Who Should Speak?

Robert Scoble is taking some heat for not commenting quickly enough on Microsoft's decision to delay of Windows Vista by a few weeks. I am interested less in the delay and more in the community's desire to hear from the people inside an organization that they share a kinship with when there's big news. If this sounds familiar, it happened to me.

Increasingly when big corporate news breaks the community doesn't want to just hear just from the CEO. They want to get the perspective of someone they trust even more, the corporate blogger. This puts pressure on these individuals to comment on every major news announcement that impacts the community - and to do it quickly. The problem is, the bigger the organization, the further away they might be from the epicenter of the news.

All of this leads to a larger issue. Who is a corporate spokesperson? Is it any employee who blogs, the CEO, who? My theory is that every company that has bloggers has multiple "spokespeople." Some, like the CEO, address shareholders, key customers and more. Others, unit managers, bloggers, evangelists, address one or more communities. Where this gets messy is the media. Both Scoble and Jim Allchin, the exec who manages the Windows Vista project, are viewed by the press as credible spokespeople. The problem herein is that one, Allchin, had more knowledge of this situation than the other, Scoble.

Another sub-point here is timing. When should an employee blogger who does not have first-hand knowledge of a situation blog on the subject? To what degree do they need to become a roving corporate reporter? And last, but not least, should they remain objective perhaps to the chagrin or simply waive the corporate flag? All good questions that I don't have answers to yet as I am figuring them out in my own organization.

Technorati Tags: windows+vista, robert+scoble, scoble, microsoft

Comments

[Mike Driehorst]

That's a problem -- who speaks for a company -- when there are company bloggers. It's about expectations that arise from blogging. We expect immediate comments from the company blogger(s) -- whether they really know anything or not.

In public relations, a big part of our job is managing expectations for clients.

You can't really do that with the general public, or niche audience you are trying to reach. Just deal with it as honestly and as best you can.
Mike

[John]

The second guideline in Scoble's own "Corporate Blogging Manifesto" is:

"Post fast on good news or bad"

That's all I'm sayin'

[Jeremy Pepper]

Wow - really going for that stretch to compare yourself to Robert.

[Mike Driehorst]

I'm sure that second guidelines assumes you can post about "good or bad news" with some level of knowledge. If you don't know all the facts, or at least have a good understanding, don't post.
Mike

[Mike Driehorst]

It's not my place to stand up for Rubel, but he's not comparing himself to Scoble. He's comparing the situations he and Scoble found themselves in, and the comments about their silence on events close to their companies.
Mike

[/pd]

What's even more important - is the company/ceo willing to hear negative comments from within the company but blogged in public ?? I think more then a mngt tier of information, its rather a corporate thing.

I look at it as being a sticky note on a fridge which reads "milk over-need more 4 2morrow!!" - wait a second how did that happen ?? Will it happened and someone (family) jus posted a note for all to see. Who does the damage control or replenishment is another matter all together.

Sharing tidbits of corporate info within boundries is the best way to negate risk. But the walls are there between divisions and working groups. So its hard to say- if robert is taking heat. I think he is being smart- don't blog what you don't know. Don't blog and say you will find out more-because that will not be the truth ( he knows if he is in the loop or not) period.!!

[Mike]

That's why more employees in a company should blog. The more employees blog, the greater the odds someone close to an event within the company will blog the event quickly.

[Ken Yarmosh]

I don't know. I have a hard time asking one person to respond to all company related items (and I'm not saying you are advocating that either, Steve). That's especially true when we are talking about Microsoft.

But I also realize that whether good or bad, that appears to be the expectation of people. I think it is a bad one, shaped by the 24-7 fast food, instant access, must have an answer yesterday culture that now defines us.