metaViper

The advent of blogging has created an immense opportunity for traditional companies in the form of free buzz. It’s a way for corporate decision makers to connect directly with their employees and customers with casual dialog. Of course, the expectation is that when people share their opinions a company will take action based on their feedback.

One way to work through this without the same level of expectation is by encouraging employee blogging. This will help build a good online presence especially if employees are happy where they work. However, if negative blog posts are surfacing about your company that’s an indication there are internal problems in need of quick attention.

Essentially, blogging holds a company accountable to the public. Treat employees and customers fairly and this will work positively.

That said, it’s important to give would-be bloggers a few tips, which essentially become the company’s blogging policy. The points below are written from the perspective of an employer, please feel free to copy and modify them to fit your needs.

Are there important points I’m missing? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Blogging Policy Template:

Many people participate in blogging for business and pleasure. metaViper recognizes that your time outside of work is your own and that topics you choose to blog about during that time are independent of company domain. That in mind, we would like to recommend a few good practices:

1. If you identify yourself as an employee of metaViper it’s important to distinguish your opinion from the company’s.
2. Blogging about metaViper is encouraged with the first premise in mind.
3. In fact, here are a few things you might be interested in blogging about: metaViper’s focus on quality content, our relaxed culture that encourages diverse and collaborative independence, or some of our most recent articles.
4. Personal blogging at work shouldn’t interfere with your job. Microbreaks are important but make sure your work gets done.
5. Information posted to the blogosphere is public and will be accessible for years as part of your online breadcrumb. Remember this when sharing your opinions.
   
6. It’s important to use information that’s accurate. Someone might rely on the information you post!
7. If you use information from another source, give them credit. Usually it’s also polite to provide a link back to their web site, when applicable.
8. Help metaViper stay competitive and help us protect our customer information; don’t post confidential company information.
9. Respect copyright and trademark laws.

End of blogging policy template.

This template is a great place to start and includes most of the important points in understandable language. It may be necessary to consult with a lawyer for additional legalese.

You might also be interested in checking out IBM’s blogging policy posted by James Snell on his blog. James is an IBM employee. Their policy reflects most of the concepts I’m proposing here and is another great example to work from.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 18th, 2007 at 6:32 pm and is filed under Articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.