So Where Was That Blogging Policy?

The Attention Company has released details of a poll revealing that people are sur­pris­ingly relaxed about sharing inform­a­tion over the Internet. The company spec­u­lates that since the Second World War, privacy has become com­mon­place leading to a sense of anonymity and ali­en­a­tion in modern society. The Internet and blogging offers an oppor­tunity for people to rescue their sense of self, publish whatever they like, gain fame and recog­ni­tion, and become ‘out there’.

According to the poll, in addition to swathes of personal information…

“It is appro­priate to share the fol­lowing on a blog or website…”

• Praise of your organ­iz­a­tion (72%)
• Events or activ­ities in your organ­iz­a­tion that are already public know­ledge (71%)
• Opinions about the per­form­ance of your organ­iz­a­tion (39%)
• Opinions about your com­pet­itors (33%)
• Events or activ­ities in your organ­iz­a­tion that are not yet public know­ledge (16%)
• Trade Secrets (8%)

Obviously, it’s the last four points that will make dif­fi­cult reading for business leaders, and it’s hardly sur­prising that many regard employee blogging as a poten­tial com­mu­nic­a­tions and legal mine­field. If you have 1000 employees and 100 are bloggers, then 8 of those will be revealing trade secrets. Thirty-​​nine of them will be saying whether or not they agree with what you’re doing. Such fright­ening figures are liable to prompt knee-​​jerk anti-​​blogging rules to be imposed by many companies.

But rather than imposing some sort of heavy-​​handed code of silence, which won’t work anyway, the report con­cludes that organ­isa­tions need to take on board these stat­istics as a ‘new reality’. They should recog­nise that there will always be critics seeking an outlet. However, if they work to turn these cri­ti­cisms inwards and become more open as organ­isa­tions, then the poten­tial damage caused by these indi­viduals could poten­tially become a strength. Companies might “use these tend­en­cies to develop and imple­ment new, innov­ative ideas”. Naked con­ver­sa­tions in the company meeting, if you like.

That’s obvi­ously the best-​​case scenario, but it’s also clear that there’s a bumpy road ahead. These secrets and opinions are already out there on the Internet for one thing and, the Internet being what it is, will remain there forever in search-​​engine caches and internet archives.

Via. John Koetsier

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