It’s not necessarily your CEO, your head of PR, or your most famous employee. In fact, busy senior executives are usually pretty cruddy bloggers who don’t really want to do it. You need to find people with passion. An enthusiastic janitor will be a better blogger than a reluctant executive. Remember, the biggest blogging stars are rarely the CEOs … they’re the great bloggers: Dell’s Lionel Menchaca instead of Michael Dell, Microsoft’s Robert Scoble instead of Bill Gates.
What to do:
- Open it up. Have a company-wide call for participation. Let everyone know that you’re looking for a few good voices. You’ll be surprised where the talent is hiding. Be sure to include all departments, not just marketing.
- Have an audition. Let candidates write for a month on an internal employee-only blog. Let them develop their style and you review their work.
- Support but don’t stifle. When your new blogger starts publicly writing, give them PR support and help managing large quantities of comments, but don’t attempt to edit their work.