Should executives at high-tech vendors blog? Some do and take the effort relatively seriously, such as Sun Microsystem's CEO Jonathan Schwartz (see his blog here). Others say they do but the infrequency of their posts makes their efforts counterproductive -- they set expectations and fail to deliver with timely content. An example of this type is Oracle's John Wookey who updates his blog every couple of months. Other companies, such as Apple, have no executive blogs at all.

Not all companies should blog. Not all executives in companies that blog should blog. And not all blogs that are successful in terms of readership should be continued. The key to corporate blogging is to: 1) Understand the goal of a blog; and 2) determine whether it is possible to achieve that goal. In the end, blogs, like all corporate communication, should be constantly reevaluated and tweaked, encouraged or shuttered, according to the needs and best interest of the organization, not the individual.

Understanding blogs

The term blogging is a combination of "Web" and "logging." A blog is the Web frontend to a simplified content management and publishing system. The technology was spawned from the desire of individuals to post short, diary-like online thoughts and was enabled by free (usually ad sponsored) blogging services. The major success of blogging (success defined by widespread use, not necessarily profit) propelled the concept into the mainstream of online behavior. According to a July report by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 12 million American adults have a blog and 39% -- or 57 million -- adults read blogs.

Besides the consumer adoption of blogging, the popularity of the Web 2.0 concept has helped drive blogging into the mainstream in the tech industry. This next-generation vision of the online experience promotes the idea of interactive Web apps and new collaborative communication tools, such as Wikis and blogs. With venture capital poring into Web 2.0 startups and products, blogs became mainstream in idea, if not execution.

Now, professionals in the IT industry, analyst firms, user organizations, vendors, public relations companies, and the media are all experimenting with blogging with varied degrees of success.

A blog versus a community site

But what really is a blog? If a site uses blog technology, is it a blog? In general, a blog is defined by:

• A single author. Blogs are about individuals. Blogging technology does not equal a blog. Blogging tools can be used to disseminate multi-authored information (for example, blog technology could easily power a press release database and publishing system). Certain sites, such as Slashdot and Ars Technica, in may ways look like blogs, but since posts are contributed by many sources, they should be thought of as community sites.
  
  
• A personal take on issues and events. With the concept of a single author comes a personal voice and common tone. Most blogs are written more like opinion columns in traditional media. The tone can be professional, logical, aggressive, or anywhere in between. It should reflect the author and the topic. Since blogs are personal in nature, many bloggers tend to intersperse personal and professional information (a new product launch post may follow a post about a recent vacation).
  

What vendor blogging is: A new form of controllable communication designed to influence a market

Companies continuously release or present information to influence a market and its relevant participants, such as prospects, customers, partners, competitors, the media, and the financial community. Those tasked with marketing and communication strategies can approach their efforts in two ways: using controlled or uncontrolled mechanisms.

Examples of controlled mechanisms are press releases, webinars, and speaking engagements. The message and the delivery are tightly managed, with public documents requiring many rounds of edits and relying on multiple sources of feedback to ensure the message is on target and optimized.

In contrast, uncontrolled mechanisms usually involve a semi- or fully-independent third-party that filters the company message -- often presenting it in a way contrary or not directly in line with the company's goal. Examples of this type include press and analyst calls and briefings and participation in event panels.

Blogging is somewhat in the middle in terms of control, largely determined by how feedback is handled (see below for more on the issue of feedback). An officially sanctioned blog post has the look and tone of an informal communication, but behind the scenes it may or may not be as tightly controlled as a press release.

The lure of the blog 

Blogging may be popular with consumers, but why invest scarce corporate resources? Companies are drawn to the idea of blogging for a variety of reasons. These include:

• They hear it is important to do. Industry analysts and public relations firms promote blogging, saying it is the next step in creating more customer intimacy. Of course, the act of blogging also often requires expert help, ensuring the continued need for the services of the very firms hawking the initiative.
  
  
• They feel it is part of the next wave. Despite not knowing what the term Web 2.0 really means, many vendor executives, particularly CEOs, and board members think that their company needs to do something "Web 2.0'ish." A quick Google search leads them to the idea of new forms of collaborative communication, such as blogs, and examples of corporate blogging.
  
  
• They see others doing it. Seeing prominent blogs from high-level executives at Sun and IBM, many vendor's feel that they need to blog just to keep up with their peers. It's a basic "keeping up with the Jones'" mentality that says if someone else is doing it, we should be doing it too.
  
  
• They think it might deliver a competitive edge. In a tech market increasingly ruled by adherence to global  standards, it's hard to be seen as a cutting edge and unique company. With so much tech "noise' in the marketplace -- media stories, analyst reports, community sites, blogging pundits, etc. -- and with search providers relying on traffic and links to rank sites, vendor executives often feel compelled to up their own marketing noise level to be heard.
  

Two critical questions: "Why?" and "Can we do it effectively?"

The technology behind blogging is simple and inexpensive, so the issue of blogging platforms, layout, content management, editing, and more are not show stoppers. Using a free blog tool, such as Google's Blogger, an executive can have a site up in a few minutes. But while it's easy to start a blog, it's hard to decide whether an executive should start one.

Why would a company blog? In the previous section, we discussed some of the motivations. To understand whether they should blog, company executives should ask and answer questions, such as:

• What do we hope to accomplish with a blog? There should be a concrete response for each approved blog, as effective blogging is a resource drain and should not be undertaken lightly. Possible affirmative answers include "To help prospects understand more clearly our place in the market" or "To layout a product road map." If there is no reason to start one, don't do it. If an executive wants to experiment, keep the blog private and internal and see if the process of blogging unearths a viable reason to justify making the blog official and public.
  
  
• How will we measure the success of a blog? With the previous question answered, a blog's success can then be measured. Are the posts addressing the issue that was the justification for the blog in the first place? Metrics don't have to be hard goals, such as number of unique monthly visitors. Simply meeting four or five subjective goals is enough. At a minimum, each quarter a blogger and marketing personnel should reevaluate the reason for the blog, examine some or all of the posts, and determine whether the blog needs to be refocused, expanded, or closed down.
  

Deciding to move forward and adopting a plan to measure the success of the blog is step one. Next, the critical question becomes: Is blogging feasible for a particular executive?

To pass the second approval gate, companies will need to ensure that:

• The author can consistently post. At a minimum, a blogger should post at least once a month. Obviously, workload will influence the frequency of posts, so a busy executive is not the best candidate, unless the organizations plans to ghost write entries. But frequency is not as critical as consistently. If a CEO posts only once a month, but readers wait for it the first week of every month, the effort may be worthwhile.
  
  
• The author has something interesting to say. Blog readers expect a steady stream of content that is valuable and interesting to the readers. Simply shoveling press releases or completely sanitized content will not generate industry buzz and increase readership. Obviously, internal communication rules and regulatory issues impact what an executive can write, but if an executive cannot say anything of interest, a blog makes little sense. An occasional CEO ghost writer may be acceptable; a full time ghost blogger is not.
  
  
• The message can be controlled. From a reader's perspective, the posts of a free wheeling, unconstrained executive may be exciting to read. But from a corporate standpoint, companies can't have officially sanctioned blogs undercutting marketing campaigns, hurting new product launches, or annoying partners. Guidelines for posts, as well as an editing process for ensuring they are not full of grammar and spelling errors, are required (see below for more on guidelines).
  

The issue of feedback: Letting some of that control go

In the personal blogging and technology community site world, feedback is critical. Comments supply much of the interesting content at sites such as Slashdot. They create a sense of importance and influence, demonstrating that readers care enough and are plentiful enough to leave feedback.

However, the problem with feedback is twofold. First, it is hard to get many comments. For example, over at g2zero, the New Rowley-managed site on software quality, a story on Firefox defect testing drew over  70,000 page views in a single day but generated just over 50 comments in that time period. This example illustrates that the ratio of commenters to readers is often extremely low. Many bloggers -- and their internal supporters -- may feel compelled to post their own pseudo-comments (feedback intended to look like it is from an external reader) just to make the page look more popular, particularly in blogs that prominently note the number of replies to each post.

Second, feedback is a mixed blessing for vendors. Commenters don't always say nice things about a company or product. Unsupported accusations and radical opinions are often the norm. Zealots for or against a product (e.g., Apple, Microsoft, Sony), philosophy (e.g., open source, a development process, etc.), and strategy make certain comments uncomfortable for a company, particularly since the blog is a corporate product and the original post itself is controlled and on message.

Despite these issues, New Rowley thinks that moderated feedback is important. The key is to moderate judiciously. Obviously, any slander or offensive comments should be removed as quickly as possible. However, leaving in dissenting opinion will accomplish two things: 1) It will provide external insight and opinion (see this related New Rowley post); and 2) its existence will demonstrate to readers that feedback is genuine and appreciated, even if negative.

To successfully negotiate the feedback minefield, companies must make the feedback policy clear and easy to understand. They will also need to devote a person to removing inappropriate posts.

As with the periodic review of posts, the marketing team should review feedback to ensure that any valuable nuggets are noted and delivered to the appropriate internal parties.

On a blogging "code of ethics": Let's not make blogging into more than it is

Is there a corporate blogging code of ethics that should be adhered to? There are certainly some proponents. Analyst Charlene Li of Forrester (a former colleague) posted a sample set of guidelines on her official Forester blog. They include statements, such as "I will write deliberately and with accuracy" and "I will not delete comments unless they are spam or off-topic." Much of the advice seems aimed at the personal blogger, not the corporate blogger. But since corporate blogs are products of companies, not individual efforts, many of these guidelines may go overboard. For example, in the case of an analyst firm like Forrester, should there be any difference between blogging guidelines and written research guidelines? Is it OK to edit a research note and republish it without noting the changes but not a blog post?

Blogging guidelines need to be divided into two types of categories. The first are concerned with the publishing process -- issues such as follow-up editing and comment deletion practices. The second category should encompass best practices for all public documents, not just blogs. Articles, white papers, speech collateral, and other public collateral should be held to a similar code of conduct.

However, these should be guidelines. Blogging is not a specialized right with inherent ethical rules. It is a corporate communication function. It is more important to convey to readers the goal of the blog and how it functions than to adhere to generic tenets of blogging ethics. Some blogs, for example, will have different rules applied to them. A CEO blog may have a stricter comment policy that prohibits comments about most  financial issues, while a VP of engineering blog may be more open to all types of feedback. Is either approach wrong? No. The key is to let the reader know the rules of the game for each blog. An informed reader can make his or her own decision about the content and judge whether the blog author and maintainers are following their own guidelines.

Not being consistent or clear about policy, in particular regarding the feedback policy, may be seen to some as a breach of accepted code of blogger ethics. But this type of behavior has its own ramifications. Erratic or misunderstood publishing and feedback practices will limit the appeal of the blog, thereby reducing the effectiveness of the communication effort.

In short, companies should adhere to an internally developed "blogger code of ethics" not necessarily because it's the moral thing to do, but because it makes the most sense in terms of realizing blogging goals.

Final thoughts: Analyze, plan, measure, and learn

Executive blogging isn't required for -- and doesn't guarantee -- vendor success. Apple has no high-level executive blogging (outside of some engineers), yet it is very successful in terms of influencing the market. Sun, on the other hand, has infused blogging throughout the organization, but struggles to generate buzz.

Blogging, like all marketing and communication strategies, is not positive or negative in itself. Effective execution determines whether a blog has its desired impact. For each company, the potential blogger, the company culture, the marketing team, and other factors will all influence the decision to blog and the success in that effort.

A blogging initiative hinges on upfront analysis of the reason for the effort. Giving the concept of blogging a green light does not ensure a blog will or should emerge. Companies need to make plans, measure the return on the resources invested in blogging, and accept and learn from reader feedback.

In the end, judging the value of investing company resources in a corporate blog is a never ending process. Even popular blogs that lose focus, don't fit the company marketing strategy, or can't justify resource investments should be shuttered. Others, with just a handful of readers, may make sense to nurture and support.

By: Tom Rhinelander, NRG Analyst