Summary (TL;DR)
Blogging in a professional setting requires careful consideration. While transparency is valuable, employees should be mindful of the potential for embarrassment that could harm the company, especially for small businesses. Separating personal and work-related content is helpful for both bloggers and readers. Companies should encourage blogging on official platforms to allow honest employee discussions while maintaining control. This fosters better communication and less risk of damaging posts. As technology evolves, managing this kind of information flow will become even more important.
Robert Scoble posted this on his blog:
By the way, what’s wrong with embarrassing yourself? If you really are going to be transparent and react to a global conversation that happens within minutes you’re bound to embarrass yourself. It’s what you do after you embarrass yourself that matters.
Scoble has a point, but there’s a crucial distinction between personal and professional embarrassment. Most companies won’t tolerate an employee embarrassing themselves and the company. While Scoble’s approach works for him—his blog blends personal and work topics—most people can’t pull it off successfully, especially within small businesses where a negative employee post could have severe consequences.
Separating Personal and Professional
I’ve always believed personal and business issues should remain separate. Microsoft, for instance, could encourage employee posts on work-related issues on the official Microsoft blog, associating those posts directly with the company. Personal posts, in my opinion, belong in a separate space.
This separation prevents readers from being bombarded with irrelevant content. The more blogs a reader follows, the greater the need for clear organization. I may be interested in a blogger’s personal life but not their career, or vice versa. Unlike newspapers or websites with clear sections, most blogs lack categorization, making it difficult to manage information flow within RSS feeds.
Filtering and Categorization
As aggregators evolve, the ability to filter content will become crucial. Eventually, bloggers may need to categorize their sites or split their content. I believe it’s fair and wise for a company to endorse blogging while requiring business-related posts to be published on an official company-hosted site. This encourages employees to be more mindful of how their words reflect on the company, while still fostering honest discussions about their work.
Imagine the potential of a company-hosted employee blog where honest exchanges flourish, marked employee comments interact with readers, and the conversation expands to other bloggers. This type of focused dialogue exists now, but with room for much greater efficiency.
