NevOn

Imagine if Chevron had used a blog instead

Listening this morning to a BBC World Service radio interview with Peter Robertson, vice-chairman of the Chevron oil company, I was struck in particular by his commentary about a website where the public can join Chevron in an online discussion about the future of energy.

Overall, I found it a fascinating interview, with its discussion of wide-ranging topics including the future of energy, the evolving role of the energy industry (the oil companies) and corporate social responsibility. From a PR point of view, I think Robertson did a pretty good job for his company.

Concerning the online discussion, Robertson was talking about willyoujoinus.com, a website sponsored by Chevron, that's facilitating some discussion about the future of energy and what people think about it.

From a broad look around the site, and judging from the detailed information in Chevron's Community Guidelines page, this is actually a substantial undertaking (and clearly part of a broad public affairs effort):

The willyoujoinus.com discussion forum was created as a place for individuals and groups to exchange ideas on important energy issues. It is also a place for users to read, consider, respond, and perhaps be inspired to take individual or collective action in an environment of mutual respect.

To contribute your opinions, you have to register. And your comments are moderated:

Experienced outside moderators have been assigned to ensure that postings are relevant and appropriate, and otherwise meet the site’s community guidelines as described below.

All postings will be reviewed by moderators and published on the site within 24 hours if determined to be within these guidelines.

That's fine - comment moderation is hardly unheard of and, as long as the policy is clearly stated, unlikely to confuse participants nor set any wrong expectations.

The concept of this effort by Chevron - provide a place online where people can participate in broadly open discussion on a topical issue - is very good, precisely the kind of thing where a blog could work well as that place for open, even if moderated, discussion.

But willyoujoinus.com is not a blog. Instead it's a beautifully-designed and clearly well thought through corporate website with some blog-like naming (the words 'post' and 'comment' are used, for instance).

It's gatekeeper heaven, too, with its completely un-blog-like methodology of contributing your opinions via a web form that goes off to some unknown person or group of moderators  - what Chevron describes as "experienced outside moderators" (without giving a sense of who these people are: could be the PR agency for all I know) and, elsewhere in the site, as "contracted specialists in community moderation" (sounds scary!).

Imagine if Chevron had used a blog instead. With RSS feeds. With trackback capability. It could certainly still require registration and login in order for anyone to participate, and have comment moderation.

Most important, though, a blog could give this place personality and authenticity - two of the attributes which it currently and starkly lacks. And identify who the moderators are. Build some trust.

You're about 80 percent there with this, Chevron. Why not go the full 100? Put your pedal to the metal!

Engaging podcasts from IBM

I've been subscribed to IBM's investor relations podcast series "IBM and The Future of..." since IBM started this series last August.

Eleven podcasts so far, each one providing a worthwhile learning experience on wide-ranging topics relating to society, business and technology.

The latest one, IBM and The Future of Privacy, is a great example of how any organization can use this medium to address what might seem to be a pretty dry subject in a way that captures and holds a listener's attention. Engages the listener, in other words.

From the broad communication point of view, this series also demonstrates how podcasting can subtly reinforce a company's credibility and authority about the subject being addressed. And it doesn't matter how big or small the company is - you don't need to be a global corporation like IBM to realize the benefits from podcasting.

Not only that, it enhances one's overall perceptive view of that company and how it gives you another choice of getting hold of information and opinion in a way that gives you additional insight into the company and some of its people.

If the podcast is also one element among other open and connected communication channels - as is the case with IBM - then you have another good foundation for building sustainable relationships with your audiences (who then become participants).

Worth subscribing to.

Related NevOn posts:

• IBM's credible message: Blogging means business
• IBM starts investor-focused podcasts
• IBM publishes guidelines for employee bloggers

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Choice podcasts from Davos

I've spent a little time today listening to a few of the audio recordings from the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland. Interesting listening, many of them, even though they are recordings of speeches and sessions which you can read about in mainstream media reporting.

The really interesting ones, though, are the informal and short podcast conversations (no, not interviews: chats, really) recorded by Loic le Meur which are not listed in the link page referenced above. To get those, go to the Forum blog.

Loic's first podcast last Wednesday was a conversation with Richard Edelman, CEO of Edelman PR (discussed in show #106 of FIR: The Hobson & Holtz Report podcast on Thursday). Loic's disarming style enables him to easily draw out commentary and opinion from his conversation partners in a way that seems relaxed and natural, and undoubtedly more spontaneous than if it were a journalist engaging in formal interviews.

Four other podcasts are definitely worth a listen.

• Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google, talks about why he comes to Davos; comments on Google.org, the philanthropy arm of Google launched last November; talks about what digitizing content is all about; and online advertising with an interesting "that's a good point" comment about the ad potential in podcasting.
• Thierry Breton, French Minister of Economy and Finance, says entrepreneurs who set up in France won't pay taxes for six years; some people have a wrong perception about France, he says, and it's engaged role in the world today.
• Shai Agassi, SAP board member, believes every second transaction in the world at some point goes through SAP, and 30-40,000 companies worldwide run SAP software; about responsibility, leadership, lack of fear and willingness to take risks; praises Microsoft chairman Bill Gates (he calls him a 'statesman') for his philanthropy; has wry commentary on being quoted out of context regarding open source software during a presentation at the Churchill Club a few months ago and how a podcast of the event helped set the record straight. Plus he takes a swipe at a competitor and its anti-SAP advertising. (No prizes for guessing who the competitor is. No, not Microsoft.)
• Frederick Kempe, assistant managing editor international, The Wall Street Journal, on coming to terms with the integration of print and online as quickly as possible; the Davos zeitgeist; and views about bloggers - quality ones, trusted ones and those who will end up in the trash.

Check out the complete list of podcasts (and on Loic's blog). Listen and learn.

Related NevOn post:

• The road to transparency at Davos

[Technorati: davos, wef]

The road to transparency at Davos

The 2006 annual meeting of the World Economic Forum begins today in Davos, Switzerland. The organizers say there will be 2,340 participants from 89 countries including 15 heads of state or government, 13 union leaders and over 30 heads of non-governmental organizations. This year, 735 participants are at the CEO or Chairman level.

What makes this year's meeting especially interesting is that many of these movers-and-shakers will be blogging the event.

This is not private or ad hoc blogging - the World Economic Forum Weblog is an integral part of the 2006 meeting. The blog doesn't yet list who all the bloggers are but some of them have already begun posting. An indicator of what to expect as the meeting gets underway:

[...] We will blog here summaries of the sessions we participate in and some personal ideas about them. As I said, this is an experiment and should be taken as is. In no way should the notes you will find here express the voice of The Forum itself but rather our personal experience of the Summit, as participants.

That text looks as though it was written for the 2004 meeting. Nevertheless, that's what the 'About this blog' currently says.

And not only blogging at Davos - podcasts and webcasts as well. With the podcasts in particular, I think we can expect some interesting and worthwhile content for our listening enjoyment when the first podcasts are available starting tomorrow (I've already subscribed to the RSS feed).

At last year's meeting, blogging played a key role as the catalyst for a highly-controversial issue leading to the resignation of Eason Jordan, chief news executive at CNN. Jay Rosen described that event pretty well.

There is a clear disclaimer and guidelines on what is allowed for blogging at this meeting, and what isn't:

On- and off-the-record policy for the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2006. All sessions in the Congress Hall, and in addition Sanada 1 & 2 of the Congress Centre, are on the record and you may attribute panellists' remarks to their owners. All other sessions in the Congress Centre are off the record. You can report on the tenor of the debate, but you must not quote participants directly. If, however, you receive their subsequent permission you may quote them. All of the private sessions are "off-the-record meetings" and are not to be blogged.

This semi-transparency makes it clear what's public and what's private. Yet it was a private or closed session last year that was blogged (on an individual's blog, not the WEF one) leading to Jordan's downfall, which brings to mind one reality for me - little these days seems to be off the record. So the maxim of being cautious about what you say even in a private session is worth keeping in mind, especially when there's wi-fi (and podcasters with portable MP3 recorders) around.

Still, I expect to see some good personal commentaries on this blog to balance the official stuff we'll read about in the media. Not only on the official blog, though, on others as well (follow the Technorati tags, below).

Loic Le Meur is the driving force behind the WEF blog and will be in charge of that show. Good luck, Loic!

[Technorati: davos, wef]

The characteristics of a great employer

A terrific feature in the Financial Times on what makes a company a consistently great employer uses US companies such as AG Edwards, Goldman Sachs, Nordstrom, SC Johnson, Whole Foods Market, Cisco Systems and Microsoft as their classic examples of such great employers.

And what makes a great employer? With frequent reference to Built to Last, the 1990s bestseller by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras, and Collins’ 2001 follow-up, Good to Great, the FT examines the cultures and leadership behaviours of such companies and says great employers have all of these characteristics:

• Trust their staff to make the right decisions
• Take customer service seriously
• Cut jobs only as a last resort
• Share rewards with everyone, not just senior management
• Tend to have longer-serving chief executives
• Offer benefits well beyond what is required by law
• Respond to emerging trends, such as demands for flexible working, or networks for minorities
• Have been around long enough to establish a strong culture and sense of belonging

Financial Times | The measure of a great employer (paid sub)

FIR Speakers and Speeches: October 26, 2005 - CPRF Critical Issues Forum

In our second special audio file, we offer up a panel discussion presented on Wednesday, October 26, 2005, in New York City, hosted by the Council of Public Relations Firms at its Critical Issues Forum 2005. The panel was titled, "Straddling the Fault in a Shifting Media Landscape: New Roles for PR." CPRF described the session:

"Media relations is a cornerstone of the public relations profession. As the field of journalism undergoes fundamental changes and new means of personal communications gain in popularity, what are the implications for public relations firms? Hear what firms can do to use new communications platforms to help their businesses."

The panel was moderated by Jonah Bloom, executive editor, Advertising Age. Panelists included Stephen Baker, senior writer for BusinessWeek and co-author of the Blogspotting blog; Richard Edelman, president and CEO of Edelman Public Relations, Ross Mayfield, CEO of SocialText, and Shel Holtz, principal, Holtz Communication + Technology and co-host of For Immediate Release.

Download the conversation here (MP3, 38MB). (For automatic synchronization with your iPod or other digital player, you’ll also need software such as the FeedDemon RSS aggregator, or the free ipodder or DopplerRadio). Speakers and Speeches podcasts are not included in the regular "For Immediate Release" RSS feed. To subscribe, please use the special feed dedicated just to these features.

(Cross-posted from For Immediate Release, Shel's and my podcast blog.)

Blog network aids graduate recruitment

Reading a review of corporate blogs in the Financial Times the other day, I spotted a new gem mentioned in the feature - a series of blogs set up by Cadbury Schweppes in the UK as part of its graduate recruitment activities.

From Cadbury's press release:

Cadbury Schweppes, the world's largest confectionery company, has opened up a new channel of information for potential graduate employees by piloting a new internet 'blogging' initiative to give candidates a first hand insight into the 'day in the life of' current graduates at the Company.

[...] Current graduates from each business unit are encouraged to write freely about their experiences on the graduate training scheme, as well as discussing how their day to day working lives are shaped within the company. Their blogs are then posted on the Company's graduate internet page, where applicants can read the blogs and communicate with the current graduates at www.cadburyschweppes.com/ukgraduates.

[...] By piloting this new initiative, Cadbury Schweppes hopes that potential graduate employees are allowed a very authentic and personal insight into the company, adding to the success of the Cadbury Schweppes graduate recruitment scheme. Anthea Marris, Cadbury Schweppes's graduate resourcing manager added: "We want to help potential candidates to make an informed decision about whether we are the right Company for them. Our graduate blogs offer a window right in to the Company and will enable potential applicants to get a first hand feel for what it is like to work at Cadbury Schweppes and the type of work they can expect to experience."

So far, Cadbury Schweppes has six blogs covering sales and marketing, finance and business audit, human resources, operations management, information technology, and project and process engineering.

A terrific example of how blogs can be a dynamic and complementary channel for engaging with particular groups of people, in this case potential employees, in a new and interesting way.

Very nicely done, Cadbury Schweppes.

Interview: Jeff De Cagna, Principled Innovation - August 5, 2005

In this edition of For Immediate Release podcast interviews, Shel and Neville enjoyed a 55-minute conversation with Jeff De Cagna, founder of Principled Innovation LLC. Topics and themes discussed include: the challenges for volunteers and staff of association; reducing governance in associations; advocacy and taking stands on issues; the dead strategic planning model and what should be in place instead; opening up to new ideas and learning; the uneven distribution of a future that's already here.

About our conversation partner:

Jeff De Cagna is chief strategist and founder of Principled Innovation LLC, Arlington, Virginia, USA. A former association executive with various regional, national and international associations, Jeff founded Principled Innovation LLC in February 2002 to advance his mission of making innovation more possible in the association community. Today, Principled Innovation LLC works exclusively with associations on the challenge of organizing for innovation in a turbulent and uncertain world. Jeff is also principal and co-founder of Association Renewal LLC, a joint venture of Notter Consulting and Principled Innovation LLC, with offices in Gaithersburg, Maryland and Arlington, Virginia.

Jeff is a Fellow of the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE), and a frequent speaker and author for various trade and professional organizations, including ASAE & The Center for Association Leadership. He served as the founding managing editor of the Journal of Association Leadership, the association community's only peer-reviewed journal, and still serves on the publication's editorial advisory board. Jeff has been a member of both the ASAE Executive Management and Professional Development Section Councils, and has chaired various task forces and working groups over many years.

Jeff writes The Association Innovation Blog and he is the association community's podcasting pioneer, producing the Associations Unorthodox podcast. A graduate of The Johns Hopkins University, Jeff received a master of education degree from Harvard University.

Download the conversation here (MP3, 22MB), or sign up for the RSS feed to get it and our future shows automatically. (For automatic synchronization with your iPod or other digital player, you’ll also need software such as the FeedDemon RSS aggregator, or the free ipodder or DopplerRadio).

Interview Segment Time Points:

• 00:07 Shel introduces the interview.
• 01:15 Jeff talks about his background and his involvements with various associations on the staff side, and his activities with his companies.
• 04:11 Jeff on his volunteerism roles in associations.
• 06:41 Neville comments on volunteerism and the small groups of 'always volunteers' and asks if that is to do with the characteristics of individuals or something not right with the structures of associations.
• 07:42 Difficult to avoid the 'core group phenomenon,' Jeff says, and speaks about the challenges facing associations and their staffs.
• 12:14 Shel comments on IABC reducing the size of its executive board ands asks if this is a good first step.
• 12:39 Jeff explains why he believes it's essential for associations to reduce the size of their governing groups, some of the benefits of doing so, and comments on the risks of associations not doing so.
• 20:39 Neville comments on the seeming preoccupation of associations in talking about their structures rather than the benefits they deliver to members, and why they don't take stands on crucial issues - such as ethics in the case of the PR profession - asking if this is something you would expect an association to be involved in.
• 23:40 Jeff's views on association advocacy and issues to consider including political and financial.
• 30:32 Neville on why he thinks associations should collaborate to represent the profession on issues like ethics.
• 31:44 There is value for associations in collaborating, Jeff says, building cooperation around issues of common interest.
• 33:28 Jeff: we live in fundamentally different times which will be more different as we go forward; the web has taught us about the plausibility of the impossible.
• 35:12 Shel comments on strategic planning and asks how heretical it would be if associations didn't do strategic planning.
• 35:48 Strategic planning is dead, says Jeff, and explains his indictment on why, believing that strategic planning today operates as a mechanism for top-down control by boards and CEOs.
• 46:49 Shel asks what are some of the characteristics of associations that are starting to move in the right direction.
• 47:02 Jeff: those who have moved beyond strategic planning as a methodology, and opened themselves up to ideas and learning, comment on organizational myopia and what the CEO should be paying attention to - the important not the urgent.
• 49:46 Jeff: the future is already here but it's unevenly distributed in the associations community.
• 52:58 Shel and Neville wrap up the interview.
• 53:59 About this podcast and where to find For Immediate Release.

Links for the individuals and organizations we discussed or mentioned in the conversation:

IABC, BPW/USA, American Corporate Counsel Association, Greater Washington Society of Association Executives, Special Libraries Association, ASAE, Center for Association Leadership, Chaordic Commons, Jay Rosen, Ketchumgate, Betsy Boyd Flynn article (PDF), Journal of Association Leadership, Kevin Kelly article, Wired, Skype, Netscape, The Attention Economy, William Gibson, PRSA, CCM, CPRS, IPRA.

(Cross-posted from For Immediate Release, Shel's and my podcast blog.)

IBM starts investor-focused podcasts

Reuters: IBM is the latest major company to embrace podcasting. [...] The world's largest computer company said on Friday it plans to introduce a series of occasional podcasts on its investor relations site as part of a broader effort to communicate directly to its investors and the wider public about hot topics.

This is a significant move in business podcasting. Until now, every company who has embraced this medium has used it as part of broad marketing, communication and customer relationship activities. This is the first example I'm aware of where a company - a publicly-held one at that - has jumped into a business area that many people consider to be a risky one for such open, informal and transparent communication channels ("What about regulations and the SEC?"). Clearly not so if you do it right.

I do like the strap line on the podcast home page:

You’ve read our point of view. Now hear what we think.

Interestingly, in the explanations on that page on how to get the podcast and the various podcatchers you can use, it includes iTunes. What better way at the moment to reach the mass podcast-listener market?

The first investor relations-produced podcast - IBM and the Future of Driving, an 18-minute recording - is available now. Nicely produced (definitely not an indy-type podcast).

IBM's announcement yesterday is not their first move into podcasting - the IBM Systems and Technology Group, for instance, already podcasts as this podcast on 26 July indicates.

Yet more examples of the growing uptake of an effective and complementary communication medium by large corporations. Not especially in the IT industry, either, as this embryonic list indicates.

IBM continues to delight with their innovative communication ideas. And you can be absolutely sure other companies have similar plans in the works.

Related NevOn posts:

• IBM publishes guidelines for employee bloggers
• IBM creating an army of evangelists

Smart companies stimulate disruptive thinking

How do large companies continue to innovate and respond rapidly to new opportunities as if they were start-ups, asks the Financial Times?

By developing a corporate culture in which innovative opportunities are spotted, nurtured and championed in an entrepreneurial manner, the paper says. In short, a culture that is "intrapreneurial".

In a lengthy feature, the FT gives some great examples of companies who have been highly successful in large part because of their intrapreneurial approaches. Apple, for instance, and its iPod:

Apple seemed to produce the iPod out of thin air in 2001 – at the time, a personal digital music player was not regarded as the obvious progeny of a personal computer manufacturer. Yet the company has since re-entered the FT Global 500 ranking of the world’s largest companies after a four-year absence. The iPod now accounts for one-third of Apple’s revenues and its "halo effect" has contributed to a 35 per cent increase in sales of the company’s Macintosh computers over the past year.

The iconic music player has also given critical mass to an entirely new market – the selling of digital music online. Even with his expertise in marketing, Steve Jobs, Apple chief executive, could never have predicted such success.

The FT article says individuals could act like entrepreneurs within a large organization to the benefit of both employee and employer, provided they were willing to risk something of value to themselves – a portion of their salary, for example. Such intrapreneurs could exchange a completed project for a cash bonus or capital to invest internally in future projects.

The article gives other examples of this intrapreneurial spirit, including two equally-iconic ones - IBM's development of the personal computer which came to fruition in the early 1980s, and Apple's first Macintosh:

[...] During the 1970s, [...] units were set up inside many organisations to think "disruptively" – to look at products or markets outside their usual offering. One of the most famous was Project Chess, the 12-man team at IBM that developed the first personal computer in 1981. Similarly, after the Macintosh computer was launched in 1984, Steve Jobs described its development as an "intrapreneurial venture" within Apple since the machine would compete with the Apple II, previously the company’s core product.

The FT quotes recent research by Clark Gilbert, a professor at Harvard Business School, who suggests the best innovations result from thinking about external forces:

"Intrapreneurial" ventures should be "opportunity-based rather than resource-based", he says, explaining that most large organisations try unsuccessfully to develop new ideas from their existing resources and competencies, rather than look outside for ideas. "The problem in so many existing markets is that product lines have already overshot what most consumers can absorb," he adds.

In such an environment, companies should be aiming for “disruptive” ideas of the sort described by economist Joseph Schumpeter when, in 1934, he described the “creative destruction” of established businesses by entrepreneurs.

“We find big firms are interested in disruption only when they think it will overlap or attack their business,” says Prof Gilbert. “Yet it always leads to growth in the overall market. The personal computer did disrupt the mainframe but it caused the total market for hardware to grow.

Financial Times | Smart companies show 'intrapreneurial' spirit (paid sub required)

Senior executive bloggers make the case for blogging

One of the most well-researched and -written feature articles I've seen in mainstream media about executive blogging is published in the 25 July issue of US News & World Report.

Entitled Blogging Bosses, the 5-page feature on the website studies senior executives in US organizations with analysis and discussion on why they blog, the effects on their organizations and the benefits obtained through their blogging activities:

[...] What's driving these busy executives to carve hours out of their busy week to cast their views into the sometimes hostile world of Web logs? Partly it's the appeal of a bully pulpit to promote their views, unfiltered by the media. Partly it's the desire to create a new kind of dialogue with customers, industry observers, and employees. And partly it's the hope of crafting a more human face and voice for the company.

The senior executive bloggers showcased in the article, and quoted extensively with their thoughts and opinions about blogging and its benefits, are Randy Baseler, Vice President of Marketing, Boeing Commercial Airplanes; Bob Lutz, Vice Chairman, General Motors; Carole Brown, Chair, Chicago Transit Authority; and Rich Marcello, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Business-Critical Servers, Hewlett-Packard.

Other executives who contribute commentaries are Jonathan Schwartz, COO of Sun Microsystems; Paul Otellini, CEO and President of Intel; and Alan Meckler, Chairman and CEO of Jupitermedia;

The feature, written by Christine Larson, also offers some insight and commentary about corporate blogging from leaders in the PR industry such as Richard Edelman and Mark Hass.

Very well done and an excellent knowledge resource piece on corporate executive blogging.

US News & World Report | Blogging Bosses

Related NevOn posts:

• GM's advice to would-be corporate bloggers
• Why every company should blog
• Blogs: No substitute for personal communication and trust in the workplace
• Tips and tricks for corporate blogging
• Telling the business world about blogs

GM's advice to would-be corporate bloggers

To any senior executive on the fence about starting a corporate blog, Bob Lutz, the Vice Chairman of General Motors, has one word of advice: Jump.

Writing in Information Week, Lutz says a blog provides no better opportunity to engage in an open dialogue and exchange of ideas with customers and potential customers, illustrating his experiences with the GM FastLane Blog:

Since January, I've been participating, along with other members of General Motors' senior management, in the GM Fastlane blog (fastlane.gmblogs.com). We've found the blog to be a hugely effective communications tool and a terrific way to conduct a grassroots, largely unfiltered conversation with GM fans and nonfans alike.

The key is to leave the corporate-speak behind and keep the tone conversational, open, and honest. Anyone who has read our blog sees the real deal, as produced by us and not polished by several layers of trained communications pros.

Another aspect that helps keep things real is the wealth of comments posted by readers and other bloggers. We don't filter out negative comments, complaints, or hate mail. All we do is screen for spam and posts from crackpots using language that most people would find offensive.

It's important that we run the bad with the good. We'd take a credibility hit if we posted only rosy compliments, and credibility is the most important attribute a corporate blog can have. Once it's gone, your blog is meaningless.

The Information Week article has more commentary. A terrific testimonial from one of the leaders in corporate executive blogging.

Information Week | Nothing To Fear From Executive Blogging

{Hat tip: Constantin Basturea)

See also - New York Times interview with Lutz on 9 July for some insight into his background.

Related NevOn posts:

• GM blog continues to push the envelope
• Why every company should blog
• GM blog stays on track

Ballmer interview turns communication upside down

Watching Robert Scoble's video interview with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is the confirmation for me that formal, pre-planned and carefully-controlled organizational communication has now reached an evolutionary end point.

Traditionally, planning and managing communication in organizations is a function managed by people skilled in particular areas of communication (corporate, marketing, PR, investor, internal, etc). So planning and doing an interview like this would typically involve quite a few people in different functions, all of whom would participate in arriving at a decision about it.

Yet an interview like this one turns much of the traditional approach to communication - and, indeed, the traditional communication function - upside down.

Here we have Robert Scoble (who's not part of a formal and traditional communication function) who can set up an interview with the CEO that's highly informal and unstructured, discuss topics that would be carefully pre-planned and controlled - scripted, even - in a typical company, and then immediately publish the resulting video on a public website for all the world to see. That includes employees.

While Microsoft may not (yet) be typical of the average company in terms of its sheer openness and transparency - meaning that most companies would be unlikely to bare all, so to speak, in this way - an interview like this is a tremendous example of some new and different thinking that can be employed alongside traditional thinking. And I'm not suggesting that, in this example, Robert just went ahead and did the interview without consultation with, let's say, the formal communication structure in Microsoft.

If I were a communicator at Microsoft, I'd want to find out what different people think about this video interview. While you could do that through informal means like quick surveys and just asking people, I'd want to measure it a bit more formally and see how it's perceived in the context of overall (yes, formal) communication.

However it was planned and whatever the objectives are that it will try and achieve, it's a great example. It also gives you some sense of Ballmer the person in a far more authentic way than the dry and formal bio you see on the Microsoft website.

Anyway, watch the video and see what you think of it. You can also read a transcript.

Technical note re video still image

The image of Ballmer you see above is a frame from the video. Trying to capture a still image from the video proved to be very tricky indeed using the screen capture programs I tried (Paint Shop Pro 8, Snag-It and HyperSnap DX 5, and even the printscreen function in Windows XP). In each case, all I got was a solid black object.

I figured it must be something to do with things like video layers, codecs and even needing hardware like a video capture card. Reading a paper on video capture in the Windows XP Resource Kits helped me understand things a bit more but not find an easy solution. All I wanted to do was quickly capture a still image from this video, not deeply understand all the technical stuff about it.

Then I found TopazMoment. What a terrific program! All I did was download it, install it, open the video in it and capture a still image. That's it. If I needed to do this a lot, I would buy this program. Free to try for 30 days then $39.99.

Let the IABC conference blogging begin!

Probably the best professional development and networking event for business communicators, anywhere in the world, begins tomorrow 26 June in Washington, DC.

It's the IABC international conference, the annual get-together for hundreds of communicators from around the world.

This year's 4-day event is special from two perspectives - first, it's IABC's 35th anniversary year; and second, it will be the first ever IABC event which will be blogged.

Incoming 2005-2006 chairman Warren Bickford - he'll be confirmed as chairman at the AGM during the conference - has assembled a dozen members into the IABC Café International Conference Coffee Press Corps.

This pioneering group of member-bloggers will be blogging in the IABC Cafe about sessions, events, whatever takes their fancy. In addition, roving blogger Charles Pizzo will be adding additional contributions - and maybe a podcast or two. And undoubtedly any member attending who's already a blogger will be adding commentaries to his or her own blog (so if everyone uses the Technorati tag, below, that IABC has created, it will make all posts easily discoverable).

So whether you're at the conference or not, the IABC Cafe looks like it will be a great place to hang out in during the coming week.

[ Technorati tag: iabc international conference 2005]

[UPDATE 28 June] The Technorati tag just hasn't worked. Note just now from Shel who's at the conference: we had the incorrect code (with hyphens: should be spaces or the plus sign). Now fixed - if you now click on the tag link above, you'll see all the posts.

Carnival of the Capitalists connects you to great content

Wayne Hurlbert at Blog Business World is hosting this week's Carnival of the Capitalists, the weekly aggregation of links to posts by a wide range of different bloggers that provides a unique focus on them for further developing conversations.

For this week's carnival, Wayne has assembled an enormous quantity of links - 71 posts spread across the themes of marketing; blogging, reading and writing; finance, markets and investment; business management and methods; communications, technology and podcasting; economics; international business, trade and economics; education, careers and employment; politics and politicians.

Wayne's short intro to each post will make it easier for you to decide which ones you might be interested in reading and seeing what you can contribute to the conversations. Wayne's included one of my posts - about podcasting - in his aggregated list.

Do visit Wayne's Carnival of the Capitalists page. You will find some great linked content there.

General information here about Carnival of the Capitalists including a list of blog hosts through to January 2006.

It's worth hanging out in the IABC Cafe

It seems a distant memory now that, after the IABC Chair blog launched last October, it quickly reached a nadir in expectations, engagement, involvement, leadership, worthwhile content, you name it.

That changed when incoming Chairman Warren Bickford took over as chief blogger and relaunched it as the IABC Cafe.

And what a change!

The Cafe has already become a place that has attracted a wider range of IABC members to visit, hang out and join in some conversations on topics such as weighty matters affecting the association and top five trends and issues, as well as lighter exchanges.

Now the Cafe will take a big leap forward in participatory communication at the IABC international conference in Washington, DC, next week with Warren's IABC Cafe International Conference Coffee Press Corps, a group of 12 members who will blog the conference:

[...] The Press Corps is an interesting mix of conference first timers, seasoned vets, experienced bloggers and, dare I say it - no I better not - first time bloggers. They will be posting about their travels, sessions they attend, conference events, whatever (and whoever) they find interesting - or not - while they are at the conference.

Yes, it's definitely worth hanging out there.

Interview: Mike Wing, IBM - May 20, 2005

For anyone with an opinion about corporate blogging, the big news this week was IBM's dynamic step into the blogosphere with their initiative to enable employee blogging and making publicly available their detailed employee blogging guidelines.

In this special edition of For Immediate Release podcast interviews, Shel and Neville enjoyed a 53-minute conversation with Mike Wing, IBM's Vice President Strategic Communications, about the big news and what it signals for IBM as a new way to engage with the marketplace. Our conversation also addressed other areas of communication at IBM with Mike's commentary and opinion on a wide range of topics including IBM's corporate values, the company's recent history, how the employee jams came about and the value of them, the role of the intranet, taxonomy and folksonomies, and the impact blogging will have from both the perspective of an organization and an individual.

About our conversation partner:

Mike Wing is Vice President Strategic Communications at IBM where he has worldwide responsibility for strategic and policy-related messaging. Before establishing this new function in IBM Corporate Communications in 2004, Mike was Vice President Worldwide Intranet Strategy & Programs, responsible for the strategy and development of w3.ibm.com, IBM’s corporate intranet, also known as the On Demand Workplace, which reaches the company’s 320,000 employees worldwide. He guided ‘w3’ from a small publishing site to the company’s primary medium for information and a key engine of culture change in IBM’s turnaround during the 1990s. Mike joined IBM in April 1997, after 13 years managing employee communications at Time Warner Inc. and its Home Box Office division. Before joining HBO he was editor of the worldwide employee publication for CBS Inc. And before that, he was a graduate student in English at the State University of New York at Buffalo, concentrating on Shakespeare. While there, Mike was a leader of Vico College, an interdisciplinary undergraduate humanities program. He graduated from Swarthmore College in 1970, with High Honors. He is co-author of The Kissing Place, an original film produced for USA Network.

Download the conversation here (MP3, 22.5MB), or sign up for the RSS feed to get it and our future shows automatically. (For automatic synchronization with your iPod or other digital player, you’ll also need software such as the FeedDemon RSS aggregator, or the free ipodder or DopplerRadio).

Interview Segment Time Points:

• 00:13 Mike sets the scene with an overview of his background, and about his current responsibilities at IBM.
• 03:40 IBM's corporate blogging initiative, why Mike thinks blogging is such a big deal and why the company is doing this.
• 08:24 Neville comments on IBM's strategic blogging move as having a massive impact on the future development of this medium from an organizational perspective.
• 09:08 It's an experiment, Mike says, we don't know what to expect, and talks about how it might develop for IBM in the context of the company's business model: more important in the long run is what we will learn and what experiences we will gain.
• 11:27 Shel asks about employee reaction to the news about the corporate blogging initiative.
• 11:35 Mike on positive reactions and what the company is doing to support the initiative.
• 13:48 Neville asks about IBM's corporate values statement and how all of this connects to it.
• 14:09 Lots of links between the blogging initiative and those values, Mike says: if you're going to be visible and transparent in communication, trust is essential.
• 17:49 Mike on how IBM's corporate values were developed: the crucial role of the employee "values jam."
• 19:54 Mike on the traumatic experience of IBM's near death in the early 1990s; Lou Gerstner's pivotal role in the turnaround; the question of values.
• 21:33 Shel asks about the employee jams and the role they played as an extension to the employee intranet as a channel for integrating the business.
• 21:54 Most important of all was the essential role they played in transforming the company, Mike says, commenting on some of the public snarkiness that greeted the news of IBM's corporate blogging initiative.
• 22:30 IBM has been living in an electronic environment for many years, Mike says, longer than many competitors have existed: an overview.
• 24:30 Mike on the key role Lou Gerstner played in halting plans to break up IBM in the early 1990s; cultural obstacles.
• 27:19 Mike on the role HR research and a global employee survey played in 1999 in deciding to create the jams; formal communication channels vs. informal ones; how the intranet is perceived by employees.
• 30:55 The pragmatic core of the first world jam in May 2001 - capturing best practice and sharing it; structure of and topics discussed in the jam; the different conversations with CIOs and CMOs.
• 33:54 Six jams done so far, says Mike; how people react to the values; how to make the values real.
• 35:07 56,000 participants in WorldJam 2004, 32,000 posts, 191 ideas.
• 35:52 Neville asks about cultural changes and the impact of the sale of the PC division to Lenovo and employee perceptions of this change.
• 36:39 Mike's anecdotal sense: it crystalized the shift in IBM's business model; for people inside and outside, it's a turning point in thinking about the company.
• 28:56 Mike comments on business historian Alfred Chandler, the creation of the IBM PC as an early version of open standards. IBM is a machine built to grow institutions at a societal level, he says.
• 40:41 Shel asks whether 'working knowledge' is still a concept for the w3 intranet.
• 41:04 It is, Mike says, part of a company-wide application architecture which delivers different content to people based on personal profiles; on the long term goals with adaptive portlets.
• 44:24 Mike on taxonomy and folksonomies; the differences between the two; how IBM is exploring this and the upcoming launch of ThinkPlace.
• 46:29 Neville comments on such a tool as more than just posting and commenting: it's to do with surfacing thinking and ideas.
• 46:56 Think about blogging: expressing points of view, talking about interesting things, Mike says, but at some level, you need to think about the impact it will have on the organization itself, and on yourself.
• 49:15 What's a blogger? asks Mike. Someone ideally with value to add, expertise, a point of view, the confidence to do so in public, and the capacity to adapt and learn from what you encounter; on how blogging will continue to help IBM's evolution.
• 50:06 Neville asks will we see Sam Palmisano or other senior executives blogging?
• 50:24 Work in progress, says Mike: there's no blanket 'executives get out there and blog.' We're thinking about areas that are important to everyone, eg, open source, public policy, and other things.
• 51:39 Shel, Neville and Mike with concluding wrap up.
• 52:28 Description of this podcast and where to find For Immediate Release.

Links for the brands, individuals and companies we discussed or mentioned in the conversation:

IBM, Time Warner, HBO, CBS, Technorati, Moore's Law, Sun, Microsoft, TypePad, Google, DayPop, Blogger, Tom Friedman, Harvard Business Review interview with IBM CEO Sam Palmisano, Lou Gerstner, IBM VM, Java, PROFS, IABC, PRSA, AMA, PriceWaterhouseCooper, Lenovo, Alfred Chandler, IBM ThinkPad, Apple, Lisa Kamm, Andrew Sullivan, Robert Scoble, Irving Wladawsky-Berger, For Immediate Release.

(Cross-posted from For Immediate Release, Shel's and my podcast blog.)

IBM publishes guidelines for employee bloggers

The news last Friday that IBM is introducing a large-scale corporate blogging initiative has attracted plenty of attention, both in the blogosphere and by mainstream media.

Today, IBM published on its employee intranet its draft guidelines for corporate blogging. James Snell, a member of IBM's Software Standards Strategy Group, has posted those guidelines on his public blog as well as a link to a PDF you can download.

In summary, this is what the guidelines address:

1. Know and follow IBM's Business Conduct Guidelines.
2. Blogs, wikis and other forms of online discourse are individual interactions, not corporate communications. IBMers are personally responsible for their posts. Be mindful that what you write will be public for a long time -- protect your privacy.
3. Identify yourself -- name and, when relevant, role at IBM -- when you blog about IBM or IBM-related matters. And write in the first person. You must make it clear that you are speaking for yourself and not on behalf of IBM.
4. If you publish a blog or post to a blog and it has something to do with work you do or subjects associated with IBM, use a disclaimer such as this: "The postings on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent IBM’s positions, strategies or opinions."
5. Respect copyright, fair use and financial disclosure laws.
6. Don’t provide IBM’s or another’s confidential or other proprietary information.
7. Don't cite or reference clients, partners or suppliers without their approval.
8. Respect your audience. Don't use ethnic slurs, personal insults, obscenity, etc., and show proper consideration for others' privacy and for topics that may be considered objectionable or inflammatory -- such as politics and religion.
9. Find out who else is blogging on the topic, and cite them.
10. Don't pick fights, be the first to correct your own mistakes, and don't alter previous posts without indicating that you have done so.
11. Try to add value. Provide worthwhile information and perspective.

The guidelines themselves are detailed and are worth close study, both for insight into how a large organization is approaching the matter as well as a sense of what IBM itself regards as the critical framework to establish that will enable employees to go ahead and become bloggers.

James' post contains some very interesting additional insight into some of the background leading up to last Friday's news and today's release of the guidelines.

I posted commentary in March about IBM's 2,800 internal blogs. In my post on Friday, I speculated that the number has undoubtedly increased since then. It is so, according to James:

[...] A small handful of technical innovators developed and deployed an internal blogging service that has grown in a period of just 18 months to just shy of 9,000 registered users spanning 65 countries, 3,097 individual blogs, 1,358 of which are considered active, with a total of 26,203 entries and comments -- all of which has been put together strictly through word-of-mouth promotion. And it's still just a pilot.

And to illustrate one important point - that developing comprehensive guidelines for blogging in the workplace is an evolutionary, iterative process - James has this to say:

[...] The corporate communications and legal teams worked collaboratively with the IBM Blogging Community to draft the Corporate Blogging Guidelines copied below [on James blog]. The core principles - written by IBM bloggers over a period of ten days using an internal wiki - are designed to guide IBMers as they figure out what they're going to blog about so they don't end up like certain notable ex-employees of certain notable other companies. They're also intended to communicate IBM's position on such practices as astroturfing, covert marketing, and openly goading or berating competitors - specifically, don't do it. As these guidelines were being drafted, we drew heavily upon our own experiences as bloggers and the excellent prior art in this space graciously provided by Sun, Microsoft, Groove and many others who have drafted policies and guidelines for their employees.

One clarification point. In my post on Friday, I said IBM has 130,000 employees worldwide. I took that number from the report I first saw in Silicon Valley Watcher. According to James' blog, IBM has 320,000+ employees. Now that scales things up quite a bit!

Really, a visionary approach to corporate blogging.

GM blog continues to push the envelope

There's a new blogger on the GM FastLane Blog, with a new approach - talking to women.

A post yesterday by Cynthia Price, GM Center of Expertise, Women's Market Initiative:

I've been noticing that guys make most of the comments in this blog. But I'd like to address the women out there.

It seems there is a lot of interest out on the web regarding women and GM. Some of the questions we've heard: Does GM have women designing products? Does GM know that women make a large percentage of buying decisions? Does GM train dealers on how to best serve women?

I'm here to tell you that the answer to all of these is an emphatic "Yes." GM wants more women as customers, employees and dealers. And frankly, in today's environment, any company that doesn't strive to meet the needs of women is crazy!

Yet another example of how GM is really pushing the envelope with this blog. It confirms my view that GM is indeed the poster child for corporate blogging.

This blog is no casual communication channel. According to GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz (the 'senior blogger'):

The blog has become an important unfiltered (emphasis on unfiltered) voice for the company, our customers and auto enthusiasts.

A clear message to literally any other company - where there's the will, there's the way.

Related NevOn posts:

• Integrating blogs with PR and marketing
• Tips and tricks for corporate blogging
• Telling the business world about blogs

Integrating blogs with PR and marketing

First there was Business Week featuring Steve Rubel in their cover story on blogs last week, complete with full-page photo.

That feature evangelizes blogs, exploring the business perspective in quite a different way to other recent mainstream media reporting, and in a far more relevant way for the business reader.

Today, the Wall Street Journal reports that CooperKatz, the PR firm Steve works for, has begun a project with Vespa USA to develop two blogs that will be written by US owners of the Italian motor scooters:

[...] Its blog site, VespaBlogs.com, could launch by early June, says Steve Rubel, a vice president at New York public-relations firm CooperKatz, which will manage the program. Four bloggers will be selected to regularly contribute content about the products and broader lifestyle topics. The company will give the bloggers guidance as well as a code of ethics. Comments may be removed if they are deemed inappropriate.

This is great news to hear of a major success for Steve and his firm's new media services that leverages Steve's Micro Persuasion brand, for which I offer my warm congratulations. It emphasizes the success of Steve's role as a key evangelist in the PR profession and pushing that envelop ever further (for more on that, see the interview transcript or listen to the conversation (MP3, 30.8Mb) Shel and I had with Steve in March for the Hobson & Holtz Report).

But, this isn't the really significant news. That news is related to a comment Steve makes in his post today about the new relationship:

[...] Vespa USA has contracted CooperKatz and Company, my employer, not only for blogging but for its comprehensive US public relations effort as well.

And there you have the key - the blogs form an integral part of an overall communication strategy.

The FAQ on the new VespaBlogs site - a model of transparency - describe how the blogs program will work and what it's intended to achieve, including this explanation on building buzz and driving traffic to the blogs:

Piaggio USA plans to execute a small ad buy on both blogs and search engines to support the launch. In addition, since the online marketing and PR programs are tightly integrated, the blogs will integrate into the broader PR strategy as well. In addition, the VespaUSA.com site will link to the blogs once launched.

Amongst all the generic info out there about the benefits of blogs for business, and how they can work as integral elements of broader public relations, marketing and other communication activity, it's very good indeed to learn of a real, live example of that integration and how it's planned to be executed.

One to watch in the coming months as the plans develop.

Why every company should blog

I've just been reading the drafts of the four interviews that Shel Israel posted in the past few days on The Red Couch, the blog that's the focal point for developing the book on blogs that Shel and Robert Scoble are writing.

Those interviews are with Jonathan Schwartz, COO of Sun Microsystems; Bob Lutz, Vice Chairman of General Motors; Steve Rubel, the Micro Persuasion PR über-blogger; and Ernest Svenson, aka Ernie the Attorney.

If you're a business blogger, you'll very likely be familiar with much of the thought expressed here. By no means is that any dismissal of what these four bloggers have to say. Far from it.

Put yourself in the mind of the kind of business person that the book is squarely aimed at (see the table of contents for a better idea). The kind of person who might pick up a copy of the 2 May issue of Business Week, for instance.

Then read those interviews (links to each below). Here, I want to highlight from those interviews what to me are insightful views into why every company should blog, all other things being equal (like openness, transparency and a willingness to connect with other people in different ways):

Jonathan Schwartz:

Blogging’s advantage, from his perspective, is in the transparency and authenticity that nothing else can provide. With more than 1000 company bloggers, people can see inside Sun in ways that are infinitely more valuable than Federal governance regulations. "Executives are missing a point. There is no perfect truth despite transparency." He argued that SEC requirements for quarterly reporting is far from as revealing as 1000 Sun bloggers talking about "the guts of the company," on a daily basis in a public forum.

Sun’s blogging explosion was embraced without ambivalence by the corporate communications people. "Most PR teams would cringe, but ours didn’t. We have a transparent culture and competitors like HP do not. Our PR team is thinking about how to use technology and culture as a corporate weapon and blogging does both. [...] a key function of the communications team is to be an information gatherer, analyzer and counselor on participating in these communities. A bad way to do PR is to blast press releases every Thursday. We help feed the right information into the right channels. What could be better for a PR organization than blogs?"

Bob Lutz:

Q: What is your strategic goal in blogging?
A: Our only goal was to engage the public regarding our products and services. The blog has become an important unfiltered (emphasis on unfiltered) voice for the company, our customers and auto enthusiasts.

Q: In general, how would you describe blogging's impact on traditional GM corporate communications?
A: We're learning on the run, but now we have an unfiltered voice, a direct-line of communication. It has become indispensable.

Q: What advice do you have to executives at other companies who are considering a blog?
A: Be honest. Stay connected. Go into it with an open mind and expect criticism. And, most important, have good advisers who understand the Blogosphere.

Steve Rubel:

While Rubel remains the sole CooperKatz blogger, the entire agency has been touched by the communications medium. It is pervading the services offered. The firm produces new products to service existing clients and to offer to an increasing number of new prospects, according to Rubel. For example, they've developed a crisis management 'lockbox,' along the lines of, "In case of emergency, break this glass." The agency works with its clients to anticipate whatever crisis could possibly occur. They then plan and design a "failsafe" blog to be used if the emergency actually occurs. They know who will be the speakers, the issues that would be addressed and some of the toughest questions the client might face. If a client ever has to use the lockbox blog, they will be prepared to address their issue directly with the audiences who care most about it.

Why is he so eager to help other agencies? He says that his nature is to be a connector and nearly all great bloggers are great connectors. "This best PR people have always been connectors.  They've often had to be like Plasticman stretching between clients and press.  Blogging is the best connection tool ever invented," he said.

Ernest Svenson:

His passion for blogging is not as a lawyer but as an individual and he feels blogging has helped evolve him.  His circle of friends has expanded to include global blog-based friendships. Above all it has taught Svenson to listen closer and more respectfully to people with opposing views.  When he first started blogging, he tried to argue with dissenting comments.  Now, he’s learned to listen to difficult people and find out where they’re coming. Yes, that helps him in his profession. More important, it helps him in life.

If I had to pick one phrase from all of the above that would be my new elevator pitch lead-in if I'm in that elevator with the CEO of, say, Unilever, it would be this:

Blogging is the best connection tool ever invented.

Bland but with gems

Kudos to Jeremy Pepper for securing a blog interview with Lord Chadlington, aka Peter Gummer, the ex-journalist, PR man and brother of John Gummer, British Conservative politician (and minister in John Major's government in the early 1990s).

Chadlington is a founder of Shandwick, now Weber Shandwick, one of the big PR agencies and part of the Interpublic Group. He is currently CEO of the Huntsworth PR agency group (which is hoping to complete its recent acquisition of the Incepta group, which I commented about last November when a different cast of characters was involved in a deal that eventually fell apart).

So, to the interview.

While Jeremy deserves terrific juice, I found it rather bland overall. Some good questions, but disappointing answers. A bit sound bite-ish, a little like a fluffy press release. It would have been great to have had some real insight on issues (ethics in the profession, for instance) from one of the UK's legendary and authoritative PR figures.

Nevertheless, there are some gems in Jeremy's interview.

For instance, Jeremy asks:

Your holding company does not have a blog - what are your views on the blogosphere and pitching blogs? Any short-term or long-term plans for launching a Huntworth PLC blo