Business Blog Advice

Whole Foods CEO John Mackey seeks your input on his essay, “Conscious Capitalism: Creating a New Paradigm for Business.”

John is in the midst of two — count ‘em two — book projects at the moment, and he has posted his essay on business thinking to solicit feedback from readers.

In his words:

“If I get valuable feedback on this essay that challenges my thinking and helps improve my presentation of the ideas via my blog, then I anticipate doing the same thing on all the other non-narrative chapters I’m writing for the book.”

Read the blog post and essay

~Brandon

By now, you’ve probably heard that Bill Marriott of Marriott Hotels is the latest prominent CEO to start blogging. Bill’s CEO blog is a well-written, well-designed, and well-thought-out example of corporate blogging.

I first heard about Bill’s new blog two days ago at the gym, while sweating it out on the elliptical machine. Fox News did a preview of the story, which caught my eye and prompted me to extend my workout so I could see the spot about the latest CEO blogger.

Fox News — bastion of Republican ideals that they are — spent about 15% of the segment asking Bill about his new blog. They spent the remaining time inquiring about Bill’s stance on illegal immigrant workers. Leave it to Fox News to miss the whole point of something newsworthy.

Anyway, check out Bill’s blog if you haven’t seen it already. Short, meaningful posts. Helpful topics. Behind-the-scenes insight. Reader interaction. Kudos, Bill … you’ve got all the hallmarks of a good CEO blog.

-Brandon 

Jason Goldberg, CEO of Jobster, poses the question: What should CEOs blog about?

It seems Jason’s blog has drawn mixed reaction from readers. Some say his posts are irrelevant to his business. Others salute his personal and open style. What do you think? Share your input with Jason through the survey he has set up on his blog.

What’s my take? I say blog about whatever you feel is important to you. Blog about your hopes and fears, your personal and professional passions, whatever you want. Just blog honestly. There’s plenty of room on corporate websites for company news, positioning statements, and other one-sided information. A CEO’s blog should be something different … an open dialogue.

Until next time,

~Brandon

Steven Streight has some CEO blogging advice for you, and I’m happy to point you to it. Steven’s CEO blogging guide is one of the most insightful, well-presented tutorials I’ve seen on the topic.

What you’ll find:

1. The five reasons CEOs “get along” well with blogs.
2. The most common CEO blogging errors.
3. A CEO blog checklist … and more.

See for yourself:
http://steven.streight.googlepages.com/ceobloggingguide

Until next time,

~Brandon

GoDaddy CEO Bob Parsons is at it again.

Bob has an entertaining history of Super Bowl commercials being rejected by network censors, and so far this year seems to be no different. His first attempt was rejected for being “too steamy,” though by network standards that could simply mean “we don’t like you.”

Bob swears the commercials are not meant to garner publicity. Hypothetical question of the day: If they’re not meant to garner publicity, why spend so much money on a strategy that has been rejected once, twice, three times a lady? Hypothetical question #2: Is sex the only thing that differentiates GoDaddy from its competitors?

I like GoDaddy. In fact, this blog is hosted by GoDaddy (as are several other websites I own). I just wonder why a company with so many product attributes would feel compelled to use sex as their primary selling point.

For the record, I think network (sexual) censorship is selective, random, and often personally and politically motivated. I also find this whole thing entertaining. Thanks Bob!

Read Bob’s blog here

Next week at Philadelphia University, Christopher Barger of IBM will speak about blogs, RSS feeds, wikis and other elements of Web 2.0.

Event summary follows:
Catch Up on Web 2.0 for Business

A “how to” seminar designed for corporate marketing, communications and public relations executives. Hear details, examples and advice from professionals using the new Web tools that are changing business communications.

Learn more

Happy New Year to all.

I’m back from holiday downtime and ready to roll. I’ve noticed an increase in the amount of CEO and corporate blogs in the news lately, so I’ll do my best to play catch up. I’ll capture and summarize as much of this news as possible in the next week or so.

~Brandon