Blogging is a skill, and so is networking, and both skills are coming to be in high demand in modern companies.
Today’s companies are seeing that their future success may depend on how well they can use the Web 2.0 tools of communicating and networking, simply to keep hold of their customer base.
If you’re a boss you should know that your employees who blog on company time may turn out to be the future heroes of the company, if you can find ways to harness their talent and drive.
If you’re an employer you had better know that in these ruthless times your employees simply can’t afford to give you loyalty, and you can’t assume any loyalty exists. You have to earn loyalty and respect from your employees, just as you have to earn these things from your customers.
What you have to do as a manager is find those people who have talent and drive in the area of blogging and social networking, and put them to work for you.
Your organization needs at least one blog, if not dozens. You need to engage authentically with your customers and stakeholders, and the way to do this, at the very minimum, is through the blog.
If you’re an employee you should take stock of your talents and skills that aren’t currently being put to use for your employer. Start thinking of ways in which these skills might be put in service on behalf of your company.
Suppose you blog about your hobby, and it has nothing whatsoever to do with your company’s business? You still have authenticity to offer. What if you offer to mention your employer in whatever good light you can truthfully manage, in return for time to do some blogging at work.
What great reputation management for your company – here’s an organization that allows its people some allocated human time to pursue their own interests. We can all think of the search engine company that does this, with famous results.
If you’re a boss and your employees are running their own blogs, how can you offer them an interest in your company affairs so that they’ll blog about your company?
And by the way, if you’re one of the bosses – from entrepreneur to middle manager to veteran CEO – the situation is the same for you as it is for your most humble employee. Your name is your brand, as Tom Peters pointed out long ago. Consequently, to develop brand equity, you should be blogging.
And how will you create your own company blogs, if not through using your own inside people? (TIP: you can get started by contracting Hunter and Associates for most of the services).
And how will you manage the entire business of publishing your inside story to the world, without looking bad? (TIP: Red Ditto Blogger has written a few guidelines on how companies can get started blogging at the TracksuitCEO blog)
These basic questions, friend employer and friend employee, are just part of the great challenge facing all companies now. You the employee and you the boss should team up on this challenge. Because only those companies that succeed in developing authentic engagement with their customers will survive as companies. And at the very minimum, it’ll take some blogging.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Where I used to work we weren’t even allowed on the Internet! Companies spend so much time blocking internet usage because they are worried about losing productivity. Wow, how times have changed. Now surfing the internet and blogging has become a productive and vital role, for both big or small companies. FYI: Southwest Airlines is really doing the whole blogging thing right. They have everyone involved from the baggage handlers to the CEOs! Isn’t that cool?
hey Sue
thanks for the comment – Southwest Airlines are really looking pretty good aren’t they?
You should click over to that Red Ditto story on my partner’s blog, the TrackSuitCEO, that I mentioned above – Southwest were on it fast with a collaborative comment from Paula Berg, one of their bloggers:
Paula Berg at Southwest Airlines
The best part about having a company alive and blogging is you can handle your own reputation management, staying on top of what’s being said about you.
Maybe Paula wil drop a line here if we link to her Southwest Airlines site: http://www.blogsouthwest.com/
The first page of Google results about Southwest Airlines flack Paula Berg tells us this:
http://www.blogsouthwest.com/2007/06/15/behind-the-scenes-blog-queen/
Now, never mind “wacky”, and “off-the-wall” – “behind-the-scenes Blog Queen” and “Nuts about Southwest” say it all for me.
So, to Paula Berg of Southwest Airlines, the airline company’s “behind-the-scenes Blog Queen”, who says, regarding the events of March 6-7, 2008, and the now-record US$10,200,000 in fines racked up by Southwest:
“…this situation was never and is not now a safety of flight issue”.
Nonsense, Paula. Cracks in airplanes? Nonsense, Paula.
I’ve been around publicists and other entertainment folk for over 20 years, and I have heard better publicity emanating from self-plugging screenwriters on acid.
And, Paula, as for:
“[t]he FAA approved our actions and considered the matter closed as of April 2007″.
Nonsense, Paula.
It’s not “closed”, until WE the PUBLIC say it is closed! Take that back to your superiors for me – and tell them that we are just getting started.
Oh – and, congratulations on staying behind the scenes.
John J. Tormey III, Esq.
Quiet Rockland