Risk management and corporate blogging

I discovered the blog known as NevOn today and it looks like a pretty interesting site (and not just because the name of the blog is so similar to my own).  I came across this post about Paul Otellini’s new blog at Intel (Paul Otellini is due to take over as CEO of Intel later this year).

After speaking about how well Otellini’s blog went down internally (it is an internal blog so far), NevOn’s proprietor, Neville Hobson, reminded readers that it is important for corporate bloggers to ensure that there are clearly defined policies in place to govern these blogs, particularly when those blogs are public:

Many other companies are doing similar things – quietly introducing
internal blogs, news about which doesn’t readily see the light of
public day until a newspaper or blogger gets wind of it and then
reports on it.

The Mercury’s report does contain one warning sign for communicators.

It quotes a gentleman called Greg Evans, who the paper says advises
companies on blogging, saying that "executives should always make clear
the rules for corporate blogs." There’s no question about that –
establishing clear policies at the outset are an essential part of balanced risk management, both for the employer and the employee, whatever level you are in the organization.

None of this is new but it is good to be reminded of these basics from time to time.