Corporate Blogs: 2 Leaders Speak, 3 to follow

Funny how things happen. Today two of  my favorite people posted commentary on corporate blogs.  The third best resource on corporate blogging is the timeless: Naked Conversations by Shel Israel and Scoble

Thing #1
Over at Dell's new blog about technology and education Edu4u.com Lionel Menchaca, Dell's Chief Blogger talks about lecture he gave last week.  Couple highlights...but go read the whole post:

Benefits of corporate blogs:

• Purpose: they are built for two-way communications
• Versatility: As a platform, blogs bring together text, video
• Huge and growing: According to Technorati in June 2008… 112 million and counting.
• Empowerment: Blogs empower individuals within companies and humanize companies
• Trust: People inherently don’t tend to trust corporate blogs. I told the class I wasn’t at all surprised when Forrester said only 16% of the folks they surveyed trusted corporate blogs. In my view, companies help create that reality—hence the cartoon from Hugh McLeod above. Good blog posts help us chip away that distrust at the individual level.
• No matter how transparent a corporate blog is, there are some things you can’t share. Personal blogs don’t have many limitations in this regard.
• Legal issues: When we’re dealing with safety issues like the battery recall, or other product issues that may impact lots of customers, we work with our legal team before publishing.
  

Aside from the great content and perspective, let me tell you something. Lionel is tech savvy pro, loves Dell  customers (in fact even helped this one buy his first Dell before he was a Dell employee).  He is someone I have come to know pretty well....and even though we disagree from time to time.....I ADORE him, professionally and personally.  He is a friend.  And even taught me a few things about this space (OK...maybe more than a few, but dont tell him I said that).  He is Chief corporate blogger for a reason.  He is GREAT and gets it!

Thing #2
Scoble, who I have come to know and admire working in this space since 2006, out of the blue posts a link to something he wrote in 2003.  Its here:  The Corporate Blogging Manifesto.  I didnt even know blogs existed then.  For all the jokes about Scoble's gazillion  followers......this piece from 2003 has clearly withstood the test of time.  NO JOKES. Go read it.

Conclusion: Follow them and it will come
I didnt even pay attention until August 2006.  Thats when I started to listen, learn and engage.....AND learn a few things I did from Lionel, Shel and Scoble. I still do.  You can't go wrong reflecting on these links ....and by the way, not one them talks about traffic or maximizing search or visits from Twitter.  I think if you follow their examples.....people come.

And really, that's what its all about anyway, right?