The WSJ just posted a piece on clients Intel and eBay, but with a focus on eBay and the story behind its use of Twitter for corporate news. This was actually something I pointed to here a few weeks ago that kicked-up quite a bit of discussion (check out “How to Tweet Material News”). I’ve known Richard Brewer-Hay for years now, he works hard and has the support of some very smart people inside eBay. It’s good to see he and the team leading the way on things and getting a little bit of recognition in the process. It’s well deserved. RBH will be sharing his story inside eBay at two upcoming events, including the NewComm Forum and TWTRCON.
Updates from April, 2009
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Corporate Social Media Must Keep SEC in Mind
mike manuel
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The Week That Was
mike manuel
Insane. That’s probably the best word I can use to describe this week.
The second annual Web 2.0 conference has reached its close and while hanging out at the conference and “related events” the last few days has been very cool, I have to admit blogger frustration set in pretty quickly as a slew of juicy info bits and bytes fell on my lap and flew across the blogosphere and I just didn’t have the wherewithal (or the time) to add my own two cents to the conversation. That said, I’m using this post to scratch an itch on all sorts of subjects and observations that shook out of this week — some related to the conference, some not.
I’ll aim to share a little more substance on some of these when I can resurface from my Web 2.0 stupor.
Technorati/Edelman Blogger Survey – Phil takes an initial stab at analyzing the results and shares some highlights. It sounds like he’ll be digging deeper on the data and sharing more shortly. IMO, I think the results are interesting and insightful and “trust” is obviously the big underlying theme here – one that has huge implications for how PR will successfully fit in the blogosphere in the long run. Steve’s right to argue that we need to balance analysis like this with training and application, but the industry needs some guideposts too and I think this survey is providing that.
Yahoo RSS White Paper – This was presented last night at an after-hours party here in SF. It’s a good read with some interesting stats, download it here (PDF). Surprisingly, while RSS adoption is growing rather steadily, the average consumer doesn’t know they’re using it. It’s hard to say what the implications of these stats are for companies that are dabbling with syndicated content, although I suppose if nothing else, the stats show RSS is finding its way into people’s info consumption patterns – whether they know it or not. And some would argue that’s enough to justify further experimentation.
Pushing Forward the PR Meme – I need to grok this and share something more substantial later, but generally speaking I think the spirit of what Steve, Jeremy and others are considering is good and where I and those I work with can share our insight and experience – in the interest of pushing industry know-how a little further forward — we should and I’m game. Period.
Following On-Line Conversations is Hard Work! – When I first read this, my reaction was something like, “yeah, no shit.” Jeremy captures a pain that cuts to the very core of present day social media monitoring and participation, especially for corporations. This is the very messy and very *real* part of PR 2.0 that I and many others deal with every day. Workarounds exist, but man, it could all be so much more efficient..
DIY PR — I’m going to post something separate on this topic, I need some distance from this week’s discussions to get a clearer take on this one, but the question goes: in a Web 2.0 era, where a DIY business mentality has permeated across a crop of new companies, is the importance and need for a dedicated PR program disappearing?
Social Media Policies — I’ve been toying with this one for a while now, but I think companies need to broaden their thinking when it comes to employee policy making. An industry push toward "blog policies" is moving awareness in the right direction, but it’s tragically shortsighted too. I’ll have to drivel more on this later.
The Flock Has Landed – Lastly (at least for this post), I want to simply say congrats to my Voce cohorts on the launch of Flock this week. The coverage, the buzz and the party was amazing. A few of us are toying with the idea of podcasting some Voce case studies in the near future, this will hopefully be one of them. Flock on guys…
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Corporate and Employee Blog Policies - Unplugged
mike manuel
Cross-posting (yes, again) to a recap of last week’s Voce/Cooley panel on corporate blogging policies. While I realize this post is painfully long, I think it captures some of the best feedback and practical advice I’ve heard from companies to date. Enjoy!
Last Thursday, Voce was pleased to co-host a panel discussion with Cooley Godward on corporate and employee blog policies: “How Companies are Adapting to a New Communications Frontier” (more here).
We would like to extend a big THANK YOU to all the panelists for
taking the time to share their insights, advice and anecdotes on how
they’re each thinking about and tackling some of the sticky issues
around corporate and employee blogs. We would also like to thank Forrester’s Charlene Li for sharing her research and leading a great discussion.While last week’s event covered a lot of ground and addressed most
of the core policy problems companies are grappling with right now,
best practices are still largely in development across corporate
America — so the conversation must continue. With this in mind, we
wanted to share a few of the highlights and learnings from the panel in
hopes that those who couldn’t attend might still benefit from the
discussion and ultimately build on this moving forward.What’s the value of a corporate blog?
(please note responses are paraphrased)*Chris Shipley/Guidewire Group: Blogging removes the distance
people sometimes feel with big monolithic corporations – there’s an
inability to relate. Blogging counters this and can help humanize a
company.*Jeremy Zawodny/Yahoo!: A corporate blog can shape (or reshape)
people’s perceptions of a company. It provides a window into the
people and culture and in some cases it provides a better understanding
of their products. He also mentioned that an ancillary benefit of his personal blog and the Yahoo! Search Blog has been its help with recruiting.*Catherine Peterson/Business Objects: From an investment
perspective, corporate blogs have the potential to serve as great
sources for incremental information on a company. She also commented
that the humanizing effect that Shipley referred to can also influence
a growing population of people who are seeking that type of connection
with the companies they invest in.What’s the downside of a corporate blog?
*Zawodny: The time commitment typically surprises people – in terms of creating content and actively monitoring things.
*Peterson: Quoted Warren Buffett: “It’s easier to not get in trouble then to get yourself out of trouble.”
Point being that companies are doing business in an increasingly
regulated environment and that for some it may be easier (read safer)
to remain conservative with external communication than to take a risk
with a company blog.Do you have an employee blog policy? How was it created?
*Peterson: Yes, it was born out of corp. comm., but several
departments were involved in its development. Also, Business Objects’
developer community played an important role in its creation.*Zawodny: Yes, and he shared some of the thinking behind Yahoo!’s policy.
Yahoo!’s focus was less on setting limitations and more on sharing best
practices. Zawodny, speaking from his own experience, explained that
there are a lot of gray areas when it comes to blogging about company
and industry issues and that Yahoo’s guidelines were designed to help
people navigate through the lessons he and other Yahoo bloggers have
learned.*Jodi Baumann/NetApp: Yes, although after further research, her
team decided not to create a separate blogging policy and to instead
incorporate a few additional guidelines into the standard employee
agreement.*Charlene Li/Forrester: Profiled IBM and how it created its corporate blogging policy over the course of 10 days through the use of an employee wiki for soliciting input and edits.
What are the legal risks of blogging?
*Chuck Schwab/Cooley
Godward: New technologies can be problematic for businesses because
it’s not always clear how (or if) existing laws will apply to them.
But with respect to blogs, the three biggest areas of legal risk are:1). Protecting the company’s intellectual property
2). Slander and invasion of privacy
3). Security lawEmployees haven’t really been in a position (historically speaking)
where they can make risky public statements that can spread globally.
Now they can, so there’s a greater need for companies to be proactive
with their thinking around policy. Its’ not enough to say, “Just use
common sense” because there are too many gray areas.Is a policy enough? What happens when it’s broken?
*Schwab: Establishing some sort of blogging policy or at least
adding some language into employee agreements should suffice for most
companies. Each organization will need to decide what the appropriate
recourse is for not abiding by the ground rules (referenced Mark Jen). NOT having a policy in place will certainly make this more problematic for companies.Can a company regulate an employee’s blog?
*Schwab: Legally, there’s no basis for telling employees what
they can and cannot blog about, as long as they’re not sharing company
IP, breaking security law, etc.*Baumann: Shared that there are instances were an employee can blog and
stay within the boundaries of the corporate policy, but still say
things that are harmful and damaging to the reputation of the company.*Schwab: Companies can’t do anything to prohibit basic constitutional
freedoms, however in instances where the employee is associating the
employer’s brand with his or her own personal interests, then the
company has grounds for taking action.What’s IR’s biggest concern with a corporate blog?
*Peterson: Materiality is the biggest issue. Hints to product
release timing, forward-looking statements, speculation on deals,
customer relationships, partnerships, etc., are what IR departments are
most concerned with. The other concern/question is “will this
[corporate blog] really benefit the business and offer value to the
investors?” Every company needs to do its own cost/benefit analysis.Who’s involved in content approval for your corporate blog?
*Baumann: Corp. comm., and no one else. As needed, some
content may get “escalated” up the food chain to IR or legal for
review, but that’s on an as-needed basis. The discretion lies with
PR. The reason being that too many hands in the approval process would
inevitably affect the content and hinder the frequency of posts.*Zawodny: PR is involved in the approval process, although as time
passes and comfort levels increase, the PR team is beginning to step
back and only intercede as needed.*Peterson: Every company should have at least two people reviewing
content – if for nothing else but an extra set of eyes. It’s too easy
to mistakenly share info that could prove problematic if no one else is
checking the copy.Are there any legal liabilities with enabling comments and/or trackbacks?
*Schwab: The Communications Decency Act should protect companies from the comments readers may leave on a corporate blog. Also, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act
should protect companies where copyright infringement is concerned
(e.g., a commenter leaves a link to a copyrighted video or music file).*Zawodny: Most of the comments the Yahoo Search blog receives are
positive and neutral. A small percentage are negative and are typically
dealt with on a case-by-case, depending on the sensitivity of the issue
among other things. He also mentioned that the Search team would
rather see dissenting opinions being shared in a forum where they can
be seen and acted upon, verses festering on a message board or blog in
a distant corner of the Web. -
Voce, Cooley Co-Hosting Panel on Corp Blogs
mike manuel
I’m *really* fired up about an event Voce has in the works for next week so I’m cross-posting a piece here that I recently scribbled for the Voce Nation.
In short, we’re teaming up with the law firm Cooley Godward on a panel discussion that will dissect some of the policy/legal issues organizations should consider as they move forward with corporate blogging initiatives. As I’ve said before, I think one of the biggest hurdles to larger scale adoption of corporate blogging resides with a lack of education and understanding of what the real and perceived risks are of corporate and employee blogs. This, plus a dearth of good corporate blogging models and best practices to mirror – or at least a lack of open access to the people behind these efforts – is more than enough to deter most organizations from pushing forward with their plans.
That said, I think we’ve assembled a great panel of speakers – all of which can talk directly to these issues and more important, really arm the attendees with some practical advice and best practices that they can take back and share with their organizations. The original post follows below. If you’re interested in receiving an invite, leave a comment here or drop me a note and I’ll see what I can do.
As corporate America continues to examine the impact of social media on business, particularly blogging, it’s clear that some significant challenges remain, not least among them are legal and communication issues involving fair disclosure, corporate policy and to a greater extent, freedom of speech. While a growing number of companies recognize the need for transparency in their communication with customers, partners, investors, and the media — and see social media as a means for helping with this important
goal — transparency must be balanced with purpose and responsibility.With this in mind, Voce’s teaming up with Cooley Godward and co-hosting a roundtable discussion on corporate blogging next Wednesday evening, July 20th in Palo Alto. The purpose of the discussion is to examine and hear first-hand how some of today’s leading corporations and decision makers are approaching the new opportunities and challenges of business blogging.
A select group of panelists will lead the discussion and share their views on corporate, executive and employee blogs and how they are deploying them, or not, within their organizations.
The panel includes:
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Jodi Baumann, Senior Manager, Corporate Public Relations, Network Appliance
- Chuck Schwab, Attorney, Cooley Godward
- Chris Shipley, Technology Analyst and Executive Producer of DEMO conferences
- Catherine Peterson, Vice President, Investor Relations, Business Objects
- Jeremy Zawodny, Technical Yahoo, Yahoo!
Charlene Li, principal analyst at Forrester Research will moderate the discussion.
Unfortunately seating is limited, so if you’re a corporate communicator, marketing practitioner or legal professional that’s grappling with these issues and would like to attend, please email John Welton or call 650/228-5183 and request an invitation.
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Yahoo Shares Best Practices for Employee Blogs
mike manuel
Yahoo today released its corporate guidelines/best practices for employee blogs. Jeremy Zawodny shares some insight and links to the guidelines doc (PDF).
I think it’s worth pointing out that rather than taking a top down approach with the delivery of a corporate policy, Yahoo PR, legal and most important, its exisiting employee bloggers (e.g., Russell Beattie, Jeff Boulter, JR Conlin, and Jeremy) all collaborated on the creation of these guidelines.
Update: Beattie and Conlin share their two cents on the Yahoo guidelines.
[Disclosure time: Yahoo is a Voce client]
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Putting Bloggers in a PR Headlock, Good Luck
mike manuel
Tom Foremski at Silicon Valley Watcher shares the first of a two-part series on how blogging/bloggers throw a wrench in corporate communications. Tom asks how media "control" can be applied to the blogosphere and I think the easy answer is that it can’t, at least not by traditional media and public relations standards. So therin lies the biggest challenge for companies: you can take the blue pill and do absolutely nothing and essentially hope that the online community stays clear of your brand, or you can take the red pill and begin devising a strategy that may not give you "control," but it will give you an active voice in the conversation.
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Afraid of Bloggers? Baby Steps.
mike manuel
Stephen Baker posted an interesting piece today on BusinessWeek’s new TechBeat blog on a dinner he recently had with a certain unnamed ad agency and how part of the conversation revolved around the proverbial wrench that bloggers throw in the communication cogs. Specifically, they talked about an issue that’s on the minds of many corporate communicators these days – that being, how do you overcome the fear (the risk) of engaging with the blogosphere?Are the agency’s fears unfounded? It’s hard to say. But figuring out how to respond to blogs is going to be an enormous challenge in the coming year or two for all sorts of companies. And consider this: If a savvy Internet ad agency is tied in knots over blogs, just imagine the fear and confusion that must reign in the rest of the corporate world.
Already, smart companies are monitoring the blog traffic. Many of them, of course, are creating blogs of their own. But the question of how to respond to blogs is going to be so vital, I believe, that it will give birth to an entire new branch of corporate consulting. These blog consultants, increasingly, will be battling with the entrenched p.r. departments for control over the corporate message
My answer to the fear factor? Baby steps.
Baby steps: listening. What are people saying? How frequently are they talking? Who are your brand’s biggest proponents and similarly, your biggest detractors? Like Baker notes, it’s the “smart companies that are monitoring blogs.” But overcoming the fear factor starts with understanding the landscape and to do that successfully, you have to simply listen.
Baby steps: strategizing. Listen long enough and you’ll begin to see patterns or rather themes in the conversations. Once you can accurately identify the themes you then have a basis for formulating some strategies. Perhaps you’ve identified a small group of influencers who tend to write negative things about your company. Consider what some strategies might be for addressing their issues.
Baby steps: engaging. For most this is the biggest fear, and for some this is the biggest temptation. The important thing to consider at this stage is how do you get into the conversation and what’s your vehicle? Some companies will assign formal reps to field questions and offer insight on industry forums. Others will create corporate blogs. And some will use different vehicles all together.
The point with all of this is that fear of the blogosphere stems from risk and while you can never really eliminate all risk, you can mitigate it by understanding your audience, formulating your strategies and being smart in your approach.
