Motivations for Corporate Blogging 115
ringfinger writes "Ross Mayfield just posted an interesting blog essay entitled Fear, Greed and Social Software that examines the motivations (Fear and Greed) for corporate blogging. How many slashdotters blog for their companies? Do their companies fear that they might say something embarrasing? Or are they filled with greed for the additional exposure it generates?"
IBM encourages company blogging (Score:5, Interesting)
1. They provide internal blogs to everyone. Anyone within the company can view any employees blog. Confidential material relating to specific works in development to you are not permitted though as the controls on the blogs are rather weak. But still, there are blogs from both personal and professional topics hosted internally.
2. Recently guidelines for public blogging were released. They were rather straightforward and obvious in the following tone:
- Post freely, be helpful, seek help
- Don't post trade secrets, use best judgement
- Don't engage in online arguments, once again, be helpful
It appears they would have us out there talking about anything and all things, including company products, helping others with our products, etc.
Of course, it's written with perspective of "help the greater good, don't make us look bad", but I still think it's a great step forward and a proactive approach to forwarding the community.
Here's my last required gem:
These are my opinions and not those of IBM.
Forget why they DO - tell me why they DON'T (Score:5, Interesting)
Why would any company not want to establish personal, emotional connections to their software?
Yeah, sure, there's risks involved if your employees reveal corporate secrets or turbulence, but if you trust them enough with your source code, why would you think they wouldn't be smart enough to walk the line with blogs as well? If you don't trust your employees enough to blog, it doesn't say anything about your employees - it says something about your paranoia and your inability to hire reliable staff.
(And yes, I have a personal blog, and no, I'm not allowed to talk about company stuff in it, and yes, I've been disciplined for even coming close to the line.)
Internal Opposition... (Score:3, Interesting)
Accountants, marketing and HR are all responsible for bending the truth in such a way to put a positive spin on something that might not be so rosey.
A prime example is Paul Otellini's (Intels CEO) interal blog which has been leaked at least once. I can't find the link to the original article where I read about it (help appreciated) which stated that he quite openly admitted that they had a lot of work to do to catch up with AMDs Opteron architecture.
If you are to take a step back and think about it, he's openness makes perfect sense to anyone who's been following processor trends for more than a year or so. The only problem is the accountants and marketing folks are trying to tell the opposite story - "AMD, no, ours is better".
I personally would prefer to hear my leader tell the truth and not simply try to keep the stock market happy. The only reason why the stock market gets upset by comments like this is because they aren't said often enough.
This is why you become a suit using the blogs. (Score:2, Interesting)
Blogging is a strength, so is the internet, but all of this power existed before in other forms so its not really new. The difference now is the fact that the power is distributed to anyone when before it was kept within certain circles of networks of peers.
If a network of peers form an alliance then it doesnt matter who your boss is, that alliance gives power to the peers in the long term. Short term the boss maintains power, so basically any group of workers who are treated badly enough can decide to use influence either from within the company or outside the company. Corporate politics are extremely complex, and a lot of it is based on favors, who knows who, and knowledge of who is in certain circles and how much influence they have.
If you are a smart suit then you have nothing to fear because you'll use your position to make yourself a likeable boss, you'll also understand the office politics, otherwise if you arent able to keep your position then who else is to blame?
Re:Personal blogging... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Getting fired (Score:2, Interesting)
When people misrepresent their company, they get canned.
Doesn't matter if they do it in a blog.
Doesn't matter if they do it with a frog.
Doesn't matter if they do it in a book.
Companies only care how they look.
Re:a few thoughts... (Score:2, Interesting)