A Business Decision: To Blog Or Not To Blog

It's good to start with some foundation points, so let me commence by giving you permission not to have a blog or forum :)

Truly. It may be fashionable to have a business blog but as a variation on the well utilised cliche, a bad blog is worse than no blog at all.

It is important that you have a clear idea of why you want a forum because this will shape your approach to it and your communication style as well as staffing.

The three principal rationales for having a blog or forum are:

communication and learning, networking, and research.

A blog differs from a forum in that it offers a lead article or commentary that readers or your peers or your clients can respond to. Clients can be both researched and led into new product awareness by engaging with your business blog and its lead articles.

As a CEO or senior manager you may want to retain a connection and a canvassing of your staff even when you are overseas. A blog can be an ideal medium.

A forum by comparison is usually one site divided into a number of pre-selected topics that visitors (or staff if it is member only) can respond to fairly openly. The topic may be a two word phrase e.g. "Exercise questions". The business considers how much intervention they want to have on that forum against the purpose they have clearly articulated for the forums existence.

I often think blends of blogs and forums can be useful however blogs by far offer the most assertive medium of the two in terms of selling product or directing thoughts and discussion. On the other hand forums that allow natural issues and dialogue to transpire between members often lead to extremely useful insights.

Forums and blogs require staffing and there are a number of key considerations that need to be addressed in this domain. If you simply want a medium for a small group of managers to communicate then self moderation is more than appropriate with a tech staffer to occasionally call upon if necessary. If you want a dynamic environment for research and sales purposes you need staff with research analysis skills.

In topics to come I'll offer some examples of the great insights blogs and forums offer.

Feel free to ask questions or to comment. Obviously those of you with rich blog experience would have knowledge of these matters already however many people are very, very new to the blog world.