Dress code for blogging?

Image Source:  rustman

I had a really wonderful conversation with Beth from AdAge yesterday. She was researching a piece on corporate bloggers that got my brain to churning.

The first question I ask when a corporation starts a "corporate blog" or hires a chief blogger is "Why?"  What do they hope to gain from this initiative?

Blogging is very misleading as a term.  A blog is simply a publishing engine that has an RSS feed and displays the latest post at the top of the page.  So a company saying that they are launching a blog is bordering on meaningless without more information.  It is akin to them doing a press release announcing the launch of a new page on their website.  We would generally want to know what is so special about this page.  Why are they launching it?  Is it just a page or is it part of a larger campaign?

Blogging is not about publishing.  It is about connecting to others and we accomplish this not by writing a lot of articles but by lowering the veil between us and them.  We are sharing how we see the world and who we are. We are letting them into our world.

Let's be frank.  What can Starbucks say to me as a company?  Likely a lot, but nothing I really want to here.

The real potential for blogging is to allow for a more human voice or set of voices to emerge and I'm constantly having to ask if a "corporate blog" is the best way to accomplish this.  Most of the bloggers I know maintain an arms length distance from their employers in order to establish credibility and also ensure they don't have to run every post through legal or communications.

I don't think companies want to blog.  What we are really seeing is a desire to engage with customers and prospects or in some cases an attempt to capitalize or experiment with a "hot trend."  I am all for experimentation but it is only when these initiatives are framed within the context of an engagement strategy that the tools, media and desired outcomes can be aligned for better results.

Focusing on engagement allows us to determine from where the voice comes.

Richard Huntington is quick to point out that brands are not people and as such, brands should not participate in social media.

"Brand's do have personalities and I spend a lot of time thinking about powerful personalities for organisational brands that capture the specialness of the place while legislating for it to be delivered in every expression of that brand.

But just because a brand has a personality doesn't make it a person.

And I want my relationships to be with people not businesses. Sure that can be the people in those businesses but not the business as a whole."

I believe that corporations often overlook the real potential of "blogging" - to allow for people to connect to people.  And if Richard is correct, relationships are built between people. 

It is the voice of the people that a company must learn to free from the cage of compliance.