Posted on by Christopher Carfi

Lame, But Lame

In a post entitled “Lame, But Smart,” Nick Carr writes:

“On the other hand, I think it provides a fair overview of the various ways that corporate bloggers can get their companies into hot water – even without meaning to. Corporate blogs are corporate speech; there’s no way around that.”

He then goes to reprint a list of the “legal risks inherent in employee blogging.” This list includes things such as:

  • Defamation and Privacy Torts. Companies may be held liable if their employees post content to the corporate blog that defames or invades the privacy of third parties. The company and employee in question would then need to look for the assistance of a California defamation lawyer or another legal team that also specializes in defamation.
  • Intellectual Property Infringement. Posts that include a third party’s intellectual property, such as copyrighted material or trademarks, may expose the company to liability for infringement.
  • Gun-Jumping. While a company is in registration, statements made on a company blog “hyping” the company could be deemed a prohibited offer of the company’s securities, in violation of federal securities laws.

Nick, corporate speech is corporate speech, isn’t it? It doesn’t matter if it’s on a blog or not. It could be in email. It could be in a memo. It could be in a public, oral presentation done by the CEO. When Salesforce.com’s IPO got pushed back (multiple times, if memory serves), it was due to statements that Marc Benioff made in the press and in public, not in a blog. Tying the points above to blogging is a red herring; it’s off-base and sensationalist.

A professional, acting in a sensible manner, will avoid the “risks of blogging” in the exact same way he or she would when speaking at a conference, or when speaking to a reporter, or when creating a document. Singling out the points above as “risks of blogging” is unneccessarily focusing on the medium; the real issue is in the message.

5 Replies to “Lame, But Lame”

  1. Chris,

    Keep in mind that the little voice inside people’s heads that tells them to delete that angry email or that stops them from ranting to bosses about minor issues may be under-developed when it comes to blogging.

    I know I am a lot less zealous today than I was at the dawn of email in hitting that “send” button. We all have “ouches” in our past that seem funny now or hold primary real estate in the “lessons learned” drawer.

    Most of us have since learned to proof-read emails and re-consider before hitting “send.”

    I don’t know Nick, but I can understand where he is coming from. He’s sounding the warning: Think before you post. Blogging is new, corporate blogging newer. His post is excellent food for thought.

  2. I hear what you’re saying, but IMHO there is a much better tack to take. Something like what SUN has done:

    http://www.sun.com/aboutsun/media/blogs/policy.html

    Their points (the seven bullets below each have a lot of detail behind them via the above link):

    “Many of us at Sun are doing work that could change the world. We need to do a better job of telling the world. As of now, you are encouraged to tell the world about your work, without asking permission first (but please do read and follow the advice in this note). Blogging is a good way to do this.

    By speaking directly to the world, without benefit of management approval, we are accepting higher risks in the interest of higher rewards. We don’t want to micro-manage, but here is some advice.

    – It’s a Two-Way Street
    – Don’t Tell Secrets
    – Be Interesting
    – Write What You Know
    – Financial Rules
    – Quality Matters
    – Think About Consequences

    Once again, it’s all about judgment: using your weblog to trash or embarrass the company, our customers, or your co-workers, is not only dangerous but stupid.”

  3. Gotta count me with Nick and Adam on this one, although it strikes me that much of the disagreement here is more about tone than substance. In addition to the excellent points Adam makes in his post, I’d like to add another difference between the risks associated with blogging and the risks associated with other forms of corporate speech: scale. An imprudent e-mail, presentation, speech or chat with a reporter (which, btw, should *always* be encouraged), doesn’t *necessarily* hold the potential to scale to a disaster in the same way that an ill-advised blog post does. It’s that “everybody can read it” part that hasn’t sunk in for some in the corporate world (not to mention the kids on MySpace). Until it does, it think an extra measure of caution makes sense.

  5. My sense is that people are frightened of what they’ll reveal about themselves more than the businesses they represent. It makes what I do fun because I only want 1% to make a handsome living from this medium. It’s that 1% that sees there are huge opportunities to win, retain and grow loyal customers in ways that simply didn’t exist before. Anyone who doesn’t see that FIRST is missing the whole point – IMO. And BTW – 1% means tomorrow’s Wal-Mart, South West Airlines, Tesco, Vodafone…

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