Neville Hobson on corporate blogging

Following Elizabeth Albrycht 's keynote on Day 1 of the New Communications Forum, the participants split into three groups -- convened by Elizabeth, Neville Hobson, and Matthew Podboy -- to discuss a common set of slides comprising an "Introduction to Corporate Blogging."

I chose Neville's session, thrilled at the prospect of communicating f2f with a blogger with whom I'd had a close encounter in cyberspace. Neville's presentation was stimulating and the discussion he led was lively, but I do wish that my tri-location server hadn't been down, preventing me from attending all three sessions simultaneously.

The session slides will be available online and I'll point you to them when they are. For now, here are some comments, notes, and reactions to Neville's session.

Was it primarily the flurry in the blogosphere around the US elections that caused blogs to take off in a big way last year? Neville thinks so, and I agree in part. But I think another factor, little discussed at the conference, played a large role.

By the end of 2004, mainstream media (MSM) outlets like the Washington Post, the New York Times, the BBC, and Reuters had begun syndicating RSS feeds of their content. The five percent of US internet users who use feed readers can now subscribe to continuously updated news feeds from the world's major news outlets, along with those syndicated by lesser media luminaries, rock stars of the blogosphere, and garden-variety bloggers.

The combination of news feeds and blog feeds is very powerful. It promises to become more so as feed readers are increasingly integrated with other indispensable applications, such as the rudimentary feed reader within the Firefox browser and the robust feed readers in collect/organize/share (COS) applications like Pluck and Onfolio 2.0.

Once business and professional people experience the convenience and efficiency of news feeds, it's easy for them to recognize how MSM news is enhanced by the unfiltered (or, at least, less filtered) information and conversations available in blogs. By now, people have had a number of highly-publicized opportunities to see the impact of blogs on traditional journalism and on real-world business and politics. As they continue to understand the connection between the blogosphere and the misfortunes of Trent Lott, Armstrong Williams, and the Kryptonite bike lock, it's only a matter of time before they recognize blogs' potential, for good and for ill, in their own business and professional arenas. 

In the blogosphere, is content king? Neville thinks not. He gives content second place, after linking: Who is reading and linking to the content? Who is talking about what, and to whom?

I beg to differ, though perhaps not as vehemently as Queen Bee Elisa Camahort. Giving links pride of place is, I suppose, another way of reaffirming that the medium is the message. But without compelling content, why read, and what is there to link to? This may be another story about the power of integration -- in this case, the integration of infrastructure, ideas, and insider gossip.

The blog of the bespoke tailor. It was worth the price of admission just to be able to blog that delightful phrase. Neville cited it as " a good example of someone just writing about what his customers are interested in," not about blogging as such. Take a look at English Cut, and The Tinbasher Blog, too, while you're at it.

In the view of one session participant, the key aspects of blogs are immediacy and informality, not linking or even interactivity.  Neville's response: as people become bloggers themselves and become more sophisticated, they come to recognize the importance of links and RSS readers.

What, if anything, does the concept of "bloggers' rights" mean in corporate context? Neville finds this particular "crusade" to be "silly." A discussion of restrictions on employee blogging fails to resolve the question: Have we seen bloggers fired for blogging as such, or for the content of their posts?

Neville suggested a look at internalmemos.com. Having now visited "the Internet's largest collection of corporate memos and internal communication," I second his motion.

How much time does it take to be a blogger? The session handout labels time a "perceived obstacle," suggesting that half-an-hour a day for reading and half-an-hour for writing should be sufficient.

Yes, the blogging conversation with customers and other audiences is a good expenditure of almost any professional's time. And yes, the practice of blogging makes you faster. But an hour a day? Get real! I'm a practiced writer who loves to write and I spend most of every day online. An hour a day is nowhere near enough, and the extra time is still well spent.

Among the most fascinating of the many blogs Neville mentioned is the new effort by Margot Wallstrom, one of Europe's most powerful women. She is Vice President of the European Commission and its Commissioner for Institutional Relations and Communication. Wallstrom's blog, complete with comments and RSS feed, is "not untypical of most of us: she blogs about things relevant to her job and to her as a person."