InsightIQ Blog

The challenges (and occasional perils) of blogging

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Apr 5 2010

Blogging is a staple in the B2B marketer's toolbox and has helped many a small business elevate its presence and client base.  Here at Quaero, we have an active blogging community. We use blogs to provide thought leadership while engaging with both prospective and current clients.

But blogging and its younger cousin, microblogging (i.e., Twitter), have their drawbacks. Many companies continue to question their value.  Let's look at why and how corporate blogs are scrutinized:

1.     Blogs elevate their writers...sometimes to superstar status.

It's true, blogs help people build personal brands.  In the summer of 2008, Forrester lost three prominent social media analysts in a six week span.  Then just last year, another two analysts - both with very large personal brands - left to join a start-up.  In an interesting move, Forrester recently announced a new blogging policy that prevents the company's analysts from maintaining a work topic-related blog outside of the Forrester platform.  Is Forrester trying to reign in superstar analysts?  Or more fully take advantage of their intellectual property (IP)?  I would venture that it's both.

2.     Blogs are only as successful as the content.

For a blog to be truly successful, it has to be full of rich, relevant content; sometimes that means giving up IP.  For many organizations - consulting and analyst firms and agencies - that's what they do - develop and sell IP, so sharing thoughts and views on certain topics could be perceived as giving away that intelligence without providing any value back to the organization.  Companies have to first determine why they're blogging (e.g., lead generation, awareness/education, evangelism, etc.) and then decide what they're willing to give up to achieve their goals.

3.     Blog post authors don't always think about the ramifications of what they share.

Privacy and confidentiality concerns abound when it comes to blogging and many companies are putting policies into place to protect both employees and the organization.  What you might consider a harmless enough post could have the potential to damage your firm's reputation as well as your own.  There are plenty of examples in the blogosphere where an inadvertent tweet or innocuous enough blog post blew up and caused damage.  And let's face it, you don't want to lose your job because you breached a confidentiality agreement, do you?

4.     Blogging can be a full-time job.

Some people just love to blog, but if you're doing it all of the time, are you really focused on doing your job?  Sure, there are professional bloggers out there, but for most of us, it's a part time gig.  Balancing the desire to write with fulfilling the requirements of your job can be challenging. 

At Quaero, blogging is an essential part of our marketing strategy so we evaluate all of these risks and more.  We also help our bloggers understand how to make the best use of their time AND provide them with some great resources to blog more effectively.  In fact, last Friday, we hosted an internal blogging seminar with digital media guru, Paul Gillin.  As you can imagine, we had a packed house!

So are you balancing the value of employee blogging with the risks associated?  I'd love your thoughts.

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