Companies have a name and a reputation to keep in society. If negative or inappropriate images come to customers minds when they think of a certain company, they will not do business with that company and pass the word along to friends. Since so many businesses are using blogs to get information out to employees, customers, and suppliers, they need to keep blogging policies so that what is said on the blog is a representation of the company itself. Fredrik Wacka has created a website devoted to business blogs. On his blogging policies page, he states that companies should be nice, keep secrets, abide by existing rules, and remember that they are personally responsible (1). Elaborating on those, being nice means watch what you say, don't attack people, and be courteous of others feelings (1). Keeping secrets means to hold business secrets as business secrets and not sharing them with everyone. To abide by existing rules, employees need to blog in the same manner that they would conduct themselves at work. The rules that apply to the business also apply to the business blog. Lastly, employees need to remember that they are personally responsible and should not take credit for what they say. Many bloggers use disclaimers to show that this is their writing and not necessarily the view of the whole company (1). There are many other policies that Wacka discusses, but these four are policies all business blogs should abide by.
1. http://www.corporateblogging.info/2005/06/policies-compared-todays-corporate.asp
Huddle Up
16 years ago
As you stated companies are using blogs to communicate not only with costumers, but with suppliers and employees. With this in mind, professional blogs can be a double edge sword if companies don’t implement a blogging policy. Professional blogs can be a double edge sword because blogs can help a business, but it can also hurt it by not controlling what is being said about the business and its products. Customers buy products from the companies they think are doing business ethically and from companies that have a good reputation. By implementing a blogging policy, a business can protect its image.
ReplyDeleteOften in personal blogging people neglect to think about the repercussions of our statements and posts. Everything we post on the internet could potentially be accessed by our employer, future employer, family members, or friends. I believe that the blog policies you talked about in your post should be considered by everyone who decides to venture into the world of blogs. Think twice, post once.
ReplyDeleteI really liked the lat thing you said about employees needing to be personally responsible. I believe that is key, this day in age there are so many people that will not stand behind what they say. We as individuals need to back up what we say and clarify what we mean. If we make a mistake then we need to take responsibility for that mistake. It's all about being a professional and a responsible human being.
ReplyDeleteYou did realy good research on this, I like the ideas and rules that you found, and agreed with what you found. I especially liked the commemt on a need to keep secrecy, in my line of work there are alot of things that we hold confidential and could be used against the company in certain situations and could be damaging to the company. As you stated we need to remember that when we are on a professional blog, we are representing the company and should do so in a posative and responsible manner. I think that if an employee jeopargizes the integrity of the company they sould be held acountable, even if they are on a blog. Secrecy and intregity are important to any company and I feel that this is a very good policy to have for any company.
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