlues! It’s just that one simple truth has been overlooked in the past few years. Companies don’t blog, people do. This simple truth is why we have CEOBlues.com, AcstofVolition, DeltaTangoBravo, WorksinTheory, and Newrecruit instead of blog.silverorange.com. A company, no matter how large, is a collection of people. It is those people that are interesting, not the company. It is those people that are best suited to shape a site and its content. It is those people who are the best representation of a company.
Blogging is a delicate and organic thing. Selling it, rushing it, or forcefully encouraging it will lead to boring forced content that is not sustainable.
The entire blog industry reminds me of 1996 when Steve and I started our first small web design company. We, along with most web design companies, thought every business needed an extensive website. Eventually it became clear what the web was, but more importantly, what the web wasn’t. I would say that the blog industry will go through a similar shake down. It will go from the feverish pitch it’s at now to a more sustained common sense industry. A few current players will survive and adapt but most won’t.
Related Random Thoughts:
Evan Williams thinks Google can’t blog. I agree. It seems forced.
In surprising contrast Microsoft seems to have gotten it by softly encouraging blogging.
Comments
Robert Paterson - February 22, 2005 8:27 pm
Right on. Our experience is that even we have companies to blog - it is the people not the company. It is all personal
Harold Jarche - February 22, 2005 9:44 pm
I guess it's similar to saying that a corporation is a person. Hey, wait a minute, according the law, a corporation is a person! Next thing you know someone will say that companies can really blog. What a crazy world ;-)
Nick MacDonald - February 23, 2005 2:55 pm
Hey guys, just wantted to say as an employee of Sobeys, that Sobeys has a blog intergrated into its intranet to post company news and events.
Nick Burka - February 26, 2005 9:08 am
<p>Good post on Chris Wetherell's Massless weblog on this topic, "Corporate blogs, written well". He has a few examples and I checked out the Yahoo! Search Blog and was notably impressed. It was actually fun to read about the challenges of search-spelling-fixing.</p>
Jim Estill - April 30, 2006 1:20 pm
Totally agree. Blogs are written by the people and not the company.
Company blogs will not be read.
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M Bhave - June 29, 2007 8:47 am
Wow, that is an amazing statement! People who blog not the corporate!! Sir, beg to differ a little here. snt it tru that People make Corporates? Isnt it true that every department in a COERPORATE is headed by a person? Isnt it true then that these heads are recruited by HEads above them who have recruited on basis of qualification and experience and sanctity of holding that post?
Sir, if people blog they represent the CORPORATE. I feel that CORPORATES BLOG through the people they designate to do the blog job!
Regards,
M Bhave