"Corpspeakers talk to people when they want to speak, not when people want to listen." - Naked Conversations pg 4.
Don't bloggers do the same? The only difference is bloggers want to speak ALL THE TIME.
Deadspin vs ESPN
Can blogging hurt a company? ESPN prides itself on timely, accurate info. One day, I came into work and there was a rumor that Mohamed Ali had died. We went to def con 4. We started preparing shows, getting in contact with reporters and analysts, and waited in standby mode. It turns out, ofcourse, that Mohamed Ali was alive and well playing golf in Arizona somewhere. My point is that a company which encourages or allows it's employees to blog about the inner workings of said company could potentially be a hamper, or a legal and PR nightmare. Imagine if the story broke and was linked directly to ESPN? Our credibility would be tainted forever.
Unlike Microsoft, which people have had negative views of, ESPN is a company the general public like. People love the 'This is SportsCenter' commercials, but in reality, Wally the Green Monster and Big Papi aren't wandering the halls and hanging out by the water cooler... well sometimes they are, but not everyday. Could employee blogging tarnish ESPN's reputation as a hip, young sports haven and reveal it's corporate and professional reality?
I would like an internal ESPN blog, to see what the executives are up to, but I would bet everything I own it would get leaked by a disgruntled employee within a year, if not sooner. Why? We're underpaid, for one thing, and the other is psychological. Naked conversations talks about the psychological effects of collaboration, there's also a psychological affect of revenge, and of getting away with something against the rules.
I was surprised to hear about Sun Micro's blogs. When I was in high school, I worked stocking shelves at a liquor store in the suburbs of Boston, and on a few occasions I delivered to Sun Micro. At the time I noticed the tight security - it was clear they took their business very seriously and were not taking any chances of unauthorized people getting any inside information. Ironic.
Finally, this quote really struck me in our reading.
"You can make something worth talking about or you can become invisible." Naked Conversations.
I think that applies to a lot more than just blogging.
1 comment:
I think that is a good idea to have a blog for the inside of ESPN because then people can become more connected with each other and what other people have input on.
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