September 01, 2005
Melcrum Webinar on Internal Blogs
I spent a valuable hour yesterday listening to a webinar hosted by Melcrum titled "Blogs and their implications on internal communication - are you ready for that call?"
The speakers were Neville Hobson, communications guru and author of the NevOn blog, and David Berger, Manager, Employee Strategy Communications for IBM.
While I found the whole program extremely uesful and well done, I was particularly struck by a comment made by Mr. Berger at the end of his presentation. He said that being part of the blogging community with in IBM has taught him more about the company, its products, services and people than he could have ever imagined.
This statement summed up for me what blogs can bring to the process of internal communications. Isn't this what most companies want as an end result of their internal communication efforts? Employees that understand the entire company, not just the area they touch?
As I speak to clients about employee blogging, I will be using this as an example of what blogging can accomplish. As was pointed out by both Neville and David, it takes careful planning and execution to get there, but when done right, new technologies such as blogs and wikis can provide pwerful and productive end results in internal communications.
Posted by kpoor at 07:28 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 09, 2005
Improved Employee Communications with Internal Blogs
I've felt for a while that one of the most effective ways companies can use blogs is for internal knowledge sharing and employee communications. I also think that for clients that are relatively unfamiliar with blogs, and are not quite ready to incorporate them into their marketing mix, that internal blogs represent a way for them to start using the medium and satisfy a pressing need.
I recently came across an older post on Neville Hobson's blog, NevOn, discussing Intel's COO, Paul Otellini, starting an internal weblog. I found this particularly interesting given the fact that Intel has yet to adopt the practice of executive blogs for the public. The article, originally in The San Jose Mercury News, contained excerpts from Otellini's first entry:
Why am I doing this? Well, it seemed like a good idea to be able to create an ongoing vehicle to share my thoughts and observations on Intel and our industry with our employees, and to allow you an opportunity to have a platform for your thoughts or responses. While this is intended as an internal blog, I recognize that it will become public-welcome to the Internet! As a result, please recognize that I may be a bit limited in my comments and responses to protect Intel, and that we may exercise some editorial privilege on your comments for the same reason. I want to be clear on this up front. This is the price of entry to this blog.
His first post does a great job of highlighting one of the main benefits of internal blogs - they provide an open dialogue that helps break down communication barriers between executives and employees.
One of the most common issues that our employee communications professionals at Dix & Eaton face is how to help executives better convey their messages to their employees. Blogs represent a powerful new tool to help accomplish this goal.
Posted by kpoor at 03:53 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
