Henshaw

As students stagger towards the end of UBC’s MBA program there appears to be one thing they are all doing– blogging.

Sauder’s emphasis on blogging as part of the regular curriculum leads one to question… will students continue once they are done?

I’ve asked a few classmates of mine and the reaction is pretty universal, “we’d like to but what would happen if our bosses found out?” Well what would happen?

Do the two things have to be mututally exclusive? Does the personal brand that you have worked so hard to develop with the help of a blog have to be absorbed by the organization you work for?

My answer is no – social media, specifically blogs, can be mutually beneficial for employers and employees. Now I’m not saying that employee bloggers should pack up their sites and converge into being exclusive bloggers for their employers, I’m saying that they should be transparent in who they are employed by. Organizations who recognize those bloggers can also support them by using that organization’s communication channels to promote relevant stories.

This democratization of information could indeed be viewed as a “game changer” but I believe giving employees at all levels the opportunity to be supported by their organization in their blogging activity is win-win for both parties, here are some points:

Benefits for employees:

• By receiving corporate support of a blog that blogger may receive promotion through communication channels owned by that organization. This could lead to a signifigantly larger audience then they had previously.
• A blog can be like a slef directed interview, you get to answer questions that you like and pursue areas that are of interest to you.

Benefits for employers:

• An opportunity to access large groups of people through employee blogs. Let’s face it, if you have built a community of 3,000 subscribers to your blog, you are probably doing a number of things right – most company’s will want to be a part of that.
• Deeper employee engagement. If those employees who are passionate about the company that they work for

Of course there need to be rules in place but they should not be so draconian as to stifle the creativity of employees. Chances are those employees that are sponsored “get” that they shouldn’t be dumping on their employers, if they are they have good reason to be concerned about their bosses finding out!

Here are some basic rules of thumb to get your organization started on developing a policy:

• Do no harm: In short, no one should ever post something that they wouldn’t feel comfortable saying directly to someone.
• Clarity: Be crystal clear on what is expectable, what is not and who is responsible.
• Don’t re-invent the wheel: Many employee communication policies are already in place in organizations. Use these policies wherever appropriate.
• Common Sense: don’t disclose sensitive information. Ever.

For reference here are policies developed by:

US Federal Government 

Best Buy

IBM 

Now I’m off to propose this to my employer – wish me luck!