I just returned from Miami Beach, where I spoke on the subject of “Social Media for Corporate Executives” with fellow (sister?) Entrepreneur blogger Lena West. [Check out her Tech Forward blog if you haven't already.]
Blogging is fun, blogging is new, blogging is strategic, and blogging raises hairs on the backs of the necks of attorneys, who see blogging as a cauldron of liability waiting to bubble over. There’s a way to balance the interests of free speech, on the one hand, and employee control on the other. How you handle that can depend on whether you want employees blogging on behalf of your company or whether you want to be sure you’re not tomorrow’s front-page news in connection with their personal blogs. Here’s a short video clip from attorney Cliff Ennico on SBTV on the subject.
This entry was posted on Thursday, January 31st, 2008 at 11:52 am and is filed under Employees, Social Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.2 Responses to “Should You Let Your Employees Blog?”
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February 1st, 2008 at 8:49 am
The video clip does not actually pose the question of “letting” your employees blog. That is out of bounds for an employer. Unless you are under an employment contract, they cannot prevent you from blogging. The thing they can do is take action if you blog about anything company-related.
February 2nd, 2008 at 8:03 am
Chris Baggott, CEO of Compendium Blogware, just hosted a webinar on the top 10 blogging trends of 2008 and covered this topic (empowering your employees to blog) extensively. His premise was that the more individuals blogging from within your company, the more diverse the voice from within the company can be. The challenge is how do you monitor and manage what is being communicated? Many blogging applications have a review capability built within them, however Compendium’s Corporate Blogging solution includes a full work-flow management process with the ability to approve, decline, and comment on individual posts prior to them being published.
In today’s era of social communications and compliance, it is every company’s obligation to their clients, prospects, and shareholders to empower the employees with tools to effectively communicate with a human voice while controlling what content is being published. This is a fine balancing act which requires careful consideration and the right tools to manage those communications.