The CEO Blog

How is a CEO (CIO/CFO) blog different from a regular blog? Not just a sporadic comment from on high, but how is a regular open publication of original ideas different for the executive? There are certainly some distinctions in how the supply and demand work, as well as the potential costs and risks involved. The same things that make a blog good for the individual may be dangerous for the corporate icon.

A blog may not be the best venue for a CEO's stream of ideas and observations. And if it's not, gaps in the messaging can lead to lagging regular interest. Solve this by hiring out the writing and you undermine the genuineness of the message; defeating the purpose and potentially damaging the corporate image.

An executive's strength is often more aligned with persuasive verbal skills than in written substance. Is the risk of faulty logic or grammatical and other errors undermining the chief spokesman's credibility worth the value of a blog's transparency? Although it will surely hurt his following, Joe Blogger can get away with writing about "to much" this or "uncertenty" in that much more than the exec can.

And is the exec blog always considered official? If the CEO is making something other than safe, nebulous statements, it's not going to be much of a blog. But on the other hand, official positions of any substance are more appropriate in a news release, and need to bear some scrutiny.

Which raises another issue; why is the CEO writing a blog in the first place if they're doing the right things to connect with their audience with pushed-information internally (company-all e-mail) and externally (e-mail, memo, press announcement to relevant customers)?

A blog implies a pull-audience that chooses to listen and won't be held accountable for paying attention. Very powerful and real if the pull is garnered and developed. Painful if it isn't.