IBM’s Luis Suarez says “People are [terrified] to write down something through weblogs that they may be accountable for at some point, (because otherwise why wouldn’t they blog?)”

I think he is right. 

Or put another way, I think that any business person who has long term career objectives in mind should be concerned about what they write in blogs.

The stakes get higher when people connect you with your employer.

When you apply for a job, your blog acts like an extended cover letter.   Employers can and will search your name on Google.  If the first thing that pops up is a blog entry about how smashed you got at a Frat party, it won’t help you get hired.

The problem is that there are no clear guidelines.   Exercising common sense is important.   But you can still wind up in hot water.

Your Employees Are Already Blogging

For senior executives the issue is flipped.

There are currently 50 million blogs (not including my space pages) and that the number is doubling about every six months.   These bloggers are writing about 2 million posts every day.

If your employees are already blogging, what guidance are you giving them?

Solution to Both Problems: Copy Intuit’s Scott K. Wilder

One possible solution to both of these problems is to copy Intuit’s Scott K. Wilder.

Scott leads Intuit’s blogging efforts.   Intuit recognized that their employees were going to blog.   Rather than trying to stop them, Intuit decided to give both trust their employees and give them some clear guidance.

Scott came up with the idea of a simple one-pager set of guidelines.   Scott felt that the guidelines needed to be simple, clear and short enough that people would actually read them.

Scott worked with Intuit’s legal department to develop the guidelines, and then ran 1 hour blogging classes to get people familiar with the rules.

Ultimately, Scott says that the guidelines both improved the quality of employee blog posts, and actually encouraged people to write.   Scott says that the employees recognized that a blog was a powerful reputation management tool.   The guidelines acted as a guide rail, and thus lowered the risk of doing something that might seriously damage employee’s reputation or the company’s reputations.

Example list of Dos and Don’ts

Here is an example one pager for an internal blogging system:

Do:

1. Take ownership – A blog is a communication tool, a reputation management tool and a knowledge sharing system. It can be used as a very effective way of demonstrating your expertise and sharing the technical topics you are most interested it.
2. Comment – Use the comment system to share discussions and help others learn from your questions and answers.
3. Link to internal content – Help your colleagues find useful information. Try to add at least 2 links per post. You can link to other posts, other web sites and Lotus Notes DBs.
4. Link to external content – It takes significant effort to learn about all relevant academic, industry and regulatory web sites related to most topics. Share your links and save your colleagues time.
5. Post things where they belong – Internal blogs have some structure.   If you are talking about a specific project, post within the internal Project Work Site.   If you are giving an update about a client, post within the internal Client Page.   Within the internal system, every post you make will link back to your People Page. 
6. Do check if the information you intend to post has already been posted….in some cases, we re-use material with only slight modifications.  Do check that you are not posting material that is redundant or already posted, or if the info you post supersedes another doc, think about whether we need to remove the original [need to think through this more carefully]
7. Do tell people about the work we have done that you cannot post – You should not post sensitive client information, but you can let your colleagues know how we have helped our clients solve business challenges. You should also let your colleagues know that they can contact you with specific questions.
8. Remember your post might be seen by everyone in the company – This is a double-edged sword.   On the one hand, you can be widely recognized for your insight and expertise. On the other hand, you need to be confident that what you are posting is useful, vetted, proofed and correct.

Don’t:

1. Do not post confidential client data – Do not post client data, client model weights, customer records from a client, social security numbers, confidential business plans or confidential client intellectual property.
2. Do not post external articles where we do not have copyright permission – post a link instead
3. Do not post anything you would be embarrassed to see on the front page of the Wall Street Journal – The internal Enterprise Blogging system is encrypted, and only visible to people who work for out company. However, there is the possibility that someone could cut & paste your post and email it to the public. Do not criticize clients, or post anything you would not email.
4. Do not ‘overpost’ in an unstructured fashion… large volumes of unorganized information are not helpful – The Enterprise Blogging system is a knowledge sharing tool and you are encouraged to post lots of relevant content, but think about what people need to read most and help them navigate through information.
5. Do not flame your colleagues – Be nice and be constructive. Remember that some things are better resolved using a face-to-face conversation. The company encourages diversity of thought and positive debate. Remember also that the company’s anti harassment policies apply on the web just as much as on email or in person.
6. Do not hesitate to ask – When in doubt seek guidance from your manager or the Enterprise Blogging team about what to post and where to post it.

An external system, or an external blogging policy would work along similar lines.