Blog away,but mention employer at your own risk

By: Carol Kleiman...Published July 14, 2005...Chicago Tribune

Blog warnings:  A blog--your personal Web page journal--is a fairly new way of keeping a record of your activities, expressing your innermost thoughts and exchanging information with your cyberspace readers.

Having the ability to speak freely is one of the major attractions of blogging and one of the reasons it continues to grow in popularity.

But if you are an employee of any organization, large or small, you many not have all the freedom you think you have.

Especially if you're a blogger.

And that caveat applies even if your blog is conducted entirely outside of work--on your own PC rather than your employer's.

Where blogging may get you into trouble with your bosses is if you mention anything at all about what goes on at work, positive or negative.

Michael Karpeles, a labor lawyer representing management, offers this warning about blogging that I urge all employed bloggers to study carefully:

"Employees should not believe that they can blog about the company anonymously or on their own time and avoid employer discipline or termination," said Karpeles, a partner at the law firm Goldberg Kohn Bell Black Rosenbloom &Moritz.

The Chicago based attorney says that employers are concerned about "company confidential information and company loyalty when considering employee blogging."

Something very wise that employees should consider doing, according to Karpeles, is to consult "company policies regarding communications to others about the company."

And he adds this chilling caveat: "The 1st Amendment does not generally apply to private employers."

Carol Kleiman's columns also appear in Monday's and Tuesday's Business sections. Hear her on WBBM-AM 780 at 6:21 p.m. and 10:22 p.m. Mondays and 11:20 a.m. Saturdays. Watch her "Career Coach" segments on CLTV.

Highlights added by page author

By Ann Meyer...Special to the Tribune...Published August 8, 2005

Kirsten Osolind's decision to halt her company's blog was strictly business.

She enjoyed the international feedback she received from her 3-year-old Web log, which ran through June 10 (*)2005 on her Chicago-based company's Web site, ReinventionInc.com, where it remains archived.

But unfortunately the blog wasn't pulling its weight. "I believe blogging is not profitable," Osolind said, "and there are better ways to connect with your clients."

While the current explosion in the number of corporate blogs is spurring many small businesses to jump on the bandwagon, that doesn't necessarily mean blogging is the best strategy for all companies.

"Don't do it just because everyone else is. Do it because you have an objective in mind," said Mohan Sawhney, professor of technology at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management.

Companies that are establishing blogs as a new marketing channel should evaluate them as they would any other marketing technique. If you're striving for new leads from the blog, establish goals and track your progress at three-month intervals, Sawhney said.

You'll also want to calculate the amount of effort involved and determine whether the results are worth it, he said.

How well your blog performs will depend in part on whether your target market is big on blogging. Most people aren't, suggests a November 2004 Forrester Research report.

The segment of online consumers who regularly read blogs climbed to 5 percent in 2004, from 2 percent in 2003, according to Forrester.

But that means blogs are missing the majority of the population.

What's more, bloggers tend to be young and male. Adults between the ages of 18 and 24 represent one out of four bloggers, according to the Forrester report, and nearly six out of 10 bloggers are men.

Even among young adults, regular blogging was practiced by fewer than one in five surveyed. In addition, fewer than one in 10 young adults had a blog, and just 13 percent said they regularly read and visit other people's blogs, the report said.

If your target is women older than 24, as it is for Osolind, whose marketing company, Re:Invention Inc., serves women led businesses with annual revenues of $1 million or more, blogs might not be the best approach.

While Osolind's blog attracted attention from people as far away as Italy, most weren't potential clients. As a result, she realized her company would be better off focusing on other marketing opportunities. "It did take more time and was less effective than working with clients, doing customer relationship building, doing program sponsorships and other things," she said.

Blogging has other caveats as well. Consider the inherent risks in entering the publishing business, experts say. Blogs by their nature have encouraged very personal writing, and that can be problematic.

Even some bloggers who should know better have been tempted by the medium to discuss inappropriate topics. Last month a journalism instructor at Boston University was fired after posting a blog entry that described one of his students as "incredibly hot."

Others can learn from that incident, said Tobe Berkovitz, associate dean at Boston University's College of Communication. "People have to realize that blogs are public and you have to be very sensitive" about what you write, he said.(*)"Think before you type."

For many, blogs have become a form of confessional, he said. "Blogs are the new TV talk shows, where people go on Oprah and Dr. Phil and say things in front of 3 million people that they [ordinarily] wouldn't say in front of two people. They lose their minds," Berkovitz said.

Some experts are calling bloggers new journalists, yet most don't have the backup of professional editors to spot potential problems.

"You have 150 years of traditions that have built up in mainstream journalism in America, but those traditions don't always carry over to these new forms," Berkovitz said.

Copyright, libel and defamation law applies to bloggers, said Robert Ambrogi, a media lawyer and journalist in Rockport, Mass., who writes the Media Law blog legaline.com/medialaw.html>(*)A blog about "freedom Of The Press.

But most of the legal cases involving blogs so far stem from employment issues, Ambrogi said, "when someone gets fired for writing a blog."

The Forrester report recommends establishing policies for blogging, including a code of ethics that emphasizes accuracy, respectfulness and avoiding discussions of "private topics."

Further, before you launch a company blog, decide what its focus will be and who is best suited to write it. It should be someone at a level high enough to serve as a firm spokesperson. Their ability to write well is less important, said Anita Campbell, a small-business consultant in Cleveland who writes the Small Business Trends blog

If employees are blogging, train them on what information is off-limits, such as trade secrets, a discussion of your company's internal operations, and anything that could offend potential customers. "You have to stay away from the things that just aren't right for business--politics, religion and sex," Campbell said. "You never know what your customers or clients believe or when you might offend them deeply because you're expressing your own views."

Ultimately, small-business owners need to decide whether the effort involved in blogging is the best use of time. Campbell suggests setting aside at least four hours a week to write and promote your blog.

Osolind, who also is a regular columnist for Entrepreneur magazine, thinks a better online marketing approach is a more comprehensive Web portal, which she plans to launch later this year. It will provide more information and resources for women led businesses, including links to other Web sites. "We've shorted the blog because we don't think that approach is the best way to accomplish our mission online," she said.

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