Lately I have been spending a fair amount of time on the road evangelizing the power of blogs for marketing communication.
I have met with representatives from a number of huge companies – usually the silent blogging believers in the organization. They are trying desperately to get the rest of their team on the Cluetrain.
The question invariably comes up – “how do we sell our execs?” One suggestion I offer is to get the executives and/or borderline believers blogging internally behind the firewall. Invariably they always react, “well no one has the time.” I nod. Sure, that makes sense.
My reaction is to then turn around and ask, “well do the execs send out lots of emails to their teams to update them on new prospects, potential candidates, etc.?” The answer is, of course they do. “A ha!” I react. Well why not just have them cc their internal blog on these emails? Most blogging tools allow you to post by mail. Not only will this archive the information, but it will enable everyone to see how others within the workgroup are reacting to what the individual has written.
Will this get everyone enthusiastic about external blogging? Well, no. But what it does do is immerse people in the technology in a more controlled way. Once they learn about its implications they might be more apt to let the blog believers pilot a project.
Steve Rubel is a PR strategist with nearly 16 years of public relations, marketing, journalism and communications experience. He currently serves as a Senior Vice President with Edelman, the largest independent global PR firm.
He authors the Micro Persuasion weblog, which tracks how blogs and participatory journalism are changing the public relations practice.
