On July 30, the Sunday New York Times, a favorite ritual of mine, ran an insightful article, All the Internet’s a Stage. Why Don’t C.E.O.’s Use It? by Randall Stross (author and professor of business at San Jose State University).
Stross points out how few Fortune 500 chief execs are currently blogging and possible reasons for the lack of engagement. The top two reasons: fear and time shortage. His poster child for successful CEO-bloggers is Sun Microsystems’ Jonathan Schwartz, widely recognized as a natural communicator/blogger.
Debbie Weil, corporate blogging guru and author of recently released, The Corporate Blogging Book was quoted in the article. Weil believes that blogging could save executives the time they now spend on hundreds of daily email exchanges. Why no do it more efficiently? She suggests in her book that "Instead of a one-to-one communication, why not a communication from one to many thousands?"
So—since at this blog we’re about Small Company Big Image—let’s assume that chief execs and small business owners have similar feelings (fears) about blogging. A partial list might be:
- I do not have time to blog.
- What will I write about?
- I have to write??
- I’m the CEO, business owner, President—don’t I have a pr agency for this sort of thing?
- It’s risky
What is risky about blogging for a CEO/Business owner? Two risks come immediately to mind: tipping off the competition, or thinking out loud too candidly.
Tipping off the competition:
- Blogs are not the place for proprietary information or for breaking news.
- Blogs are excellent for communicating thought leadership with all key audiences—both inside and outside the company. Key audiences that will benefit from a CEO biz owner blog:
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- investors, industry leaders
- partners
- current and potential customers
- employees
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What do these audiences want to read about? They want to hear about the driving force behind the company. What is the company’s leader thinking with regard to key industry issues including:
- Directions of the technology and the industry
- Needs of customers and users today, next year and beyond?
- What you learned from your customers that caused you to choose the specific direction of your most recent product or service
So in summary—the CEO-blog is one of the best tools for a firsthand chronicle of (Stross’ words) the way a company is growing. A blog from the company’s leader provides a window into the company.
Thinking out loud too candidly:
If markets are conversations, then communicating is job-one of a business owner, leader. A business owner’s blog allows her to speak directly to each audience, with passion and conviction. There are lots of topics (beyond your products and services) that allow you to communicate, without being too candid.
A business-owner blogger can talk about such topics as:
- The reasons she founded, or joined, the company
- What got her excited about the business/industry in the first place
- What he learns from his customers
- Why the industry should go in a particular direction
- How globalization (or other trend) is impacting his company and the overall industry
- What he thinks the industry ought to do about it
- The technology, the industry, educating the blog readers about whatever his or her particular area of business expertise is
- How exciting it was to release the most recent product and why
- The background of why you believe your company’s approach works best for your customers and partners
- Answer the most often asked questions she receives from customers, partners, analysts, employees
When blogging as the business owner, you are having a conversation, in your own words, with your "market". You are not selling, exactly. You’re talking about the types of things you’d discuss over a Starbuck’s. Topics that are of mutual interest and that you have something to say about. You know. The way you talk when you’re having a business-like conversation with friends, colleagues, customers.
Only instead of a small group of customers, the blogosphere makes it a conversation with (potentially) thousands of customers/partners at one time. Anytime they wish to read what you have to say. And blogs are infinitely more interesting than emails.
How cool is that?
And as for blogging taking too much time. Well, as our friends at Nike tell us, Just do it.
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