Comments on: CEO: Not Fitting the Mold

By: Do You Have a “Chief Blogger”? « Blair Garka’s Blog

Do You Have a “Chief Blogger”? « Blair Garka’s Blog — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 01:00:04 +0000

[...] Tagged chief blogger, Coca-Cola, Kodak, Marriott, Shel Israel, stories In two of my previous posts on corporate blogging, I discussed the CEO blog. There are many opinions about who should manage [...]

By: Jacalyn

Jacalyn — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 00:16:30 +0000

I agree with your suggestion Blair. I think that it is difficult for CEOs to post blogs that really attract and maintain the readership that they are looking for. I think that CEOs have a lot more to worry about than maintaining a blog. If the blog was delegated to a person with more time, commitment and understanding of the public that they are trying to reach, it would most likely result in a much more productive blog. I know that in my advertising class that I took last semester, we learned about the concept that when it is your product, whether it be a an advertising campaign or a blog promoting your company, you don’t always see it from the audiences point of view. I believe the same could be true for CEOs with their blogs. They will not always understand what their audiences are looking for.

By: Veronica Nalbandian

Veronica Nalbandian — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 21:47:34 +0000

I agree with Shel Israel in that CEOs shouldn’t always be blogging. Because they are the head of the company, it is difficult for them to see everything that is going on within the company, let alone how customers are feeling. I think some people would be skeptical reading a blog from a CEO. This is because people may not feel as connected with the CEO and wouldn’t be confident that the CEO really cares about them, worried that they just want to make more money. If a CEO already has a good reputation and a trustworthy demeanor, an audience would be more receptive to him/her, so in this case I think it would be a good idea for a CEO to blog. However, most of the time I don’t think it is a good idea.

By: Steph Synoracki

Steph Synoracki — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 21:10:51 +0000

Candor, urgency, timeliness, pithiness, controversy, and utility do not sound like CEO characteristics at all, so I agree with Seth Godin. I must admit, your post really made me think about CEO blogging and whether it is a good thing or not. I do realize that CEO’s are the head of a corporation and are very busy people. They have to make the hard decisions, take control of company operations, and worry about their investors…so do they really have time to blog or have the time to make a worthwhile blog? After reading your post and Shel Israel’s post on CEO bloggers, I am not sure that CEO’s do make the best corporate bloggers. I would like to think that CEO’s know their company the best and could provide the most information to their stakeholders on a blog, but as you pointed out, most CEO’s do not speak the same language as the people most important to their company. Joel Postman makes a good point in his book SocialCorp. A CEO blog would show that he or she wants to have a direct communication with their top influencers, but time and personality is an issue. Not all CEO’s can perform the blogging job well. Maybe product managers or other passionate people within the company should maintain the corporate blog.