Weblogs Inc. CEO and AOL executive Jason Calacanis has a bone to pick with AOL employees not taking his directive to launch their blogs before he counts to three. His new directive: blog or die, man.
We assume he means that in the video game Skate or Die way and not in the Ralph Macchio/Mr. Miyagi-outside-the-karate-tournament way.
On his blog, right where a good executive should be, Calacanis relates that he’s “been begging” AOL’s busy product managers to start their own blogs.
Harried by initiatives like cleaning up data spills, getting off of the badware list, reassuring the world about Goodmail, laying off workers, restructuring the business model, and digging for spammer’s gold, the staff, with few exceptions, have told Calacanis, “we’re busy.”
You wouldn’t like him when he’s angry. Calacanis responds in bold print:
If you are in the Internet industry and you don’t have time to blog about your product then you should quit. Go home, give up, and find another career. Your competitors are blogging about their products and talking to the market, and there is no way to compete if you don’t engage the discussion. So, by not blogging you basically are giving up and telling the market that you don’t care. That’s the honest truth.
Blog or die!
The illusive Mr. K, in the comments, thinks that’s not quite the right approach. He thinks Mr. Weblogs CEO should teach them how:
maybe you should offer some suggestions to these potential bloggers rather than just say “Do it or quit”.
Writing a decent blog means writing skills in addition to being knowledgeable about your topic. Not everyone is a writer, especially middle management and above folks, who specialize in the short, terse, as-few-words-as-possible email. Maybe they don’t want to blog because they think they can’t write.
What are your suggestions on how you come up with posts and how you approach the idea of blogging on a regular basis?
- AOL Employee #1237 Blog
Calacanis just came into my office dressed as Braveheart, muttering something about snakes in my carryon bag, and balls of fire from his arsomething. Anyway, he’s standing here now watching to make sure I’m really blogging and not working on something useless like AIM. He’s got a bit of spinach between his teeth, but I’m too frightened to say anything.
