Who is the person responsible for all of your corporate blogging? More importantly, is that person blogging because they want to blog or because they were told to blog? If your CEO (or other senior manager) is handling the blogging but wants to gauge his eyes out when he does it, then for the love of god, don’t let that person blog. Understand that blogging is a privilege, and just because you have the ability to blog doesn’t mean you should. If you have a new hire on the development team that is passionate about the company and likes to blog, then that should be your blogger, not some senior level manager who blogs just for the sake of blogging. Don’t worry about the title or seniority of the person doing the blogging, you want to make sure that you get quality content out there. It’s about finding the best person for the job, whoever that may be.
A blog is a unique way to get in touch with your users, and if you don’t like blogging or aren’t passionate about your topic(s) then you can bet that your users are going to pick up on it. You know those weird awkward moments in life where you know that someone is going to break up with you or when you pretend to like someone that you actually hate? (or when Sarah Lacy interviewed Mark Zuckerburg?) Ya, that’s what it’s like for your users when they read a blog that the person didn’t want to write. It sucks for the users and eventually it is going to suck for the company that put out the blog.
Sure it’s important to have a blog so that you can maintain an online presensse, BUT, if your blog is going to read like pulling teeth and is going to make your users hate you, then your online presense isn’t going to do much good now is it? If you are responsible for your online presense then put your best foot forward and make sure that you project a positive image. You want people to know that you love what you do and are passionate about it. Otherwise, you might as well start hiring a PR agency to do the damage control for you now.
