Why CEOs SHOULD blog

Dave Taylor suggests we shouldn't...

...And the Chief Executive Officer? Their primary role is to raise money for the company. They are the lead on strategic planning (along with the Board of Directors) and are somewhat involved in corporate tactics (though that's really the purview of the President of the company), but notice that I didn't say anything about "communicating the company message" or even "inspiring the employees" or "engaging customers". For companies of any size, CEOs have more important tasks than writing articles for the company
weblog.

But... communicating with constituents is central to the CEO's role.  True, they may be prospective or current investors as well as customers and employees ... but it's all about communication, in any case.  Blogs can in fact be the most leveraged (with nice unintended consequences, some times) medium for communicating with all those constituencies.

But I agree with Dave that it's tough to find the time; one has to be aware of unhappy SEC and FTC-consequences; and, most importantly,

I want strategic business blogs that are written by authorities in the company.

But some CEO blogs meet that criterion...

Comments

[Dave Taylor]

Most corporate CEOs spend remarkably little time communicating with their market and customers, in my experience. For example, when was the last time you heard anything about the CEO of Pepsi Corporation, or Proctor & Gamble, or even Merck? My model is always "how does the Fortune 500 do this?" when I think about corporate strategies, filtered through the sieve of "if I ruled the world, how would I want it done right" :-)

Thanks for your smart feedback and response to my article. It's gratifying to know that people are reading what I'm writing. But then again, isn't spreading a meme part of both "online PR" and blogging anyway?