The Corporate Blogging Book by Debbie Weil (Penguin Portfolio); available on Amazon

Cool to be quoted yesterday in Randall Stross’s Digital Domain column in The Sunday New York Times Business section (July 30, 2006). Stross interviewed me at length for the article and mentioned The Corporate Blogging Book “which Portfolio Hardcover is to publish this week.” He began by positing that CEOs tend to avoid high-risk activities like sky diving and rock climbing… and blogging. But why?

He goes on to cite Sun Microsystems Fortune 500 CEO blogger Jonathan Schwartz (the only F500 CEO blogging publicly). Schwartz’s comments on his blog in the wake of Sun’s most recent quarterly earnings announcement are a “tonic,” writes Stross.

“Tonic” is a great descriptor, I think, for the effect of Schwartz’s blog entry. What Jonathan writes isn’t earth shaking but it’s a spirit booster and we all know that does have an impact on our perceptions of a brand and, ultimately, on the market. Jonathan blogged (and prompted 57 comments from readers in return):

So I thought I’d add some color to our numbers, and put some of our competitor’s comments into context…” - Jonathan’s blog 7/25/06

Even more revealing - and appealing - is what Jonathan blogged late last night (well after the NYTimes article was published):

“I had lunch with Tony Blair today. (And yes, I have been waiting all afternoon to type that.)” - Jonathan Schwartz on his blog (7/30/06)

He sounds like an excited kid who isn’t too cool to admit that being a F500 CEO gives you access to famous people and historic moments.

Randy manages to make me more controversial than I am by concluding his column with this quote:

Ms. Weil, the author, spoke with me last week about the reluctance of Fortune 500 executives to share their thoughts on a public blog, and could find no acceptable excuse for their silence.

“They should come down from the mountain and communicate in their own words — without handlers,” Ms. Weil said. “For what they’re paid, is that too much to ask?” - Randall Stross in The New York Times (7/30/06)

In fact, I said something to that effect. Then we crafted the quote together to make it sound good, er, edgy. I don’t think that every CEO should necessarily blog. Not unless he/she has something interesting to say and is a reasonably good writer.

P.S. Randy took many of his points for the column from my chapter on CEO blogging in The Corporate Blogging Book.

Technorati: the corporate blogging book , ceo blogging , ceo bloggers , corporate blogging , debbie weil

More pics of Washington’s blogging cognoscenti, as well as corporate blogger wannabes, who came to the pre-release party in downtown Washington DC - yes, one week before the official pub date of August 3rd!

John Aravosis of Americablog fame (at right) was there. A bunch of my friends from Fleishman-Hillard (co-hosts of the event) came, including Peter Klaus (at left).

And of course local celebrity corporate bloggers from the book, including Pat Cleary of NAM (at left), Kevin Holland of ACCABuzz and Cheryl Contee of BloggerRelations. Ken Yarmosh live blogged the event with this spot-on comment:

“There is an interesting crowd here but for the most part they do seem very non-bloggy. Despite the echoes we often hear in the halls of geek-dom, the blogosphere is not saturated yet. There are many, many more voices to come, blogging on everything from finance to real estate, to yes, even air conditioners. And I know, because I’ve met them this afternoon.” - Ken Yarmosh

Mitch Derman, a senior communications manager for AOL (at right), won the signed copy of my new book. And Olsson’s was on hand to sell books to the other attendees.

See more photos on Flickr. Oh and my inspired words to mark the pre-release launch of The Corporate Blogging Book in Washington DC?

“The city of spin meets the new age of corporate transparency: that’s what effective corporate blogging is all about!”

(I thought that was kinda clever.)

Technorati: the corporate blogging book , corporate blogging , fleishman-hillard, debbie weil

A bunch of cool people showed up at the 4th Estate Grille for a pre-release book launch. Here are a few photos. More TK.

Left to right, Cheryl Contee of IDI; John Aravosis of Americablog; Debbie Weil

Debbie and Dan Horowitz of Fleishman-Hillard, co-host of the event.

A few remarks to a, uh, spell-bound crowd. Blogger Pat Cleary of NAM (one of the corporate bloggers in the book) at left.

Stack of books displayed by Olsson’s booksellers.

Mystery man Sam [”Real people don’t blog” - from the introduction to the book]

Come rub shoulders with Washington’s blogging cognoscenti! Get a sneak peak of The Corporate Blogging Book… and purchase an advance copy! I’ll be on hand to sign yours. Cont.

Tuesday July 25, 2006
4:30 - 6:30 PM

4th Estate Grille
1101 17th St. NW
(17th and L Streets)
Washington DC 20036

RSVP by leaving a Comment (scroll all the way down after you click through)

As seen in Face Time in The Washington Post

The Washington Post Face Time: Tuesday, July 25, Corporate Blogging Demystified (page D5 in the Business section)

Get Corporate Blogging Tip #2 in the July 24, 2006 issue of WordBiz Report. If you’re not already a subscriber to my e-newsletter, sign up here.

Useful Link

How to make money from a blog as a marketing tool

Makes the point that a blog is a Web site on steroids because of the blogging technology behind it. I cover this in depth in a chapter in my book: “The New ROI Is ROB (Return on Blog)”

The results of my 2005 1-Minute Blogging & RSS Survey emphasized that “Time” was the top fear factor holding folks back from creating and maintaining a corporate blog. [PDF summary of 2005 survey - 708 respondents]

This year’s results are not dramatically different. “Time” is still a concern. “What to write about” is an equal concern. In addition, the non-adoption rate of RSS appears to be continuing. 59 percent say they have downloaded an RSS newsreader; only 42 percent are using one to read blogs via RSS.

There were just under 450 responses this year, from a mix of small business and corporate types. Most, presumably, are readers of WordBiz Report, where I advertised the survey. [PDF summary of 2006 survey - 449 respondents]

Baseline questions

- 96% of respondents know what a blog is
- 85% know what a podcast is
- 64% know what a wiki is
- 57% are familiar with the term social media

Note: these stats make perfect sense, don’t they?

- 59% have downloaded an RSS newsreader
- but only 42% are reading blogs via a newsreader

Note: this corresponds to the non-adoption rate of RSS newsreaders in last year’s survey.

Most important concerns about launching & maintaining a corporate blog:

59% - Time it would take to write
57% - What to write about
35% - Who in their company should write the blog
34% - Whether blog entries would need to be pre-approved

Is blogging a fad?

85% - Blogging is *not* a fad
67% - Blogging will become a must-have corporate marketing & communications tool

In 2005, 80% said blogging was not a fad. 55% said blogs would become a must-have corporate marketing tool.

So the needle is shifting slightly, but noticeably.

Sampling of comments left by respondents

“Isn’t the word ‘Corporate Blogging’ an oxmoron? Corporate means limiting or confining while blogging means the free flow of ideas & information.”

“I’m convinced of the need (for a corporate blog). It’s just a question of time and resources.”

“We’ve considered it, but I’m getting a lot of resistance because no one else is doing it in our industry and our marketing department is always hesitant to be the first with anything. Sigh!”

“Planning to launch a CEO blog shortly.”

“I don’t want to talk to the guy who sells me a vacuum cleaner… Blogs are going to be useful only to businesses that need to and fro communication.”

“[Corporate blogs could become a way to] spew out more propaganda and yet make it seem cogent and real-time. Sorry to be so pragmatic or sarcastic… too many years in Corp. America.”

“Just another tool in the quiver. Nothing will ever replace face to face.”

“Companies like mine [has 3,000 employees] will struggle with who will do the writing, editing and posting and how to show tangible results from the effort.”

Well that counts for something, doesn’t it? Maybe a lot. I’m one of those bookaholics who judges books by their covers and their heft and their layout and type. And TCBB, designed by the clever folks at Penguin Portfolio, has a nice look and feel to it. (I’d give credit to the art director but I don’t even know who it is. Portfolio keeps a lot of this stuff under wraps. Not sure why.) A few comments from early readers:

The Corporate Blogging Book is a very nice book — every page has something essential in it — just open it up and you’re good to go!

- Chris Abraham

and

“Congratulations on a beautiful product! I’m honored to have been a small part of it and appreciate your mentioning me [in the acknowledgments]. I love the size and weight of the book — it’s perfect.”

- email from Meryl K. Evans (researcher for the book)

I just updated the About the book page with a little Q & A that explains it. I’ve written a book for the non-cool, the non plugged-in, the possibly skeptical and perhaps even fearful executive. In addition, I’ve written it in a slightly bloggy style. I’m hoping it’s an engaging, fun read. And not a dry business book.

This is Tip #3 in a series of 5 key corporate blogging tips. See the July 10, 2006 issue of WordBiz Report for the full story. I point my e-newsletter readers to HP’s Eric Kintz and his provocative blog post: Why blog post frequency does not matter anymore.