Summary (TL;DR)
Blogging can be a powerful tool for businesses, but it’s important to be mindful of what you post. Robert Scoble argues that bloggers can build trust by revealing personal details, but most people don’t have his experience in knowing what’s appropriate to share. I believe bloggers should be cautious, as past online comments can resurface and cause problems, both personally and professionally. Businesses are right to be concerned about bloggers who don’t think before they post. It’s generally best for bloggers to keep their work and personal lives separate to avoid potential issues.
Robert Scoble responded to my post about embarrassing yourself online. His comments are down, so I’m responding here, confident he’ll find this. 🙂
I agree 100% that getting to know a blogger is valuable, and a personal blog is a good way to do that. However, a business blog can also reveal a lot about the writer. Even if you never posted about your personal life, Robert, I would still have an idea of what type of person you are because it comes through in your work-related posts.
I also agree wholeheartedly that business blogs can be powerful tools for small businesses. The internet allows a small local company to go global, and blogs give those businesses the ability to showcase their expertise (and advertise!) without relying on traditional advertising. Customer interaction and satisfaction are the best forms of word-of-mouth promotion.
However, as I wrote earlier, a blogger (business or personal) needs to understand their niche audience and the product they’re discussing. Robert, you work for a company that makes products for both business and personal use – that’s unique. Therefore, having an interest in the personal and business lives of the people you interact with makes sense. The better you understand them, the better you can connect.
The key thing I think you’re missing, Robert, is that not everyone has your experience in knowing what they can get away with online. You understand the boundaries. Most bloggers start off assuming no one will read their words. This assumption gets 99% of them into trouble at some point. They might make an off-color joke months ago when their readership was small, only for it to cause problems later. They might have matured since then, changed their outlook, or even jobs. But their posts are archived forever; the words can’t be taken back.
This is what terrifies businesses – a blogger who doesn’t think things through could write something that results in lost sales or, worse, damages customers’ trust in the company. This kind of damage is very easy for a blogger to inflict and extremely hard for a company to fix.
That’s why I strongly encourage bloggers to keep things separate, especially if they start talking about their job on an established blog. Most bloggers aren’t thinking about the long-term consequences. If the average blogger looked back at their posts and asked, “What if my boss read this?”, most would feel uncomfortable or worried they might get in trouble.
And that’s not even considering that most companies prefer employees to keep their personal lives private in order to maintain objectivity. Robert, if you open your blogroll, you’ll find that the average blogger doesn’t want their boss reading, and most business owners (bosses) don’t want too much information about their employees’ personal lives.
