By now we've all read about or heard about the sometimes negative impact blogging can have on one's career if one's employer gets wind of a posting deemed, shall we say, less than flattering. Just last year, for example, flight attendant Ellen Simonetti posted on her web log some photos of herself posing in her official airline uniform. Her readers loved the pictures (as I'm sure Maxim did too), but her employer wasn't so thrilled. Delta Airlines fired her, calling the photos "inappropriate."
The firing brought newfound online fame to Simonetti, known to her readers as "Queen of the Sky," and catapulted her case into the popular media. Today Delta is still mentioned on her blog, and her story is now found on other blogs all across the internet -- something I'm guessing Delta would have hoped to avoid.
Neither Simonetti nor Delta is alone. Today growing numbers of bloggers are running up against their employers, even at companies as net-savvy as Google. Blog-incited firings -- called "doocings" in blog-speak -- are common enough that many bloggers track and list them on the web. And most businesses still don't have a clue.
The potential for damage is real. Negative blog postings can harm a company's reputation, product or brand, a new reality that has many companies and firms sounding the alarm. Just as in the early days of the internet when film studios had their lawyers "shut down" fan sites instead of appreciating and cultivating relationships with the "uber-consumers" behind them, the rise of the blogosphere is causing many corporations to act out of fear and "rein in those blogging employees!" Wrong again. In order to help employers navigate the blogging waters, here is a bit of advice -- what I call the Three Es to employee blogging: Embrace, Engage and Empower!
Blogs: Growing fast and here to stay
If you read the business pages, you're probably well aware of the rapid growth in the China market and the vast amount of opportunity presented to corporations entering into it. And although fast change inevitably brings great risks, companies can't afford to hold back. The same goes for the blogosphere -- the fastest growing market outside of China. Sure, for many companies, choosing to engage in any way with the swiftly expanding blogosphere may at times seem risky or discouraging, particularly when what transpires on a blog can be even more critical to business than what gets said in a TV advertisement or what questions are asked by potential buyers. But doing so could bring great things to those who enter wisely. And besides, like China, the blogosphere certainly isn't going away.
The truth is that employers will never prevent all their employees from blogging, just as no matter how Dilbert-esque or draconian companies may be, The Man has never been successful in preventing employees from speaking their minds. Let's face it, given the growth of the work day, and oftentimes work weekend, employees are not going to stop including some job-related material in their blogs. So long as jobs are a part of life, bloggers will talk about them.
Companies need to understand and appreciate that fact. They need to wake up to the reality that blogs don't exist in some other world detached from the market. As the "Cluetrain Manifesto" stated several years back, the marketplace is a conversation. In fact, blogs are a vital, new dimension of that market.
Employers: Embrace blogs
Blogs are an unbelievably effective medium. They are informal and spontaneous, and they have the credibility associated with first-person narrative.
Blogs are fast. Blogs are word-of-mouth on speed -- peer-to-peer communications that will trump top-down marketing nearly every time. A blog, whether operated solo or as part of a larger community of bloggers, is a communication channel that can reach a huge number of people very quickly. Blog postings can get lots of hits on search engines -- often surprising many bloggers when their entries rocket to the top of search engine listings and into mainstream pop culture. It is for good reason that it has been said "blog" is an acronym for "better listing on google."
And blogs are growing at an unbelievable rate. According to Technorati, the number of blogs is doubling every five and a half months. At the end of July 2005, the firm was tracking over 14.2 million blogs -- and about 80,000 blogs were being created every day. That's about one new blog every minute!
As more bloggers come on board, the blogosphere is becoming more representative of society, from every market demographic; a fact that companies and brands can no longer afford to ignore.
Employers: Engage the workforce
Note to General Counsels: Blogging employees aren't the enemy. They can be an incredibly valuable resource. If properly engaged by an employer, blogging workers can serve as brand ambassadors for your company. Employees who blog can become a vital part of the way a company takes its case to the broader market.
That doesn't mean that companies shouldn't have some clear policies and procedures on blogging. Training may even help workers understand the difference between valid First Amendment rights and missives that cross the line into slander, defamation or libel.
That is not to suggest that every employee is now a lead spokesperson. Of course not. But employers should invest the time and resources to educate their workforce so that they are comfortable and confident brand ambassadors for the company -- whether it's on the showroom floor, at a dinner party or in the blogosphere. Not every employee will be a skilled spokesperson; but now they all have access to a powerful megaphone.
Employers: Empower your company
Companies that have made an effort to cultivate truly committed employees will have an easier time harnessing the power of the blogosphere.
Of late, consumer-oriented companies like Circuit City and Best Buy have adopted the concept of "branded customer service" to engage their employees. The two companies have brought their employees closely into synch with corporate positioning, and have developed in them the commitment to follow up brand promises with exceptional service and support. All of their employees are brand representatives.
Firms need to extend this approach into the blogosphere to empower both their employees and their company. An employee who is actively engaged in providing branded customer service is going to be a much better company emissary no matter where they go, including the blogosphere.
The new reality
Some bloggers may be amateur communicators (although many aren't), but there are millions of them out there having a daily impact on a growing number of industries, products and services. A recent Pew survey reveals that 78 percent of internet users do online research about a product or service before they buy it -- that translates into 105 million consumers. As blogs increase their influence on American business, success will go to those companies that learn how to talk most effectively to bloggers -- and their own employees -- about their brands.
The blogosphere may seem like another dimension, but there is nothing virtual about success and failure. With the world of blogs expected to double in size two more times over the next 12 months, companies have no time to lose in adapting their workforce to take advantage of a massive new opportunity.
Pete Snyder is founder and CEO of New Media Strategies, an online market intelligence and word-of-mouth marketing company based in Arlington, Virginia. Read full bio.
