Is a CEO Blog Right for Your Company?

As the publisher of a blogging advice website, I pay close attention the evolution of corporate communications. I also keep tabs on how CEOs are using their blogs, just for ideas and inspiration.

Because of this exposure to CEO blogging, I can tell you that the most commonly asked question on the subject is, “Should a CEO blog?” Here’s my take on the subject:

Q: Should a CEO blog?

A: Only if he or she really wants to!

Blogging just for the sake of doing it is a bad way to enter the corporate blogosphere. There are now thousands of CEO blogs online, and even more corporate blogs published by directors, VPs and other executives. So my advice to an aspiring CEO blogger is this. Don’t start a blog unless you really want to … and make sure you have something unique or interesting to blog about.

The best CEO blogs — those that generate the most buzz, traffic and excitement — are the ones published by truly enthusiastic CEOs. You can spot these blogs fairly easily, because the energy and passion with which the CEO writes becomes palpable.

On the other hand, the blogs written just for the sake of blogging are also easy to spot, but for more negative reasons. These blogs are published by CEOs who feel they must “go through the motions” because other CEOs are doing it. Or worse, these blogs are ghostwritten by PR / marketing staff [gasp!].

So to reiterate my answer to the question, should a CEO blog: Yes, a CEO should blog if he or she is so excited about the notion of blogging that it keeps them up at night. If they are practically bursting with thoughts, ideas and insights … then by all means, they should share these things.

Once a CEO decides to start a blog, the next logical question is, “What should I blog about?” I recommend blogging 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 of sorts.

5 Benefits of Publishing a CEO Blog

If a CEO decides that, yes, a bog is worth pursuing, another logical follow-up question is, “Why should I blog in the first place?” In other words, how does blogging help your organization? How do you justify the time spent on blogging? What are the benefits?

Here are the primary benefits of corporate blogging:

1. Easy Online Publishing

Can you type an email or a Word document? If so, you have all the technical “expertise” necessary to publish a blog. After the setup process, it’s a simple matter of entering your content and clicking “Publish.” This ease-of-use will make you more inclined to publish content on a regular basis, which encourages people and search engines to revisit often.

Blogs are also great for multiple-author scenarios. Let’s say the CEO publishes a blog but also wants certain folks in the organization to chime in once in a while. Most blog applications make this a simple matter. You simply assign the author a separate login, and they can contribute to the blog without accessing other areas. Bill Marriott does this often on his blog (www.blogs.marriott.com). This can also be a good motivator for the CEO to use, allowing people to be the “guest of honor” on his or her blog.

2. Search Engine Visibility

This might not be a big deal for a household name like Marriott. But for smaller companies, search engine visibility can be an enormous help to the bottom line. In fact, it’s not uncommon for search engine traffic to be a primary source of business and revenue for small- to medium-sized companies. This is another benefit of regular blogging.

CEO blogs, in particular, receive a lot of attention. For example, each time I write about a particular business blog, I link to it as well. This adds to the subject blog’s “link popularity,” which is one of the criteria search engines use to evaluate and rank a website. Over time, this accumulation of links can drive a blog up through the search engine rankings like nothing else.

3. Positioning Power

Blogs tend to be closely associated with an individual author, more so than a regular website. This is especially the case with CEO blogs, for which the blog is an online extension of the CEO’s personality and ideas. In this way, blogs can help position the person as a “thought leader” in his or her industry.

4. Potential for Dialogue

CEO and corporate blogs are part of the social web, often referred to as Web 2.0. With their reader-commenting capabilities, blogs support the concept of online dialogue. When used properly, a CEO blog can harness the power of this dialogue concept. Through a blog, companies can get feedback directly from their customer base. They can also win the “hearts and minds” of their base by offering candid insight and discussion related to their products or services.

5. Blogs Foster Trust

When a CEO (or other corporate executive) publishes a blog in his or her true voice, it encourages trust among the blog’s readers. When people read your blog over time, sharing in your thoughts and insights, they begin to feel as if they know you. You become less of a stranger and more of a trusted resource. And in the post-Enron world of corporate skepticism, any company can benefit from appearing trustworthy.

6. Fill in the Blank

This is my own personal list of CEO blogging benefits. But with their versatility, blogs mean different things to different people. What value will you build into your blog? There are no limits … only possibilities.