Individual vs. Team Blogs

I have a couple of half-day workshops on blog strategy coming up, one at Hitachi Data Systems and the other at CNET.  In preparing for them, both companies have asked me about the issue of team vs. individual blogs.  This also has emerged as an issue over at Sharpcast where I am consulting. It dawns on me that this issue is cause for angst in many companies.

Should employees who are going to blog about their jobs be organized by product group, department or workgroup?  Should the URL have the company name in it? Does it matter if it is hosted on Wordpress, Typepad, Movable Type or a company server?

When I first started hearing this question, I used to say it really doesn't matter.  Now, I would adjust that to say it matter less than many companies realize, but there are pluses and minuses for a group blog vs individual blogs.

Pluses:

• I requires less time of each blogger.
• Each blogger can give a different perspective to the same project, product or service.
• Group blogs fit into a neat tidy ball with the existing web site.

Minuses:

• Your most passionate readers rarely go to your actual blog.  They subscribe to feeds and read what you have to say in plain text. All that look and feel work you might do on a company blog, is like dressing up to entertain an occasional house guest. For your real friends, you probably appear more casually.
• Most reader follow bloggers, not blogs. In short, if five people share a blogspace, each of them will develop their own followers who often skip entries by co-bloggers at the same site. I scanned my feeds this morning and was surprised at how few group blogs have reach prominence.  With the exception of TechDirt, my short list of daily "must reads" has no group blogs. When I have time there are a few others I enjoy over at the Corante stable.
• In fact, I think Mike Arrington has selected a wiser course.  He started with TechCrunch, then branched into CrunchNotes, MobileCrunch and CrunchTalk.  Each blog s written by a different person.

In short, my advice to companies is to spawn a culture that encourages people to blog about their work. Let everyone start their own blog wherever they wish. Maybe use a company site to point to list their individual URLs.  Encourage synergy between blogging employees.  Let them link to each other when there's relevancy.  That linking will help their rankings of course.

My disclaimer, is that this advice may be obsolete in time. Companies seem more comfortable with group blogs than individual blogs. There is no reason why, with tweaking, some passionate, informative group blogs will become wildly popular.

Comments

[Matt Antonino]

Just finished your book - and this is the first post that came through after I setup a bloglines! :)

As far as group blogs - I know that when I get my ESPN feed, I do tend to skip certain people. I think the way I can subscribe to JUST Bill Simmons for instance or just Paul Shirley - that's good stuff! However, they do have an aggregate blog as well. So maybe the future is in multiple blogs congregated into one feed, but with individual feeds you can choose to subscribe to.

"Your most passionate readers rarely go to your actual blog."

This is funny and true - since I read your post this morning in plain-text.

Matt

[Jane Genova]

Since blogging is a first-person genre, a group blog might not have the pull force of individual blog sites.

This is an important issue and will be even more important as major corporations embrace blogging.

[Toby]

I happen to really like multi-author blogs.
They give a broader look into the 'company'; provide more ways to 'touch' different authority leaders; level out the posting responsibilities and it seems less 'scary' to new companies that are considering entering launching a blog.

When I consult with companies about using blogs as a marketing/biz tactic, especially if they're hesitant to step into the blog space, we usually explore group blogs.

Also, there are a number of different ways that the blog can be structured so that RSS feeds are associated with an indivdual blogger. If a company finds that a blogger becomes widly popular (comments, trackbacks, links, direct email to the blogger) it's easy to spin that off into a stand alone blog - of course linked back to the original blog - if that fits in with the overall strategy for the brand.

[Jeffrey Treem]

Shel,

I completely agree with your analysis except I think you overlook one distinction.

The group blogs that most companies produce are "official" company blogs (see:GM, Southwest) while most of the individual employees blogging, though their behavior may be known and sanctioned by the company, represent their own views and interests.

This is largely because of the time commitment that blogging requires. Few individuals (i.e., Scoble, Rubel) who work at large companies have the ability to blog at high volume.

However, I agree that most of these concerns could be solved with a central page that directs to individual blogs. Heck, the could even tag them all and viola! you have a bunch of group blogs.

[Ed Terpening]

We've found group blogging effective at Wells Fargo because it allows us to cover much more ground with a variety of voices and experts. I suppose the question of one vs. many bloggers also has to do with the scope/size of the topic you're tackling. We're covering both the historical aspects of disaster (requiring historians) as a means of getting the public to prepare, which takes guest bloggers from The American Red Cross, Civil Engineers, and other experts.

I have to say I do enjoy the consistency of a single blogger. You know what you're in for.

[Dave Forde]

Can you really apply a blanket solutions as single vs. team blogs to all companies?
It seems to me that part of what makes a blogger successful is when we can feel their passion for what they're writing about. Sometimes an entire team can be passionate, but if the main/ lead blogger on a team loses their passion isn't there a chance that it brings decreases the motivation for the rest of the team to blog?

I completely agree with your advice that corporate blogging should spawn from a culture of those who want to do it vs. part of their job description.

[Dennis Howlett]

This is interesting Shel as I am currently adivsing on a group blog. In this case, the CEO is gung ho for the group approach for all sorts of reasons.
1. It shares the burden - important when, as he says: 'Being a CEO isn't the fun it's cracked up to be - running from one finance meeting to another delaing with numbnuts that don't understamd our business.'
2. Ability to draw in guest bloggers as well - may end up conflicted but at least if they are clear about the relationship then does it matter?
3. Ability to use blog as a way to help align customer service value to somethning taingible customer want
4. Opportunity to be part of the conversation and not an outsider (talks to the people follow bloggers idea) possibly with an initial customer grouping on a behind the firewall basis so that each gains experience
5.; Encourages bottom up change

Downsides:
1. Blog troll management (a la Gartner - BTM)
2. Time management. In the last few weeks, there's been so much good stuff going on in my segment it's been a real toil to keep up - and I do this stuff for a living! Means editorial management - a professional job forr which most companies are ill equipped.
3. Which brings us back to the individual super star. And how long is it before they get burnt out trying to manage the white hot pace of 'newsroom leads?'

The conflicts of being your own editor/publisher...

[Susan Getgood]

It can also be difficult for a group blog to find, and maintain, its "voice." If a company is going to do a group blog, it needs to have a clear (and stated) editorial purpose -- so readers know what to expect, and the bloggers can stay focused. Not that different than the editorial mission of a traditional publication.

[Shel Israel]

Dennis,

Funny, I just talked with a small company that is doing a group blog. The mid-level surprised me and the executive team by saying they were terribly uncomfortable blogging in the same space as their immediate boss or their CEO. While they are encouraged to disagree with the CEO on the blog if they want to, the mid-level has made clear they simply not do that. The walkaway quote if the day was: "If my CEO sucks, I would not want to outshine him. If he writes something great--I don't want to follow his act."

[Dennis Howlett]

I see the point and fully understan the resistance. It breaks all the rules of so-called pecking order management. As 'we' know, it doesn't have to be that way.

An ennlightened management would maybe support that by looking at Mini-Microsoft and its relationship to Scoble. To me it's not brain surgery but then I've been unemployable for 28 years. Who am I to judge?

[Steve Clayton]

Hi Shel

I'm just in the middle of reading the book - great so far. While I tend to agree people follow bloggers rather then a blog I think there is a subtle mix. For example, I have a mix of bloggers I follow (like Scoble) but also sites such as Microsoft Watch. That’s not to say Mary Jo Foley who posts on the latter blog isn’t a good blogger but the site defines what she’ll blog about rather than Scoble who I follow a) because I work at the same place b) because he posts all kind of stuff that makes it off the wall. Not so much a question of a team blog (I'm not sure if MS Watch is) but more a blog being defined by it's topic.

[Jeremiah Owyang]

As usual, your timing is great Shel, Forrester launched a group blog recently.

http://blogs.forrester.com/marketing/

Wonder if Charlene's success helped to drive this adoption

[Jeremy Wright]

My position is let individuals blog individually, and then bubble up the right posts to the official / team / group blog (or let them tag it as such). Best of both worlds (for writers, readers, companies, etc).

[Rambling Librarian]

In my experience so far, colleagues (in my organisation and in others) seem more comfortable with the idea of a group blog rather than an individual blog. Culture doesn't seem to be the real reason (I sensed the same thing in Singapore and in South Africa). Perhaps it's the "Institutional Culture" (i.e. librarianship) rather than societial that determines preference. Just a shot in the dark here.