“Anyone who has studied the history of technology knows that technological change is always a Faustian bargain: Technology giveth and technology taketh away, and not always in equal measure.” – Neil Postman

I’ve already said that the best thing the PR department in most companies can do with respect to corporate bloggers is to get out of the way.

I wrapped a caveat around this at the time – acknowledging the value of providing some elementary training on issues such as disclosure and media relations. Subsequent conversations, in the comments here and elsewhere, have picked up the topic of guidelines for corporate bloggers. It’s a topic worth noodling.

Looking at the blogosphere through the lens of a PR practitioner, there are a couple of different places you could start from:

1. The blog author’s POV: how blogs can work in a corporate environment as a channel of communications between employees and external interested parties.*

2. The blog reader’s POV: whether blogs as micro-publishers represent a useful medium and opportunity for flacks to engage in micro-market PR – reaching certain communities of interest to the PR person’s clients and/or employer through non-traditional means (a.k.a. pitching blogs).

I’ll take a crack at the second of these viewpoints in a future post. For now, I’ve been doing some further research and thinking about the notion of corporate blogs as a PR vehicle.

A quick definition: by “corporate bloggers” I mean employees at any level who blog “in plain sight” either on or off their company’ servers, either during or outside working hours. Whether the blog is about the company (its products, markets, or related areas of interest) is not so important to my mind – the defining characteristic for my purposes is that the blogger is entirely open about who they work for.

A fair amount has been penned on this topic already, by various blog luminaries including Robert Scoble, Tim Bray, and Ray Ozzie. What I haven’t been able to find anywhere is a set of guidelines written by flacks for flacks.

Having already told corporate PR people to keep their hands off their bloggers, it seems only fair that I should try to pull together a set of draft blogging guidelines for others to use, abuse, ignore, repurpose and/or distribute to their own ends.

A quick word, first, on why corporate PR departments should welcome the employee bloggers in their midst. It’s as simple as this: successful corporate blogging is good PR.

At best, a corporate blog is a pure and direct way for employees to relate to their publics; to engage them in dialogue, tell the company’s story, enhance and support the company’s reputation.

At some point in almost any discussion of “why blog”, someone will inevitably mention the lessons of The Cluetrain Manifesto (and it’s just incredibly pathetic that it has to be me).

Here are three points taken from the Manifesto’s 95 Theses, first posted back in 1999. The authors could easily have been describing corporate blogging – even though the blogging meme was yet to be hatched, Ev Williams had only been posting for a couple of months, and if anyone had called Carolyn Burke's diary a blog, she’d have thought they were being rude.

84. We know some people from your company. They're pretty cool online. Do you have any more like that you're hiding? Can they come out and play?

86. When we're not busy being your "target market," many of us are your people. We'd rather be talking to friends online than watching the clock. That would get your name around better than your entire million dollar web site. But you tell us speaking to the market is Marketing's job.

It’s a scary thing for some PR people to contemplate, but the best corporate bloggers can often do a terrific job of connecting with a company’s customers and other “interested parties” without any PR oversight.

I don’t have stats to back this up, but I’d be willing to bet that the hundreds of Microsoft staffers openly blogging with the full consent of their employer have done more to enhance the reputation of the Borg among certain very important communities (developers, in particular), than any amount of traditional flackery directed at these communities within the past year.

If your company employs engaging, enthusiastic people who can consistently write well about interesting stuff, they stand a good chance of pulling a solid stream of repeat readers. Some of these readers will get into conversation with your bloggers, and even spread the word through email, IM, or on their own blogs, and... well, I don’t need to get into a complete treatise on the value of grassroots PR here.

The message should be clear. Dropping the PR smokescreen and allowing bloggers to expose something of your corporate soul to the outside world is, in almost all cases, a positive thing.

The flipside is that the act of opening even this tiny window into your company can scare the bejeezus out of your corporate lawyers, your executive team and – yes – the less enlightened PR brethren.

This is the Faustian bargain of the blogosphere. As Tim Bray puts it: “By speaking directly to the world, without benefit of management approval, we are accepting higher risks in the interest of higher rewards.”

If your employer doesn’t get the “higher rewards” part; if they’re still too scared to let you blog, maybe Scoble can help.

But as you’re here, reading this at Corante, I’m just going to assume that the notion of the higher rewards is already intuitive to you. Let’s focus instead on how to mitigate the higher risks.

After poring over various posts, policies and pronouncements scattered across the blogosphere in the last few months, here, then, is a first draft of some of the things I think corporate PR people might want to tell their in-house bloggers.

1. Stop and think.

Always assume that what you post will be read by current or future employers, customers, investors and/or business partners. Before you hit that Publish button, pause to think: what impression does the post you’ve just written convey? What impression do you want to convey?

Scoble says: “I always think about how I’m going to justify what I’m talking about to 1) My wife (she'll be the first to have to explain it to if I get in trouble). 2) My boss. 3) Steve Ballmer (metaphor for executives). 4) My co-workers. 5) My readers.”

2. Use your loaf.

Don’t disclose proprietary company information on your blog – directly or by allusion. Even photos of your workplace might be considered proprietary information. Read your company’s confidentiality agreement – the one you almost certainly signed when you joined. Understand where the line is.

And don’t for a moment think that what you write on your blog is essentially “off the record”. There is no such thing as “off the record”. Ever. Even if you think your Mum is the only one who ever reads your blog – if it’s a public site, Google can, and will, find you.

In the policy he drafted for employee bloggers at Sun Microsystems, Tim Bray wrote: “Don’t Tell Secrets. Common sense at work here; it’s perfectly OK to talk about your work and have a dialog with the community, but it’s not OK to publish the recipe for one of our secret sauces.”

3. You can disclaim, but you can’t hide.

Just because your blog carries a boilerplate corporate disclaimer, doesn’t mean that your readers will necessarily assume a separation between you and the company you work for.

You’ll find disclaimers on some corporate blogs that say things like “the personal views expressed in this weblog are not necessarily those of my employer,” or some such rhetoric. This can’t work all the time, I’m afraid.

Take this example, at Ray Ozzie’s blog:

“The views expressed on this website are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of Groove Networks, Inc.”

Problem. Ray is the Founder, Chairman and CEO of Groove Networks. I find the distinction a little hard to fathom.

When I first blogged a thought on this, over a year ago, Ben Langhinrichs was one of the many who responded. Ben’s revised disclaimer now reads:

“The views expressed in this weblog are mine alone, but since I am President and Owner, they necessarily also reflect the views of Genii Software, Ltd.”

As far as most people reading your blog will be concerned, whether you like it or not, you are acting as a standard bearer for your company. So act like one. But make sure you read the next point too...

4. Keep it real.

Blog readers can sniff out a faker in a nanosecond (ask Dan Rather). If you’re thinking of setting up a blog primarily to promote your company – don’t. A blog is not a vehicle for polished, vapid key messages. It’s a place for opinions, for authenticity. A place for us to learn something of what you really think.

Your blog can be a great way to build better relationships with your customers, but the relationship is only going to work if it’s founded on trust. If you think about this, you’ll realise it’s also a discussion of how strong brands work – they’re anchored on trust, on integrity, on authenticity too.

Authenticity is not something that’s terribly easy to define, but blog readers know it when they see it. Jeneane Sessum prefers the near synonym “genuine” (versus “disingenuous”), commenting: “Genuine voice … resonates. To get there, you don't climb, you don't force elevated discourse, you step down. Down the ladder. Down into you. That doesn't mean you have to write *about* yourself. It *does* mean you have to write from yourself. To be genuine, I think, you have to show yourself, define your edges.”

Effective bloggers have taken the red pill – they’re not afraid to find out how deep the rabbit hole goes.

5. Respect the channels

If your blogging attracts readers, you’ll soon find yourself getting into some interesting conversations with people whose views are either similar to, or sometimes very different from, your own.

They’ll leave comments on your blog posts, email you, or refer to things you’ve written in their own blogs. This is one of the wonderful things about the blogosphere.

As a company representative, you’ll also find yourself getting questions and comments about areas of the business far outside your domain of expertise.

Shareholders and analysts might ping you for the inside track on company news. Reporters might contact you directly, looking for source information. Customers might come to you with their support issues and concerns. I’ve personally experienced two of these situations.

This is where you’ll come to appreciate the existence of the Investor Relations department, the technical support team, the chaps in customer care, and – yes – even the misunderstood PR department

When you get thrown a question that is outside of your comfort zone, don’t try to answer it. It’s OK to say “I don’t know” (it’s also nice to offer to find out).

Direct your readers to the appropriate channel and flip a message to the right internal contact person, asking them to wade in. Whatever you do – don’t speculate or try to busk it. You’ll get caught.

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I’m sure there are many more things that could be said on this subject, but this is as good a start as any. Let me know what you think. I’m trying to err on the side of openness and flexibility here, and not scare would-be bloggers off to much.

As ever, YMMV.

*(I hesitate to say “audiences”, “customers”, or “stakeholders” – none of these is entirely inclusive or appropriate as a characterisation of the relationship bloggers have with their readers. “Interested parties” is no more satisfactory, but it has the advantage of a certain deliberate, weighted imprecision ;-)

[Here boy, heeeere boy!]