The Downsides of Corporate Blogging

Corporate blogging may sound like a cushy gig, but it’s not all cupcakes and lemonade. Most companies don’t pay employees to blog (PRstore included). In fact, most make it clear that blogging is “extracurricular” and shouldn’t interfere with other work (PRstore included).

To be fair, writing a blog on company time has its perks. You get a chance hone your voice, build your network and create a name for yourself.

Before prodding your boss for permission to write a blog, consider the downsides of corporate blogging:

The Company Owns Your Content

I’m no intellectual property lawyer, but everything I’ve read says the content you create as an employee is the property of your employer.

You Can’t Speak Your Mind

Having a company blog doesn’t give you carte blanche to spout off about your idiot boss or the company’s backwards policies. Don’t be that guy who gets fired for criticizing the company. Try explaining that to your next boss.

Corporate Communications Will Want to Scrub Your Blog

As a corporate communications professional, I’ve learned that everyone who is not a corporate communication professional is a moron. No, really, it’s true. Most corporate message flacks don’t trust anyone but themselves to be the voice of the company. Your blog is subversive, dangerous to the brand, and needs to be controlled. Don’t be surprised if somebody from your PR department offers to “edit” it for you.

Work Comes First

Unless you’re lucky, your boss isn’t likely to give you a raise for writing awesome blog posts. It’s probably not part of your job description, after all. If your performance starts to slip, Boss Man will suggest spending less blogging and more time doing your job.

What the Heck Are You Gonna Write About?

489 trillion people have started blogs, and of those 489 trillion blogs, roughly six still exist. I exaggerate, of course. The real number is more like four. But you get the point. Countless writer wannabes have started blogs, only to abandon them after a month. Are you still gonna want to write about your life as the Junior Deputy Assistant Accountant next week?

Nobody Wants to Hear Your Whitewash

No, seriously. Nobody wants to hear it. Save the self-serving, self-congratulatory stuff for a press release. Blogging — all social media, really — is about having open, honest, human conversations with your audience. It’s about giving something of value — and I don’t mean your product or service. Take off your PR hat for a little bit. Just be you. Listen to people. Answer their questions. Engage with them. You’ll be better off.

http://davidmullen.wordpress.com David Mullen

Great things to consider in a day when everyone proclaims you must start a blog.

Can’t tell you how many peers have sent an email announcing they started a blog and then a month later the only post is still the original one. It’s happened enough times that I didn’t announce my blog to peers, just in case I did the same. Glad to say I’ve really enjoyed it as a way to challenge some of the traditional thinking in PR, which has started some great conversations since I started blogging about 3 months ago.

I’d add that another downside can be how other employees perceive your contribution, whether your work has actually slacked off or not. I wrote a blog post one day while eating lunch at my desk and posted it around 1:00 p.m. Feedburner delivered the email to RSS subsribers around 3 p.m.

She said something along the lines of “stop blogging all day and do some work.” She was kidding, but we all know there’s a little truth in humor.
http://www.clickz.com Erin

Excellent post, Scott. And so, so true!
http://adjustafresh.com Scott

Good stuff. Hopefully, the savvy companies will start actually seeing the ROI of their corporate blogs (or “clog” as we lovingly refer to them) and start paying people to maintain them.
http://prstre.typepad.com Scott Hepburn

@David Your point about workplace peer perceptions is a huge one. My impression is that companies accept blogging, but don’t publicly acknowledge its importance or its role in the company.

@Scott “What’s the ROI?” is the #1 question companies ask about blogging and social media, in my opinion. Bloggers tend to dismiss the question, but I think we should find a better way to answer it. The budget will never have a slot for blogging until we find a satisfactory answer to that question.
http://www.marketing-ninja.com/blogging-for-business/busting-the-myths-of-corporate-blogging/ Marketing Ninja

I wrote about something similar on my blog although it was more about the credibility gap between personal blogs and corporate blogs:

Speaking as someone who works full-time as a salaried corporate blogger (among my other responsibilities,) I gotta say that most of the things on your list are things that I have yet to run into. I don’t have a shortage of things to say on my company’s blog. The whitewash / greenwash / astro-turfing stuff usually only happens when you let a sales guy transform every blog entry into a sales pitch. Yes, the company owns the content, but it’s not like I can’t link to it from my personal blog if I am so inclined. Being a corporate blogger is my work so it does come first, and I have no reservations about injecting my personal opinion into my pieces so long as it doesn’t detract from my company’s message.

Was a noble effort, but ultimately this is a pretty weak list.
http://www.mediaemerging.com Scott Hepburn

“What's the ROI?” is the #1 question companies ask about blogging and social media, in my opinion. Bloggers tend to dismiss the question, but I think we should find a better way to answer it. The budget will never have a slot for blogging until we find a satisfactory answer to that question.
http://www.mediaemerging.com Scott Hepburn

Your point about workplace peer perceptions is a huge one. My impression is that companies accept blogging, but don't publicly acknowledge its importance or its role in the company.
http://mediaemerging.com Scott Hepburn

“What's the ROI?” is the #1 question companies ask about blogging and social media, in my opinion. Bloggers tend to dismiss the question, but I think we should find a better way to answer it. The budget will never have a slot for blogging until we find a satisfactory answer to that question.
http://mediaemerging.com Scott Hepburn

“What's the ROI?” is the #1 question companies ask about blogging and social media, in my opinion. Bloggers tend to dismiss the question, but I think we should find a better way to answer it. The budget will never have a slot for blogging until we find a satisfactory answer to that question.
http://mediaemerging.com Scott Hepburn

Your point about workplace peer perceptions is a huge one. My impression is that companies accept blogging, but don't publicly acknowledge its importance or its role in the company.
http://mediaemerging.com Scott Hepburn

Your point about workplace peer perceptions is a huge one. My impression is that companies accept blogging, but don't publicly acknowledge its importance or its role in the company.