Whereas the Maven business blogs typically are written at a high level, cover a broad industry, and oftentimes do not overly associate the business blogger with the organization they are with, the “Do-er” blogs dive to a deeper level. In some ways, these types of business blogs could be thought of as a more narrowcast version of the Maven blog, concentrating on a particular area of expertise within a particular organization.
A number of large organizations – Sun, HP, and others – allow (or even encourage) developers to write about their area of expertise. Sun, in fact, has dozens, and maybe even hundreds, of bloggers writing about different detailed aspects of the organization. Although in Sun’s case, President Jonathan Schwartz has the largest number of hits on his blog (about 4,300 recent hits), the number of views by readers of the Sun Do-er blogs, in aggregate, outstrip his reach by at least 10:1. (And that’s just looking down the first 65 employee blogs at Sun…the actual number is probably much higher. Weren’t we just talking about this?) HP is testing out this strategy as well, but to date has taken a more cautious stance, with only a handful of Do-er blogs.
It is extremely important to note, however, that Do-er blogs in particular are not restricted to the high-tech industry. In fact, some of the most interesting stories and insight from down in the trenches comes from areas outside of high-tech. There are a number of medical professionals who are blogging about detailed topics, as well as individuals from midsize and even small companies in areas such as automotive repair and home improvement.
“Do-er” example #1
Blogger: Bryan Cantrill (middle)
Role: Solaris Kernel Development
Company: Sun Microsystems
Blog Location: http://blogs.sun.com/roller/page/bmc/20050125
“Do-er” example #2
Blogger: Archie Reed
Role: Secure Identity Management
Company: HP
Blog Location: http://devresource.hp.com/blogs/reed/
“Do-er” example #3
Blogger: Ivan Best
Role: Proprietor
Company: PickupSpecialties.com
Blog Location: http://pickupspecialties.blogspot.com/
The Business Blogging Field Guide – Types of Business Bloggers
The Social Customer Manifesto has a great series going at the moment titled The Business Blogging Field Guide which goes beyond the usual ‘what is a business blog?’ question and describes six different types of business bloggers – giving…