I’m sure you think my answer to this question is yes. But this is not that simple. If you’re the owner of a small company, there should be no problem. And if you work for a private company not involved in heavily regulated sectors, such as the pharmaceutical or defense industries, I think you also can blog. But if you work for a public company, things are becoming more complex. As an executive, you need to comply with financial regulations and your legal staff. So what to do? Read my analysis…

So, let’s first look at an article from Shel Holtz about Blogging and the Role of the CEO. He starts by quoting Dave Taylor and his Leadership for the 21st Century blog. Dave Taylor says that a CEO has to make money, so it’s not his role to write a blog. [Note: even if Taylor’s posts are often interesting, I hate the look-and-feel of his various sites; you can’t simply scroll through his pages; they’re re-displayed all the time; highly irritating!]

Anyway, Holtz disagrees — and so do I — writing that an even more important role of a CEO is to communicate effectively about his company. Here is a short quote.

A blog is merely one tool a CEO can use to communicate, if it suits his or her style, the nature of the company’s audiences, and the issues the organization faces. Blogging is a new tool a CEO can opt to use for some of his communication responsibilities, replacing time he formerly spent using less effective channels. In total, though, he need spend no more time communicating today than before blogs emerged.

In the first paragraph, I also mention financial regulations. Holtz is more optimistic than me on this point.

Nobody — not the CEO, not a front-line employee — should ever blog anything that violates regulations. A GM employee told me that Lutz does not allow company lawyers to review his posts, asserting that as Vice Chairman, he already knows what he can and cannot say in public. The fact that he is writing a blog and not, for example, giving a TV news interview, does not diminish his ability to know the difference. Fastlane has never caused GM any regulatory problems.

Conference calls are very common to businesses. Get information on our new conference call services andhttp://www.itcom.itd.umich.edu/rates/conference-call.php information on how to obtain free conference calls from this conference call service today.

If you think time has come, here is a link to Kari White’s seven tips for corporate blogging, which circulated widely this summer. Here are some of the most important ones.

• Pay attention to legal issues
• Be sure to craft a blogging policy
• Avoid the sales or marketing pitches
• And encourage your employees to blog

You’ll find an extended version of White’s tips at the British Association of Communicators in Business (CiB) website.

And remember that if you have not the time — or writing talents — to animate a blog, you still can outsource it to a professional blogger.

Sources: Shel Holtz, for WebProNews, September 22, 2006; Kari White, Brook Group, Maryland, Summer 2006

You’ll find related stories by following the links below.

• Blogs
• Business

BBC is the world’s oldest public-service broadcaster, but it has also embraced the online world — and blogs — for several years now. For employees who want to blog on their own sites, BBC has recently revamped its blogging policy and published new guidelines which do not apply to employees who write about personal interests.

BBC’s position about blogs has recently evolved, as you can see by reading an article which is only six months old, Blogging and the BBC (by Torin Douglas, BBC media correspondent, October 26, 2005). At this time, Kevin Anderson, of BBC News Interactive, was in charge to write “a guide to blogs and blogging for journalists.”

“Blogs can sharpen our journalism, introduce us to new sources, widen our agenda and maintain our position as a trusted source,” he writes, in a discussion paper called BBC Blogs: News as conversation.

Now, these new guidelines have been published after a wide discussion with BBC bloggers and are available via one of them, Jem Stone. Here are the principles behind these guidelines.

Many bloggers, particularly in technical areas, use their personal blogs to discuss their BBC work in ways that benefit the BBC, and add to the “industry conversation.” These guidelines are not intended to restrict this, as long as confidential information is not revealed.

Blogs or websites which do not identify the blogger as a BBC employee, do not discuss the BBC and are purely about personal matters would normally fall outside these guidelines.

There are three sets of guidelines, for regular employees, for managers, and for journalists, for which impartiality is required.

Nothing should appear on their personal blogs which undermines the integrity or impartiality of the BBC. For example, news and current affairs people should not:

• advocate support for a particular political party
• express views for or against any policy which is a matter of current party political debate
• advocate any particular position on an issue of current public controversy or debate

The other guidelines are more traditional and will not stir any controversy.

Finally, if you want to read “official” blogs written by BBC employees and journalists, here is a link to the BBC Blog Network.

Sources: Jem Stone, BBC employee, on his Common Sense blog, May 5, 2006

In fact, it’s not entirely true, but Southwest Airlines blog really took off last week. Nuts about Southwest is a moderated blog hosted by about 20 employees who write about their jobs at the airline, but also about the travel industry. So you’ll find posts from managers and mechanics as well as captains or flying attendants. The airline says it will welcome comments from customers, but one thing is sure: these comments might be edited — or not published. Anyway, when will we see an official blog from Air France?

But let’s look at the Southwest Airlines blog user’s guide.

Our goal with this blog is to give our readers the opportunity to take a look inside Southwest Airlines and to interact with us. This is as much your blog as it is ours. We have lined up a crew of bloggers representing a diverse cross-section of our Company. The most current postings will be found on the home page, and we have organized the archives by category. We want to build a personal relationship between our bloggers and you, and we need your participation. You are the “other half” of this blog, and our bloggers can’t wait to communicate with you, so get busy posting.

Nice words: it almost looks like a press release. But wait, there is more.

This is the point where we insert the “fine print” and discuss the guidelines for posting. The Southwest Blog is starting out as a moderated site because we want to ensure that everyone stays on topic. We would LUV for you to post your thoughts, comments, suggestions, and questions, but when you post, make sure that they are of general interest to most readers. Of course, profanity, racial and ethnic slurs, and rude behavior like disparaging personal remarks won’t be tolerated nor published.

The key word here is “moderated.” I’m sure some of you will object to this, but this is exactly what I’m doing here. I only accept relevant comments — no spam, no rude language.

So what do you think about this Southwest Airlines blog? Is this a PR trick or a real effort by the company to connect with its customers?

If you publish a blog, even a personal one, I’m sure that you’ve already received comments unrelated to the contents of your blog. Most of the time, these unsolicited messages are sent to you to promote such things as gambling, sex or drugs. In a recent article, “Blogosphere suffers spam explosion,” CNET News.com described the problem.

For example, Boing Boing, a blog which attracts 400,000 visitors daily, has totally banned comments for two years. And even if it’s an extreme attitude, what can you do when you receive 20 or 100 spam messages every day?

Here is a short description of what you can do depending on your blog publishing tool features.

• Accept all comments, but there is a risk: the ‘bots’ — or software robots — used to post spam messages often target old pages that you are not reading; and their messages might be illegal depending on where you live.
• Rely on the spam filters provided by you blogging platform, but you’re not sure if these filters are efficient.
• Establish ‘blacklists’ of people or IP addresses you want to ban; alternatively, you can build ‘whitelists’ of people from which you accept comments.
• Moderate comments and review them for approval before publication.
• Ask commenters to identify themselves via valid names and e-mail addresses: unfortunately, it’s easy to forge an a valid address for miscreants; and valid commenters might not like the idea to give you their identity or simply to spend some extra time just to tell you what they think.
• Ask your visitors to use passwords or ‘pass-strings’: this can be efficient to keep ‘bots’ at bay, but it might be a pain for people who would just want to send you a useful feedback.
• Reject all comments: this is an extreme measure, but it might be the only solution with some blogging tools.

In my four years of blogging, I’ve used all of these techniques at a moment or another. None of them is fully satisfactory. Some take lots of time while others don’t really encourage conversations.

So what kind of tool do you use to deal with spam? Send me your thoughts.

Recreational Equipment Inc. (REI) is a U.S. chain of stores selling specialty outdoor gear and clothing. And, according to two articles recently published by the Puget Sound Business Journal from Seattle and in Internet Retailer, REI has decided that its store managers will use blogs to better communicate with its customers. I waited several weeks before looking at the REI blogs and there is still not a single reference to a blog on REI’s web site. REI managers are using a blogging tool to announce promotions or special events, but not as blogs.

Here is what wrote the Puget Sound Business Journal.

Managers at Recreational Equipment Inc. stores will soon use Web logs, or blogs, to connect with local customers, marking an early move into the blogosphere by a major local retailer.

The move will allow managers of the growing chain of outdoor gear to send customers e-mail from their stores tailored to local consumers’ interests.

In fact, REI blogs will be completely closed, at least for a while.

Unlike many blogs, which are often freewheeling exchanges among a number of posters, only managers at REI will be able to post items on REI blogs. Customers who would like to rap with managers online about their experiences at REI will have to wait, as the company is still deciding whether to open REI’s blogs to outside posts.

Internet Retailer gave more explanations.

REI Inc. is putting a different spin on a web log scheduled for a limited rollout in July. REI was looking for technology that would make it easier for local REI stores, which already have their own pages on REI.com, to post content about store news and events and to distribute that content to local e-mail lists. It also wanted to bring a standardized look to the grassroots efforts some stores already had undertaken on their own. It found the solution in blogging technology.

Blogging software developed for the program by Seattle e-mail technology developer What Counts will, in effect, make bloggers out of store personnel who use the tool to post local events and schedules. But while that content reflects the personality of REI as a company to the extent that it supports company values and mission, it’s not, at this point, intended as an extended platform for the personal attitudes of the individual blogger.

Even REI admits its managers are not writing blogs. REI is only interested by the underlying technology which allows an easy way to post fresh content.

So, what do you think of the REI’s approach?

I haven’t covered this subject for a while. The Yahoo! Personal Blog Guidelines (PDF format, 3 pages, 24 KB) are based on common sense and are not particularly innovative. Except on one point: the Yahoo! policy is not only applicable to employees writing on their own blogs, but also when they write on other blogs. In other words, a Yahoo! employee who wants to post a comment about his company on any other blog must follow Yahoo!’s guidelines.

Here is an excerpt from the introduction.

The Yahoo! Personal Blog Guidelines have been developed for Yahoos who maintain personal blogs that contain postings about Yahoo!’s business, products, or fellow Yahoos and the work they do. They are also applicable to Yahoos who post about the company on the blogs of others. The guidelines outline the legal implications of blogging about the company and also include recommended best practices to consider when posting about Yahoo!.

There is another interesting point in these guidelines. A Yahoo! employee can freely write about his company — providing he follows the rules. But, like at Microsoft, if he’s contacted by the press, he’s not allowed to answer and must pass the request to Yahoo!’s PR agency.

Finally, as you all know, Google and Yahoo! are two big names fighting to get as more money as they can from advertising. But they’re also rivals in the world of semantics. Google is now a common verb (Have you googled XXXX to know more about him before next week’s meeting?”). But at Yahoo!, as you were able to see above, the word Yahoo has become a noun used to designate an employee. Here is another example, picked from the rule which asks employees to get their facts straight before publication.

As a Yahoo! employee with intranet access, you have the opportunity to contact the Yahoos who are responsible for the products, services, or other initiatives that you may want to write about. To ensure you are not misrepresenting your fellow Yahoos or their work, consider reaching out to a member of the relevant team before posting. This courtesy will help you provide your readers with accurate insights, especially when you are blogging outside your area of expertise.

The Multi-National Corps Command in Iraq (MNC-I) is not formally a company, even if it has a huge budget, more than 100,000 soldiers and as many civilians under its control. Those of them who blog have to follow a strict policy, including a formal registration process with their chain of command. And if they publish prohibited information, they can be “subject to adverse administrative action or punishment,” or even to punishment if they’re soldiers. These rules governing blogging from Iraq have been published by Operation Truth, “a nonprofit, non-partisan veterans advocacy organization,” which also is “the first and largest Iraq veterans group in America.”

On June 15, 2005, Paul Rieckhoff, OpTruth Director, wrote for the Huffington Post a column about the rules governing blogging from the front lines.”

These rules were defined in a policy memo issued by the Multi-National Corps Command in Iraq (MNC-I), “Unit and Soldier Owned and Maintained Websites” (PDF format, 4 pages, 339 KB). This document, signed by Lieutenant General John R. Vines, is stamped April 6, 2005, even if it isn’t formally dated.

This policy memo covers all websites written by military personnel, DoD civilian personnel and contractors working for MNC-I. And of course, these sites include blogs.

MNC-I personnel who post web logs must register the URL at which the blog is posted with their unit.

This registration process is mandatory, whether a blog is hosted on a .mil site or a commercial server.

Of course, you cannot publish everything you want on such a blog. Examples of prohibited information include classified information and “casualty information before the next-of-kin has been formally notified by the Military Service concerned.”

And remember that this is a punitive policy.

Servicemembers in violation to this policy may be subject to adverse administrative action or punishment under the UCMJ. DoD civilians and DoD contractor personnel may be subject to adverse administrative action.

Is this a good policy? Please tell me what you think.

The Google Blogoscoped blog, which — obviously — covers Google, recently published “5 (Fictional) Rules for Blogging at Google.” As other corporate blogging policies, these rules are mostly based on common sense, even if this document is a parody.

For example, the rule number 3, “Don’t lie unless you have to,” states that a blogger at Google can lie if “the truth would take too long to explain.”

And here is the rule number 5 about Google’s competitors.

Google is the best there is at what we do. When you blog, do never praise any of our four main competitors, Yahoo, MSN, Ask Jeeves and Cool Site of the Day. While we’re not targeting a web monopoly, we do hope to get that 99% market share in 2013 to present as a gift to Larry when he turns 40.

Read the other rules for fun, but keep in mind that they’re not the real ones used at Google.

As you already know, there are today more than 2,800 active internal blogs at IBM. But now, as Silicon Valley Watcher revealed last Friday in “Can blogging boost IBM’s revenues and reduce layoffs?,” IBM is asking its 330,000 employees to start blogs. And, as mentioned Neville Hobson in “IBM Creating an Army of Evangelists,” if only one percent of IBM’s employees are turning into bloggers, we’ll have to deal with more than 3,000 new blogs.

But this initiative is different from the ones at Microsoft or Sun Microsystems. IBM wants to promote individual initiatives. There will not be a single site referencing all blogs from IBM’s employees, at least in a first step.

Of course, IBM bloggers will need to follow some guidelines. And Jonathan Schwartz, the chairman of Sun Microsystems, immediately offered his help in this note (scroll to the end of it). He offered for free Sun’s blogging policy to IBM, which would only have to replace the word “Sun” by “IBM.”

Obviously, IBM didn’t accept cette proposal and published its own policy, “IBM Blogging Policy and Guidelines” (PDF format, 6 pages, 79 KB). You can read a summary of these rules on page two of this document, but you will not discover anything exciting. Like every big company these days, IBM is relying on its employees’ common sense.

This week, the cover story of BusinessWeek is about blogs and how they can impact all companies. [For more information, read “Blogs Will Change Your Business” or buy the magazine.] In an article only published online, “Six Tips for Corporate Bloggers,” BusinessWeek writes that small and big companies can’t afford to miss this wave, but also that they can’t afford to do it wrong if they want to use this phenomenon to gain a competitive advantage.

Here is a short summary of BusinessWeek’s advices.

• Train your bloggers: in fact, you need to clearly define a corporate blogging policy.
• Be careful if you want to use “fake” blogs!
• Check what the blogosphere says about your company.
• If you want to use a blog for your “Public Relations,” remember that the keyword here is “public.”
• Be transparent: nothing new here.
• And don’t hesitate to redefine your concepts of corporate secrets. If you give to the outside world what you previously considered as a secret, you might be surprised by the feedbacks from potential customers. They might help you to improve your products before they’re released. Of course, your competitors will know in advance what you’re cooking, so there is a delicate balance here.