What happens when companies get staff blogging

There was an article in the FT yesterday, which is worth a read for firms that are thinking about how to blog, and how to manage staff bloggers. It covers a lot of the high level issues around companies blogging. Here's an excerpt:

When IBM decided to encourage its 320,000 employees to start blogging, it asked them to develop a set of simple guidelines themselves. The result was 11 core principles, which IBM published in March (see below).

IBM's guidelines read more like a list of best practices than a rulebook. Along with the obvious advice about not sharing company secrets or commenting on sensitive financial information, they encourage IBM bloggers to use their real names, state their position in the company and stick to writing about what they know.

Comments

[Dan Leach]

Good to see a company the size of IBM encouraging their staff to blog, but how many will?

In an act of blatant self-publicity, it's worth noting that Hill & Knowlton have a similar "blog" policy to IBM and even has its own blog portal that staff can use (as individuals or as groups). Check out the Consumer Tech & Entertainment blog - http://blogs.hillandknowlton.com/blogs/consumertech/.