In my last post, I talked about the merits of more content. Now, I know what you've been wondering since then: If more blog content is better than no blog content or some blog content, then how am I going to get that content?
The key is spreading content contribution around to lots of people within your organization.
Traditionally, corporations have made the mistake of electing "Our Blogger," which has its disadvantages.
First of all, the weight of content creation falls on that person's shoulders, and if they are sick or on vacation, the content creation comes to a halt.
Also, the person elected as "Our Blogger" is typically an executive-level individual who has about a million things to do...and guess what falls off the list at the end of the day? You got it: generating content for the organization's blog.
Another problem with the "our blogger" approach is that you are getting only one perspective from this person...and what if it's the perspective that doesn't fit into what your prospects and customers want?
At a recent conference, I used the example of going into Home Depot in search of help with a new kitchen sink, and the CEO greeting me in the aisle, reciting reports and company initiatives. Well, guess what? I don't want to talk to the CEO, I want to talk to Betsey Jones, who has helped 600 people install new kitchen sinks and knows exactly what I'm going through. Please put Betsey in the aisle to greet me, not the CEO.
See how this translates to your organizational blogging program? By limiting the blogging torch to one individual, you're automatically limiting your content, not to mention missing out on several people who are interested in your business, but want a different perspective.
Chris Baggott did a great post on MicroSegments on his Blogging Best Practices blog, and it's completely pertinent here. More blogging torch carriers means more content which means more perspectives which means more chances to be in front of someone at the right time, and with the right information.
In order to take this kind of approach, you'll need to select blogging tools that include an adminstrative layer that makes it easy to manage and approve all this content before it hits the web. (As you may have figured, this is a standard part of Compendium's blogging platform).


Posted by: John Cass on Tuesday, October 16, 2007
A few years ago a colleague and I counted all of the posts on 431 Microsoft corporate blogs. We discovered the average number of posts was between 1.5 and 2 posts per month. I managed to find some similar numbers on IBM. The moral of this story is that you might have a lot of bloggers but it does not mean that any of them will write, or what they write is any good. However, if you do use the shotgun approach to hiring voluminous writers, it’s one approach. Curiously when I have found companies that make really effective blogging campaigns, those companies handpick people, concentrating their choices with people who provide customer service and build products. I think using two approaches to finding bloggers works best: open up the floodgates and see how many people rise to the top, and also pay some people specifically to blog.
Posted by: test on Monday, October 22, 2007
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Posted by: Ali Sales on Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Hi John, Thanks for the comment. You bring up some good points - so good, my next blog post will have a response and some more food for thought :). Ali