Jul 12 07
Healthy Corporate Blogging
by Rita Chan
Corporate blogging has become the cat’s meow in the world of corporate communications, but a recent blog posted on a Google corporate blog site let loose a storm of controversy that had old-school corporate folks tsk-tsking about the dangers of corporate blogging and offering some misguided solutions.
The fracas started when Lauren Turner, an account planner for Google, wrote on the Google health care advertising blog that “Sicko”, Michael Moore’s new movie on the health care industry was “one-sided” and didn’t fairly represent the positive aspects of the US health care system. The problem wasn’t her critique of the film. It was that Turner followed up the critique by urging health care companies to buy Google ads to counter the movie’s message.
That’s when the comments and blogs rained in. Google was accused of selling out to rich health care corporations and violating their own “Do no evil” mantra. Complaints poured in that Google was becoming a money-grubbing Goliath and had lost its neutral stance.
Turner apologized and tried to clarify that the sentiments expressed were her own, not Google’s. Google marketing managers also tried to clarify that Turner’s blog did not reflect the company’s official position on the film or the health care industry.
Many old school communications types quoted in articles immediately piped in about the dangers of corporate blogging and cast dire warnings about the policies and oversight that need to be in place for corporate blogs. But that’s where they’re missing the point.
The beauty of blogs is they’re not supposed to be weighted down by tons of managerial editing and corporate policies. They’re great because they’re human and individual.
That said, I’m not advocating a willy-nilly blogging free-for-all. But instead of rules, let’s use some basic common sense and best practices. A cardinal rule of every newsroom, and of any good writer, is never publish, air or post anything without at least having a second pair of eyes look it over. It’s not just to catch the typos, but to make sure what you’re saying is what you’re really trying to say. There’s a reason why the world’s best writers profusely thank their editors on the first pages of their book.
That’s what should happen with blogs. If someone else had read over Lauren Turner’s blog before it was posted, it’s likely they would have pointed out that the message that came across in her post probably wasn’t a good idea.
Get a second pair of eyes to catch any glaring mistakes or possible misinterpretations, but don’t police the meaning of the message and put it through the corporate ringer. Otherwise, why blog at all? Just send out a press release.
You wrote what I wanted to write when I first saw the story. I actually wrote emails to some of those old school blogging “pros” saying the same thing. But you said it better than I did. Nice work.