The Great CEO Debate – To Blog or not to Blog?
Posted October 25th, 2007 by Kevin
Over the course of the last couple of weeks, there has been some discussion as to whether or not CEO’s should blog (including ours). For the most part, people seem to be falling on one side or the other. Here at DIG, from the top down, we know that this is not a black and white issue and that recognizing the shades of gray will lead to the appropriate answer on a case by case basis.
Not everyone should be a blogger, or can be for that matter. Sure, the technology exists to allow anyone the opportunity to participate, but that doesn’t mean they should. It’s important to understand the motivations for a blog from a CEO perspective – Raise awareness of the company? Generate Leads? Motivate Employees? Provide Thought Leadership? These don’t sound like CEO responsibilities to me and apparently some people agree, like here. These initiatives are primarily the responsibility of other executives who may be more appropriate when considering who should author the organizations blog.
Back when social media was just starting to form, pioneers like Seth Godin and Steve Rubel found plenty of reasons to why CEO’s should think long and hard before blogging. Rubel made a great point in stating that CEO’s need to be conversational if they plan to blog. As most bloggers know, it’s about the conversation not just generating content. I for one would rather have my CEO talking with potential customers and creating corporate strategy then writing thought leadership posts to educate and entertain the industry or commenting on posts about the latest shiny object and how it will lead us to the Web 3.0 promise land.
The social web is about creation and consumption. Considering the popular theory of “The 1%” often discussed at Church of the Customer, 99% of people interacting with Consumer Generated Content aren’t content creators themselves. To suggest that they don’t recognize the power of the space because they don’t create content themselves is absurd. Isn’t it quite possible that the content being produced by that 1% could be a result of conversations with people like…I don’t know…CEO’s?
