2011-06-21-why-is-corporate-blogging-so-hard.html

---
layout: post
title: Why Is Corporate Blogging So Hard?
date: 2011-06-21 10:12:01.000000000 -07:00
categories:
- blogging
- technical-writing
- writing
tags:
- corporate blogging
status: publish

published: true
---

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<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/54027476@N07/4999944659/"><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-9485" title="Why is corporate blogging so hard?" src="{{site.media}}/turningpage.jpg" alt="Why is corporate blogging so hard?" width="125" height="125" /></a>I'm not sure entirely why, but corporate blogging can be quite difficult. On my professional blog, I can post several times a week in the spare moments of my days, sitting down for 30 minutes here or an hour there and have some substantial content to show for it. But at work, I can spin my wheels on full throttle for hours and only have 1 or 2 posts all week -- not really interesting ones -- to show for it. Why is that?</p>
<p>One difference is knowledge. On my professional blog, I already have the knowledge I need to write the post. I can pull from my own experience, or from books I'm reading, techniques I'm trying, documentation I'm writing, etc., as I craft a post. I have ideas brewing in my head all day, and in the back of my mind I'm always thinking of the next post.</p>
<p>On the corporate blog, though, I can't always pull from my own experience. I don't know the details of what I should write, because I'm not the subject matter expert. I have to track down the experts, and then ask them the right questions. I have to hunt around for the story; I have to locate the information. </p>
<p>In addition to gathering information from external sources, on the corporate blog I also have to stay away from controversy. Every story ends positively. I can't go for the jugular, so to speak, and enter controversial territory with an open-mind like I can on an independent blog. Instead, the end is usually written from the beginning. Things turn out well for the company.</p>
<p>Another problem with corporate blogs is the lack of voice. Is there really an "I"? Or is it a fake "I"? If there is no true "I" behind the posts, how can the blog ever move beyond marketing material and corporate communications? And if there is an "I", do I no longer represent the company or organization that I'm writing on behalf of (because I am myself now)? How do I both represent myself and my employer?</p>
<p>Most importantly, why don't the words just flow? Is it because they aren't <em>my</em> words? Is the perspective just not my perspective? Are the points I make not not the points <em>I</em> would make? Can such a writing situation ever be successful?</p>
<h2>An Attempt and New Effort</h2>
<p>After reflecting on why corporate blogging is sometimes so hard, I decided to go about it as if I were writing a post on my own blog. I remembered a discussion I had with a colleague about the difficulty of getting volunteers to produce work. This turns out to be one of the central questions in working with a volunteer community and is an inherent obstacle in nearly every open source effort. I decided to focus on this somewhat controversial issue and write about it.</p>
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<p>In thinking about this issue, instead of brainstorming privately, as I would do on my personal blog, I decided to brainstorm collectively. After all, I have 5,000 people in my organization. I can call them all and get various viewpoints. Most of them are just sitting at their desks, in their cubes.</p>
<p>I made a few phone calls. Some weren't there; others were. They had a lot to say. Suddenly the whole topic started to come alive. I collected viewpoints here and there, and broadened my initial understanding of the topic.</p>
<p>This led to a small epiphany: Whereas on my personal blog, I mainly do the research myself, either by reading or thinking, in a corporate setting I have access to dozens of subject matter experts who can point me in the direction of all kinds of interesting ideas. Perhaps corporate blogging, then, is a bit easier?</p>
<p>By doing about an hour's worth of research, I had all the information I needed to draft the article. At this point, it became easy. I knew how to structure the information, to divide it with subheadings. I knew just the right length for paragraphs and for the article as a whole. I knew how to weave in other voices, perspectives, and links. All this came natural since I approached it in the same way as a personal blog post.</p>
<p>Do I have any strong personal opinions in the article? Am I putting forward any controversial perspectives? Not really. But I think those dangers are less likely to happen with the community topics I'm writing about, and so they're not an issue. I might have used "I" and drawn upon personal experiences if appropriate, but it didn't fit this topic. Yet the article still aligns with what I myself would say.</p>
<p>If you would like to read a draft of the article I wrote (which is still in progress), you can <a href="https://tech.lds.org/wiki/Best_Practices_for_Increasing_Volunteer_Productivity">view it here</a>.</p>
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<p style="font-size:9px; color: gray">Image from <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/54027476@N07/4999944659/">Flickr</a></p>