To blog or not to blog?

“Should we start a blog”? is the first question I’m often asked when consulting with companies on new media. So here’s the short answer – no, don’t feel you *should*.

Setting up a blog for your CEO is not the only step towards social media activity. A good campaign can engage via a range of online media, from forums to Facebook. Just setting up senior execs with profiles on LinkedIn could be a great step in using new media for business benefits.

More importantly you can’t blog in isolation. What I mean by that is a blog is not a soapbox for your CEO to regurgitate corporate messaging. Social media is, well, social. Web 2.0 allows people to interact and engage in two-way, three-way, 100-way + conversations about topics they’re mutually interested in.

There’s many good reasons to start a company blog, almost as many as why you shouldn’t start one. Sometimes something as simple as a webcam can have a far greater reach than trying to talk about the company’s annual results – see Ceddarvision.tv

Before writing you need to listen first.