More on the Blog Council

bcouncil.pngFollowing my post Friday on the newly minted Blog Council, I got a response in comments from Andy Sernovitz, who runs the overseeing authority of the council, GasPedal.

Apparently, they reached out to Oracle and Sun when the council was formed. Anyway, joining the council falls under Justin’s jurisdiction, not mine. I’m just a blogger. As I mentioned on Friday, I like the idea, but the execution sounds too moribund. Sagar agrees and calls out the same juxtaposition of “ROI” and “blogging” as fishy.

Take note: I am not flaming the Blog Council. Read on with that in mind. I have questions that I hope Andy or someone else can answer in comments.

So, Justin sent me the literature he got from the council.  It costs $10,000 a year to join as a standard member. I’ve no idea if the founding members paid this same fee, but that seems pretty steep to me. You can join as an associate member for $5,000, but your privileges are limited. Plus, you have to jump up to full member status after a year.

Cost isn’t really an issue for a big company, so I have no problem with the number as long as the benefits make sense. This is purely academic, since joining the council is outside my marching orders.

Aside from cost, it’s not clear whom from your company can participate. They say the entire team, up to six executives. Does that mean only executives can participate? If so, is the council targeted at executive blogging, or is the target executives because the expectation is that executives will pass on the council’s findings to the companies bloggers? I’d like some clarification.

The role of the council isn’t entirely clear to me either. On the one hand, the word council sounds like a committee approach, and there are mentions of task forces, committees and best practices, which support this assertion. However, in addition to that, they say the council can act as a tool to protect corporate interests, as an advocate and shield.

Anyway, I could go on asking questions, but I think I’ll wait to see if Andy or someone responds. This idea is interesting to those of us who blog and work for companies that might participate in the council. It’s also interesting to the people who have carved out a niche for themselves as new web/social media advisers.

I understand that the council just formed and its goals and mission are probably not fully formed yet. However, as a council that supports a transparent medium, I hope the council’s managers will flesh out some of the details that will help Oracle and other companies make an informed decision about joining.

The comments are open.

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This entry was written by Jake and posted on 10 December 2007 at 5:00 pm and filed under Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.

Viewing 9 Comments

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    Like you, the cynic in me says it sounds like a move by corporations to take over control of blogging and the openness it has created in their business.

    The slightly smaller (or greater?) cynic in me tells me its just a bunch of money grabbing high flyers trying to cash in on the movement, and grab big bucks from the corporations that can afford it, with an area where the returns are intangible so the corporations would never know if they benefited or not, but should be "seen" to be participating.

    Great business plan but now it's taken :(

    I also note in the mission statement you referenced in the previous post, there isn't even a mention of the readers; did they forget something?

    CM.
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    I'm still reserving judgment until I get some answers from GasPedal, but I tend to agree that it smacks of control, which inevitably will make corporate bloggers vanilla and unsuccessful.

    Your point about readers is huge. I had an interesting lunch with Marshall Kirkpatrick from Read/Write Web yesterday, and his consulting work around blogs centers around readership first, in the first and second person. So, as the potential blogger, I should first and foremost read, and get to know, you, the intended reader.
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    Jake, we have formally declined to participate at this time.
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    The wonderful element of blogging is the lack of control that leads to the exposure of new ideas "in the wild". As a writer, I can blog about any idea that pops into my head. It's the readers that will determine if that idea will gain any traction and turn into some type of worthwhile discussion.

    When corporations and councils begin to put constraints or boundaries on the blogging of individuals, many of those ideas from the wild will never see the light of day...and we'll all be the poorer for it.
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    @Justin: Thanks for the update. I'll be watching with interest to see what they accomplish. I guess I won't hold my breath for a response from GasPedal.

    @Floyd: Yeah, when I hear "ROI" and "messaging" I know it's a death sentence for my style and content. Let's be honest, I have issues staying on message.
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    Hi Jake -

    As you can imagine, we've been a wee bit flooded with good thoughts and questions, responding as fast as we can. Thanks for your patience.

    These are all great questions, and I'm happy to answer:

    * Basically, the entire blog team (however it is loosely defined at each company) is welcome. They can come from anywhere throughout the company and are not limited to any particular department or office. The question of who at a company should blog is one of those big questions we are exploring.

    * The people who have been joining the Blog Council are the departments or teams in charge of blogging at the company. We use "executives" as a generic term for "employees". We should probably just say "whoever is involved in your blog projects" at any level.

    We've actually learned something about the makeup of corporate blog teams during the course of our outreach efforts. Most companies (even the large ones who have been doing this a while) don't have full teams of people in charge of blogging. Notable exceptions exist, but it's not the norm. Part of our mission is to help build internal support for increased budgets and more resources so that extensive blog teams *can* become the norm.

    * The purpose of the Council is pretty simple -- to provide a forum for the people involved with corporate blogs at large companies to meet, share tactics and advice, and develop best practices together. It's the modern incarnation of what we all used to call SIGs and User Groups.

    * This is a pretty good value considering that you get weekly teleconferences, research, live events, etc, for an entire year for an entire company. You could spend $10K just sending one team to one trade show. A lot more long term value here.

    Feel free to e-mail/call/etc me if you or anyone else has more questions. (312-932-9000) We're always happy to answer more questions.

    Thanks,

    Andy Sernovitz
    Blog Council
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    @Andy: Thanks for responding again, especially considering that Justin has already said Oracle has officially declined to participate.

    What you've learned about no dedicated teams "in charge" of blogging should have influenced your council methodology. Centralization of message and blogging authority runs diametrically counter to what has made blogging a successful method of communication and "marketing".

    The success of corporate blogs has everything to do with blogging as a side project, not as a full-time, centralized department. The interesting reading comes from topics around daily work on the company's products, e.g. Steve Chan blogs about E-Business Suite technology, which is his day job. He uses his blog as a broadcast and feedback collecting mechanism. No day job, no content, unless he asks someone for it, and that makes him a mouthpiece, which comes out in his blogging.

    What you've set out to do makes sense, but the scale issues involved have turned it into something else. Also, why won't the Blog Council blog? Do you have IP concerns? Seems odd that you won't use your council to seed demand and lure in people watching your progress.

    Anyway, I plan to watch and comment, in typical blogger fashion. Good luck and feel free to respond.
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    Jake -

    To be honest with you, this conversation has been difficult for us to have because there are 200 bloggers picking apart every word we say for hidden meaning.

    By "in charge of blogging" just refers to wherever blogging has landed in a company. Sometimes totally decentralized, sometimes deep in the PR department, sometimes with the CEO. There isn't any one right answer. Letting companies compare notes and learn from each other about concepts just like this why we created our group.

    We're not blogging because (despite rumors to the contrary) the Blog Council isn't an industry organization out to push an official position. As a group, we have no positions or opinions. On the other hand, our members have hundreds of blogs and should be the voices who participate and share. What they have to say is important, we're the back office support.
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    @Andy: I think it would be easier to sort this all out through a blog though, rather than commenting in the 200 odd blogs nit-picking at you.

    That said, you've been very patient, and I understand the scale issue you face. Good luck.
 

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