Blog or Die-TOC
Below is a project milestone document, our extended Table of Contents. This, the most vital component of our publisher's package tells what we intend to put in the book itself. The chapters will come alive down the line, after we have determined what case studies to actually use--we plan to use lots of them.
What we now ask is for your review of the TOC and please--do not be gentle. We want to write a book that stands out in the increasing pack of books being written about blogging.
While receiving your comments, Robert will continue tweaking the competitive analysis that he posted yesterday and I will circle back to the previously published Overview, to incorporate many of the fine comments we received way back in mid-December.
One other note--please don't tell Robert that I changed the subtitle for our book. I want to surprise him and that company he works for.
Title: "Blog or Die --If blogging can improve Microsoft’s image, think of what can it do for yours?"
Note: Most chapters will contain one or more case studies illustrating these chapter summaries. Specific cases will be selected later on. The authors have compiled a list of nearly 50 so far. We anticipate many more from Red Couch blogsite readers.
1. Scoble’s First Microsoft Dollar
In 2002, Robert Scoble attended a Microsoft “Most-Valued Partners” event at Microsoft’s headquarters, representing his employer at that time. In keynote remarks, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer challenged participants for ideas; "Give me a good one and I‘ll give you a buck. I’ll even sign it.” Scoble suggested Microsoft speak in “a more human voice,” and thus, Ballmer awarded Scoble his first Microsoft dollar.
Six months later, Scoble would join Microsoft as one of the company's 300 technology evangelists. Placed in the mid-level of the 57,000-person organization, seven tiers beneath the company’s chairman, neither Scoble nor Microsoft had any idea of how each were about to transform the other. A year later, Scoble would be the best-known voice of the new “more human” Microsoft. By day, he’d walk around the Redmond campus, armed with a camcorder, interviewing company technologists on myriad software projects, posting the video interviews on the new Channel 9 developer’s blog. At night, Scoble would prolifically blog on any technology-related subject. At times, he championed his employer. At others, he’d be among Redmond’s harshest critics. Sometimes, he advised readers to visit competitors’ sites or even to download or buy competing products. He had no idea how his superiors would respond, but they did nothing to stop it, so he just kept on, posting as many as 40 times a day. He knew that Microsoft’s PR agency and in-house marketing technicians wanted to muzzle—or at least filter him—but they never received the authority to do so.
The result was twofold: (1) the unfettered Scoble emerged to become one of the best-known and most highly regarded members of Microsoft’s organization. (2) Microsoft, a company whose public image was among the worst of any company, started to see public hostility diminish. Just the fact that Microsoft’s senior powers allowed Scoble to continue helped moved theneedle toward favorability. As of today, there are over 1,300 Microsoft blogging employees, each giving outsiders insight into the internal workings of this huge, controversial company.
But, “Blog or Die” is not just about Scoble and Microsoft. Rather, it is an attempt to share what the author has learned along the way; to take his experiences and demonstrate how they apply to businesses of all sizes, in all places. Likewise, Blog or Die will not champion Microsoft, nor will it examine the company's historic virtues and vices.
Rather, the book champions blogging in nearly all business environments, suggesting that if the rapidly emerging technology helped an entity as controversial as Microsoft, become better understood and even more trusted, then it is highly likely to help almost any other company.
2. Blog or Die
This chapter lays out the book’s central premise. Blogging is following the same patterns of adoption as has nearly all disruptive technologies since the industrial revolution. Used and championed by a handful of technically sophisticated champions, the word spread to ever increasing hordes of users through grassroots word of mouth. But blogging has grown faster than anything that preceded it. By January 2005, less than five years after its inception, 10 percent of all Americans read blogs, an increase of up 60 percent in less than a year, according to Pew Research. The full number of blogs is probably about 10 million, up from 100,000 two years ago.
The number of people blogging to improve a business is certainly much smaller today. Like every technology revolution, however, businesses large and small are the latest adopters. But bloggers are being found in all levels of business from Fortune 50 boardrooms to local merchants and home office consultants. The chapter looks at bloggers in: General Motors; at Coca Cola; in professional sports ownership; at an ailing Silicon Valley company fighting for its identity and at a New England sign maker, and more.
Businesses today are facing a series of decisions that will impact the fiber of their business on multiple levels. Incumbents who ignore blogging will have the same result as companies that ignored the Internet—they will be replaced by new, wiser challengers. There are cases of a bicycle accessories maker who nearly perished by ignoring the Blogosphere, and a large Silicon Valley employer who ignored the charges posted by an indignant spouse of an employee. Not only must companies adopt blogging, but also they must adhere to a new set of rules that prevent them from using blogging as just anther channel to communicate the same messages in the same language and at the same time as in other channels.
3. Word-of-Mouth Engines
We are all today besieged during our waking hours by all sorts of message intruders attempting to influence our choices in the movies we attend, the cars we buy, where we eat, how we vote and so on. In our own defense, we have built personal filters, trying to immunize ourselves to persistent, often obnoxious intrusions. Marketing noise, along with issues of governance, knowingly selling unsafe products, and using off-shored support programs have made most people mistrust corporations and large organizations.
By contrast, we trust whom we know. We turn to friends whom we perceive to have authority and passion in specific areas—computers, cooking, travel or new cars. When our friends don’t have the answers, they refer us to other trusted colleagues, extending our personal networks out a few iterations.
The business problem is that after three-or-four iterations, word-of-mouth reach have dissolves. Businesses wanting to reach millions need longer-range tools. For that companies turn to one-directional broadcast models—press releases, web sites, ads, press conferences, etc. to get their messages out.
While this worked for a very long while, recent market factors have broken both the efficiency and credibility of company-broadcast messages. For a decade, the costs of reaching people rose exponentially. To reach the people you wanted to get to—customers, partners or investors, broadcast messages reached people who did a company no good and resented the relentless barrage of unwanted messages.
Into this environment blogging was born. It did something unprecedented—it made word-of-mouth engines scalable to worldwide levels and it did it at astonishing low cost. Communications is two-way. Conversations replace broadcasting. Companies have the opportunity to efficiently listen to may customers. Companies become better understood, more accessible, smarter from user input. Blogging also has a natural filtration system that catches and banishes—or holds to public scorn and ridicule—deceit, traditional “corp talk” and pushy selling efforts. The chapter will examine the role blogging played in Foxfire, the new Internet browser likely to eclipse Internet Explorer, before spending its first marketing dollar, and when it actually placed its first ad—in the New York Times, the insertions was paid for by customers, rather than the software publisher.
4. Too Many Influencers: Not Enough Influence
When Shel Israel joined Regis McKenna, Inc., back in 1981, he learned the most powerful PR was word-of-mouth and the most effective PR was practiced without “dial and smile” pitching. The idea was to establish yourself as a reliable source of insight and information, rather than just a company/product shill. This way, industry influencers, including editors and reporters would seek you out on matters that interested them. Israel became adept at it.
By maintaining about 30 solid and ongoing relationships and looking out for information that was valuable to these influencers he became a "reliable source" and when his clients fit into a particular editor's story, getting them coverage was as easy as cutting butter with a warm knife.
Times change. By1997, after the Web turned everything upside down, there were hundreds of so-called “influencers,” in some segments, thousands, making the concept of close personal relationships inane. By the time, Israel cashed out of PR in 2001, he says he, “no longer knew which influencers mattered. “Even if my agency got ink, it no longer seemed to move the needle for my clients."
Israel became immersed in blogging, realizing that everyone had become an influencer. PR, based on relationships and credibility as Israel had practiced it might carry on for a few years, but as he had practiced it, Israel concluded that the PR would need to change to survive.
5. Invisible and Direct Influencers
PR professionals live by “impressions,” the largest number of people who might read an article in a particular paper or online publication. For example, a “hit” in the Sunday New York Times, theoretically could be worth over a million impressions. The compare that number and scoff at the idea that some faceless blogger with an average of say, 200 site visitors-a-day may have greater influence for a client. They downright get hysterical with laughter if you’d suggest they talk to the bloggers before you approach the New York Times. Why bother?
Most people don’t consider blogs to be ink. Let’s look closer. What if 100 of that blogger’s subscribers were national business editors? What if the remaining 100 were divided between a client’s largest customers, wealthiest investors and most powerful partners? What if that person’s blog links to a small circle that represents the most important players in a client’s infrastructure?
Such people exist. Blog or Die will identify a few and discuss why this new category of players is even more influential than they are invisible.
Then there’s another category—players who are recognized as authorities on a subject, but have grown tired of being, abused, misquoted, quoted out of context or offensively characterized by the press. These elite players may still talk to the press from time-to-time, but they blog with greater frequency and passion to audiences who know and respect their views. In fact, these heavy hitters have begun to disintermediate the press by using blogs to go directly to editorial audiences. Ignore them at your peril.
6. RSS—Letting Customers Decide
RSS is the miracle ingredient of the Blogosphere, but to explain it,we need to back up a bit.
Long before some company with more arrogance than brains reduced customers down to “stick eyeballs,” there was the concept that the customers was usually right. Bloggers start back at that point and assume their collective audiences are smarter than they are.Smart businesses use blogs to own relationships even at the cost of an occasional sale.
Blogging recalibrates the equation on who gets to choose. If a prospect wants a little companyinformation—such as when a new product will ship, he or she must submit personal data. In return, customers may get their information eventually, but all too often, they get much more in the form of direct email, unwanted newsletters and their contact information being sold.
Even companies who respect privacy make it difficult for people to easily get what they want. People need to call often to navigate through labryntine voice mail to speak with representatives who use a different language, or repeatedly visit web sites or watch for announcements.
RSS enables changes all that by establishing home delivery. The information you want gets shipped to a special section of your inbox. It doesn’t interfere with your regular email and it's there for you when you want to read it. Thus, a customer can build an ongoing, active relationship with a company without having to give the company any personal information or the company even knowing he or she has been there. The customer chooses when and how to make his or her presence known.
The dynamic may screw up company marketing matrixes, but it does wonders for building long term customer loyalty.
7. Getting Started & Noticed
Blogging is easy, requiring no programming or arcane special knowledge. But there are a few basics on how it works. This chapter walks you through everything you need to know to get started. It also provides useful tips on finding the right voice; frequency and length of posts; why marcom filtering and refining will fail; and understanding the tools of blogging. The Chapter also will list tips on things to do to get other bloggers to link to your blog and readers to aggregate to it.
8. How Blogging Can Get You Fired
You don’t need to be a great author. With few exceptions, proofing and grammar gaffes are found on almost every blogsite. But, anyone who depends on a public market; wants an efficient way to collaborate or wants to share ideas or knowledge with an affinity group should blog. To succeed you need to have only two attributes: passion and authority. We will examine case of Fortune 50 boardroom executives as well as local merchants who blog and discuss what they are gaining from it.
9. The Transparent Company
Blog or Die advocates a new level of corporate openness, while conceding almost every company needs to keep some matters private. Still, there are dangers in openness for some businesses. If yours has something to hide, such as environmental noncompliance policies or marketing drugs with harmful side effects or you like to rig the energy commodities market, it would probably be unwise to allow employee blogging. If you are a control freak, like at least one prominent. Silicon Valley computer executive, you may resent the sound of any voice but your own. If your employees are unhappy for good reason, it may be unwise to allow blogging.
Companies can stop the blogging, but can they stop the truth from getting out? The authors look at how blogging may reward companies that do the right thing while weeding out those who don’t.
10. Ah, There is an ROI!
The “R” question is the most frequently asked by business managers who also want to know why they should allow or encourage employees to blog. Like most marketing programs, it is difficult to measure the return on programs and tactics that raise awareness, loyalty and goodwill? What, for example, is the ROI on a press release? How about buying a table at a charity fund raiser? Why bother with a website or a trade show booth? What’s the ROI on employee T-shirts?
11. Behind the Firewall
Six Apart estimates that half of all blogs are private. Many are simply password protected for affinity groups. But others are installed firewalls for collaborative planning. Companies like Disney, Google and Microsoft, use them inside their corporations to change how teams work together and share information. Getting information out of email systems and into corporate intranets is an early forming trend. Together, with blogging’s cousin, the wiki, this chapter will discuss the implications of the fast-forming trend of the private blog.
12. Breaking Taboos
In addition to quiet launches, the authors examine other traditional taboos and why they have are old hat. We explain why:
- Bloggers should pre-announce products.
- You should “good-mouth” your competitors and send traffic their way
- More is better and so is shorter
- Mid-level employees should be encouraged to blog about their unfinished work without management filtering
13. How Blogging Can Get You Fired
Free speech should not be a green light for poor judgment or ethical breeches. This chapter looks at a few people who tested that argument and ended up collecting unemployment checks. Successful bloggers almost universally adhere to certain standards and ethics. Scoble’s Corporate Manifesto originally written in 2003 will be updated and expanded. We will also examine Allan Jenkins Code of Ethics. It will explain how the Blogosphere filters false, misleading and self-serving commentary and gives examples of the system’s long memory for violations.
14. Who Should Blog. Who shouldn't.
Anyone who depends on a public market; wants an efficient way to collaborate or wants to share ideas or knowledge with an affinity group should blog. To succeed, you need to have only two attributes: passion and authority.
15. Bridging Chasms
Geoff Moore’s classic “Crossing the Chasm” showed how every start up crosses an abyss before becoming established. While blogging cannot eliminate the chasm, it can build a bridge that makes it easier to transition into a branded entity. It looks at a series of companies that have gone from zero to many customers before spending their first dollar on traditional marketing.
16. Winners and Sinners
This chapter will cover multiple cases of business bloggers who have helped their companies and will look at a few of the most bone-headed plays not covered in previous chapters
17. The Business World in 2014
Blogging will transform corporate communication just about, as much as corporate communications will transform blogging. What will the world look like ten years hence? The authors hazard a few guesses, and profile companies likely to perish if they continue to ignore blogging.
Good job guys :) I agree (obviously) that case studies are massively important for a project like this.
Reading through this, here are some thoughts:
1. Stick to not making this about Robert. Sure, for us bloggers he's great, and he is the author. But don't make him the central case study.
2. There's two chapters about blogging getting you fired?
Overall it's good. I'm not entirely sure on the order of chapters, but I think the chapters (or topics anyways) are good.
I'll ruminate more later today :) Good job getting this done!
Posted by: Jeremy C. Wright | January 04, 2005 at 11:28 AM
Nice job Shel! I'll look it over and see if I can find anything else to improve.
Yeah, there's two "blogging can get you fired" chapters.
Jeremy, believe me, if I'm the central case study by the time this book comes out then we'll have failed. Not just Shel and I, but the movement to get corporations to use conversational marketing techniques will have failed.
Hint: I think we're going to see a lot of companies try things in this space over the next year. Some of which will be suprisingly good!
Posted by: Robert Scoble | January 04, 2005 at 12:33 PM
You really, really don't need to convince me about any of this :p
Btw, you guys need to stop talking to publishers. They keep saying they're waiting on info from you guys before they'll review my book :p
Posted by: Jeremy C. Wright | January 04, 2005 at 12:38 PM
Jeremy,
Just get us a six-figure advance on royalties, and we'll agree to sit down on the Red Couch and shut up.
Posted by: shel | January 04, 2005 at 12:58 PM
Chapter 1 sounds more like the Introduction. The current chapter 2 should be chapter 1, as you wrote it is the manifesto that lays out the central premise.
You should move chapter 7 up. There are too many expository chapters before it gets to the "What do I do" stuff. Also I'm not sure what the exact difference between chapters 3, 4, and 5 are. Smoosh those into one. And move the RSS chapter later (geek!!). So now "Getting Started & Noticed" is chapter 3, not 7.
And maybe move chapter 8 down a bit. Given the chapters outlined above, I see the overall layout as roughly (some of these are more than one chapter)
0) Introduction - the Saga of Scoble
1) Manifesto
2) Case Studies
3) What do I do: Basics
4) Theoretical Discussion / History
5) What do I do: Advanced
6) Possible Issues
7) The Future
The case studies are mixed in everywhere; item 2) is the best, most "grab ya"-ish ones. Items 3) and 5), the "What do I do", should be the bulk of the book (IMeversoHO).
- adam
Posted by: Adam Barr | January 04, 2005 at 02:10 PM
Chapter 1 is too much about Robert and Microsoft. Although I understand why it’s in there, it’s too one sided. Shel, you are co-author and you are not mentioned until the fourth chapter. That stood out to me and I think it will to others.
Blog or die - that title might severely backfire on you just as it did when Puffy did the Vote or Die slogan to get people to vote. For search engine ranking, you might want to consider a title that is not heavily dependent on "blog" since it's a saturated keyword.
To me Chapter 2 should be chapter one. As a business owner I want to know why the heck I should start blogging. Microsoft could be briefly mentioned here and as a case study later. As a company owner I would think because the book is published the publisher felt the authors were qualified to write it. Tell me how to do it myself and before Chapter 7. :)
Chapter 2 and 3 should be combined because the word of mouth reach is what makes blogging worth while. In Chapter 3 it’s FireFox not Foxfire. :)
Chapter 4 seems out of place and really should be combined with Chapters 2 & 3 since it covers the same topic - word of mouth networking and the influence blogs can have.
Chapter 5 is a subchapter of 2-4.
The RSS chapter is needed but I don’t see how you can accurately talk about it without talking about software. If software is an area you want to avoid then you somehow have to say that the software they use needs to have RSS integrated without the reader feeling lost about what software they should be using.
Getting noticed - this is an important chapter but they need to get noticed in their particular niche/field (ie: their target client).
Is this chapter 8 misnamed?
I get your point with Chapter 9 but most companies have "something" to hide. Does this chapter address how to handle problems when they arise?
Why is there a chapter 12 if this is from a corporate standpoint?
This is where I get lost. Is this book about companies having a company blog (hosted by them, controlled by them) or is this book about letting employees blog about the company (personal blogs of the employee hosted elsewhere with the personal life of the employee co-mingled in)? It seems to flip-flop back and forth.
I would get into the meat of the subject (as a company owner why I should blog, how it works, how to get started, the pitfalls of blogging, what not to do, etc). quicker. Chapter 14 needs to be closer to the front of the book instead of the back. Blogging will not work for all companies.
On the tech side, there are other aspects besides RSS that play an important role in a blogs success - design, navigation, the ability to freely comment or not, etc. Don’t forget those points but don't get too technical.
Furthermore - Ha ha, just joking! That's all I can think of off the top of my head. Good luck with it!
Posted by: Tyme | January 04, 2005 at 03:24 PM
Like Jeremy mentioned, chapters 8 and 13 ought to be combined and retitled to 'How Blogging Can Get You Hired' and reference the bits about folks who've been fired. I bet you can dig up more cases of blogs being helpful to careers, than blogs being harmful...
Tyme's earlier comments are great too...
Good on ya for throwing this out there!
Posted by: Bren | January 04, 2005 at 04:57 PM
I have more of a "macro" comment.
I love the start of this proposal. But the TOC runs out of juice after chapter 7 in my opinion. It feels like the first half of this book is mentally written, and the last part is searching for a phone.
First suggestion- divide the book up into three major sections. Cover the background, state of the industry and the "old school" marketing/messaging limitations, then cover the technology and the basics, then cover the applications of blogging and implications that companies/individuals should be concerned about.
Long story made short- come up with two or three major themes and then string the TOC together using those as a major sections of content. I think this will help to better flesh out the individual chapters.
Posted by: Randy H. | January 04, 2005 at 08:43 PM
Robert,
I think Randy H. is right on spot.I can only speak for me, but I do have the first seven chapters nailed in my mind. It's where we spent the most time talking. Then I feel we kind of fall off. You may have it better formed in your mind and maybe in the next draft you can rev it up. The consensus is pretty universal--we do not have this properly organized. Our points are not sharp enough and as you have taught me so well--listen to the Blogosphere.
Posted by: shel | January 04, 2005 at 08:56 PM
BTW- meant to say "searching for a theme", not "searching for a phone" in my previous comment. :)
Posted by: Randy H. | January 04, 2005 at 10:15 PM
I was wondering about the phone. I mean, I lost mine recently but I'm not sure that has any relevance.
Posted by: Jeremy C. Wright | January 05, 2005 at 08:43 AM
I really don't like the title, It remindes me of a Bond movie.
I’m currently writing a novel. My main character needs to rise quickly through a corporation. He starts out in the marketing department and Blogs. I love the far reaching affects of the internet. Soon he finds that he can help and build trust for his product, that he is ahead of the curve.
I like the fact that you mention the change in marketing practices, from the old to the new.
Posted by: Alex | January 05, 2005 at 10:16 AM
I had a quick flick through this and thought there is plenty of good stuff here - well done!
You may have commented on this before but I REALLY believe that this would read better if written in the first person. Is this not one of the things that we have learnt? I want to engage with the two of you and the third person discussion doesn't do it for me. Hope that helps.
Posted by: Freddie Daniells | January 05, 2005 at 11:14 AM
Freddie, yeah, we're struggling with that. I'll see if I can clean up the voice on the next pass.
Shel and others: yup, I'll reorganize. I'll also spend time on the chapters at the end of the book.
This is great feedback everyone, thanks!
Regarding the name. We're going with "the Red Couch."
Posted by: Robert Scoble | January 05, 2005 at 11:28 AM
Bren at slacker magazine commented on digging up a few examples of how people have been hired as a result of a blog. Microsoft has a great example on their recruiting blog of this and I have a few as a result of my blog. There is a company called impinj located in Seattle which has a recruiting blog and the wall street journal interviewed someone who got hired as a result of their blog.
Thanks
Jason
Posted by: Jason Davis | January 05, 2005 at 12:18 PM
For what it's worth, I love the name The Red Couch. To me it reinforces the "community aspect" of blogs. People sitting down to share ideas. Altho not the traditional "explain the subject title" it's memorable and the story behind the name makes for great marketing and PR. "Conversations From The Red Couch" might be another idea tho a little long perhaps? Could be a great spin-off podcast or vblog program to support the book...
Posted by: Toby | January 05, 2005 at 12:33 PM
Great synopis !! My 2 cents worth..
1)Casestudies should have companies that have secussfully promoted blogs. Blogsphere is NOT MSFT centric.
2) I see no mention of the mainstream press Vs Blog's and the hassles that blogsphere goes thru.. this needs to be mentioned somewhere.
3) In blogpshere There are two conversations happening, people are always talking to each other directly inside and outside the company- and not just about rules, regulations and boardroom stuff , its also about services, products and relationships. How will companies be educated to leverage this new phenonmen ? Soemthing like a tips,tricks and tips section (but for companies !!)
Keeping chuggin along, we'll keep cheering and chip'in !!
Posted by: /pd | January 05, 2005 at 01:56 PM
Hi, Robert, hi Shel. Robert: did you listen to the audio of the "Emotional Life" session at Bloggercon? There was actually a lot of talk about blogging and work. Specifically, people were talking about why they take the risk of blogging when they could easily get "Dooced."
A lot of the outline is about why blogging is good for the employer, but it's less clear why it's interesting for the employed...why do we do it?
It occurs to me that now that I blog under my own name, I've probably been fired from at least four jobs I haven't even applied for yet :). The end result is that it's not possible for me to work for a company that doesn't accept that I'm a human being with interests, feelings, and top ten lists. That's cool. So often, the cubicle is a kind of veal pen for the soul. You're supposed to check your humanity at the door, and not be a human being on company time. Blogging offers a unique opportunity to prove that human beings -- with their weird quirks and troublesome interests -- can make excellent employees :).
Well, that's not possible for me anymore. We'll start out with nonessential, non-space-shuttle-flying, non-cancer-curing-personnel like me, and work our way up.
Until everybody can be free. Just to be a human being. Even at work.
Posted by: Lisa Williams | January 06, 2005 at 04:58 AM
oops. that should read "It's not possible for me to work for a "check your humanity at the door" company anymore -- it's too easy to Google and find out that I'm a human being."
Posted by: Lisa Williams | January 06, 2005 at 05:03 AM
Well said, Lisa. Thanks.
Posted by: shel | January 06, 2005 at 08:18 AM
Great work, Shel and Robert.
Quick immediate comment, an instant reaction just simply landing on this post and taking in what my eyes see - I really don't like the proposed title, sorry.
Please stick with The Red Couch. That will have significant PR value, trust me.
Maybe the proposed title could be the tag line. Hmmm, not that sure about that.
Posted by: Neville Hobson | January 06, 2005 at 01:12 PM
Drop chapter 7. The great thing about the internet is that you don't have to reinvent the wheel. There are so many "how to blog" guides out there. I know you're writing a book and hyperlinks don't work, but you could do the dead-tree hyperlink - a bibliography.
Posted by: Paul Morriss | January 07, 2005 at 12:54 AM
To help the book stand out, you need a good first chapter. It needs to good enough that people will read the first x pages (where x is somewhere between 2 and 4) and be interested.
I'd suggest including a good anecdote right at the beginning talking about one incident about where blogging has "made a difference".
Posted by: Eric Gunnerson | January 07, 2005 at 01:33 PM
A few thoughts on the TOC.
#1: If this is an intro, I’m fer it; if not, I’m agin it. I’m sure Robert is fascinating – “…ich verginge von seinem stärkeren Dasein” – and his story is applicable and part of the larger story. But I’d be careful. After all, the readers are more interested in themselves than in you.
#2: “Blog or Die” is a very good title.
#4: Very interesting. I hadn’t realized how utterly that element of business had changed. It’s always good for the reader to feel a thrill of discovery.
#5: There’s a stark divide between those who believe blogs are a force and those who don’t. Business people and journalists both are walls to be scaled. Even as they see their traditional, and increasingly ineffectual, methods being bypassed to some success, they can get madder than a wet hen. How to handle the balance of convince vs. harsh wake-up call?
#8: The chapter head and description didn’t seem to match up. What am I missing?
#13: OK, someone’s been sniffing the Carnuba. “Poor judgment and ethical breaches”? Really? Because if the last election has proven one thing, it’s that we all share the same sense of what is ethical. Hey, wait. That’s not true! Sorry, have to part company with you here. Whether businesses like it or not does not matter one bit – they will have to create clear, distinct blogging policies that do not rely for even one instant on either good judgment or ethical rectitude. You can pretend that you ought not to have to do this – and you’ll wind up having to fire people. Then everyone will get pissed off. Then everyone will stop blogging. At least for you. Also, as long as blogging is considered threatening, but governable, its utility will be limited. All creatures are created transparent but some are more transparent than others? You can’t turn the openness, creativity, passion and other elements that make a good blogger on and off like a faucet. You are going to have to lead by example, not by proscription. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. You want a 100% safe corporate blogging experience? No problem. It’s called not-having-a-blog. What’s a little blog hurt you? Come on, just a little. Everybody’s doing it…
Posted by: Curt | January 28, 2005 at 04:11 PM