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Tune in Monday for
Search Engine Friendly Copy
October  29-November 2, 2007
GUEST: Dianna Huff, Marcom Writer Blog
TOPIC: Writing Search Engine Friendly Copy

Define "Take Off" :)

CEO blogs WILL become more popular. There will be more CEO blogs in the future -- of that I'm quite certain.

I can even imagine certain CEO Positions requiring the CEO blogs!

But most CEOs will never blog, at least with a "traditional" blog. Most CEOs, and companies, just aren't right for it, for a multitude of reasons.

One area I see a lot of potential for CEO blogs is in the internal blog -- a blog accessible only to employees, for example behind the firewall or password protected. CEOs can communicate more freely, openly, and with fewer worries to their troops, and most CEOs should probably communicate more often internally (blanket statement, I know, but roughly correct).

I like what Seth Godin has to say about CEO blogs in Beware The CEO Blog and agree mostly with him:

Here's the problem. Blogs work when they are based on:
Candor
Urgency
Timeliness
Pithiness and
Controversy

(maybe Utility if you want six).

Does this sound like a CEO to you?

I've only worked with one CEO who fit this description exactly, and he was a stunning success. The  again he's a renegade entrepreneur who can start AND run a company well. Not exactly typical.

My one disagreement with The Sethster is with "controversy." Controversy is good  -- people like controversy. It build readers, it attracts links, it's exciting. But if you run a big, let's say Fortune 500ish, company, people are going to want to read what you write, controversy or not.

So WHAT is a CEO or senior executive. Can I claim that my blog Blogging for Business is a CEO blog? Hey, I'm the CEO of a one man shop, so technically . . .

If I were pompous and ridiculous I could even put CEO on my business card (am I being controversial here maybe? Did I just call my friends Joe, Marty, and Paul pompous?). My blog is NOT a CEO blog.

A CEO blog -- a blog written by a CEO or senior executive of a sizable organization. CEO blogs will grow in popularity, but most organizations and CEOs will never have CEO blogs.

Of those that do, some will find great value in their CEO blog, some will probably get in trouble, and some will merely abandon CEO blogging as a failed experiment.

It's been great blogging here this week! Thanks to everyone, and I'm looking forward reading Dianna Huff here next week on "Writing Search Engine Friendly Copy."