Employee Blogging Policies
Social media comes with its own set of rules and problems. One of the more confusing issues with large companies is employee blogging. Companies rightly believe that a too-candid employee blog can harm their reputation. On the other hand, employees can use blogs to help their business greatly. All high-tech companies, such as Microsoft and Google, have official blogs. This serves as an informal soapbox to talk about future plans, explain decisions and processes, without having to go through official public relations channels.
Other People Are Reading
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Official vs. Unofficial
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An official blog is sanctioned by the company. It can be considered one of the company's public relations vehicles. As such, an official blog will have a lot in common with press releases but with the added bonus of being immediately accessible to the public, allowing a dialogue to take place. An unofficial blog can take any form--an employee blogging about her daily work life or a private blog where the company is sometimes discussed.
Security
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Even if a company does not have a set of blogging policies in place, security must be maintained. Simply put, an employee should never divulge company secrets in a blog or in any public forum. Depending on the nature of the information shared, this might be a criminal activity. However, there are usually plenty of insights to share via blogging without having to disclose company secrets.
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Contradicting the Company
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A blog which is identified as one generated by an employee of a particular company should not contradict the company's vision, practices or culture. It's possible to respectfully disagree, especially in matters of detail (i.e., "It would be nice if the company produced X variation on a product, but it's not going to happen"). But an official employee blog should not overtly disagree with the company in an insulting or aggressive manner.
Obscenity
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There are certain practices that even personal blogs should avoid--plagiarism, hate speech, racism, etc. A company's blog should uphold even stricter standards, refraining from obscenity, whether pictorial or editorial. A blog is essentially a company's public face. The Harvard Law School prohibits blogs that contain speech that is "illegal, obscene, defamatory, threatening, infringing on intellectual property rights, invasive of privacy or otherwise injurious or objectionable."
Relevance
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An employee blog, if it identifies itself as affiliated with the company, should be relevant to the company's work. If it isn't, then there's no reason for it to be associated with the company. Ideally, the blog should not just be a mouthpiece for the company. It should genuinely engage in dialogue regarding related products and services, contributing something which is both interesting and relevant.
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