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A Blog Council Isn’t Wrong, But Could Be Spooky
7 Dec2007
You know, a blog council is just like a big, fuzzy, comfortable blankie. In a moment of uncertainty and perhaps confusion, a blankie can be a touchstone, an easy gateway to a simpler and more secure time.
Especially if that blankie smells like your mommie, or good times in the park with all your friends.
Which explains the need for a blog council dedicated solely to the problems and achievements of large corporations entering the social media space. Some social media evangelists have jumped on the idea as too rigid or naiive, dismissing the idea that a large corporations could benefit from such an arrangement.
What they don’t seem to understand is that a “council” is an easy concept for senior executives to buy into. These people already belong to industry councils, economic councils and foreign policy councils. They understand the framework, they understand the cost structure and they understand the potential benefits.
And THIS is where our colleagues are right to question the impulse to create a council. Brian Solis moves around this idea in his post.
Councils are not created to convene coffee klatches and an excuse to fly into a new resort once a month.
THAT is called a seminar.
Councils are not pulled together to discuss common process challenges and develop best practices.
THAT is called a working group.
A council of senior executives, united in a common goal, is created to share influence. To increase the authority of council members in what can seem to be a fractured environment with little real leadership.
Even a Parent-Teacher Council dreams of expanded influence and increased authority, if only expressed through reams of volunteer lists and pizza orders.
I’m probably unnecessarily aggrandizing the influence that could be wielded by the Blog Council.
Still, the “benefits” a generic membership often include:
As I look at the children’s playground of competing cliques in social media, a council of Fortune 500 companies that happen to blog seems to be a good idea.
An idea that, if managed effectively, could influence how fundamental decisions are made about the role of blogs, podcasts, vidcasts and ephemeral communications like Twitter in regulated environments like:
Which might be of some concern to a social media universe currently obsessed with nodes rather than the network as a whole.
Or I might have taken too many poli.sci. courses in university.
[tags] Blog Council, corporate blogging [/tags]
9 Responses to A Blog Council Isn’t Wrong, But Could Be Spooky
Jake McKee
December 7th, 2007 at 9:48 pm
I think this may be WAY over thinking things. Yes, anything taken to an extreme can be dangerous, but I guess the piece I’m missing is what makes you think this is going to go that way, other than the name.
Maybe I’m missing something, but I can’t seem to connect the dots between what’s happening now and the tragic conclusions you’re worried about.
(Good post though!)
Des Walsh
December 7th, 2007 at 10:18 pm
Without wanting to indulge unduly in, to use Jake’s great phrase, “overthinking”, those of us who have worked in government know how easy it is for a group like this to be seen as a boon to government policy makers and regulators. Ah, there’s this group of Fortune 500 companies that blog: better to talk with them about regulation than to involve all that rabble out there who can’t seem to agree on anything. And the suitably named Blog Council is suitably impressed with the blandishments of government officials, commissions a paper and hands it over. Nice job all round, folks. Where did you say we were having lunch? Cynical? Maybe. But I plead guilty to having played, more than once, with zeal and - on the face of it - success, the game of government “consulting with industry”.
The price of liberty etc
Colin
December 7th, 2007 at 10:39 pm
I don’t know if the conclusions are tragic. I just see the possibility that social media could be co-opted as part of its very inclusion in the mainstream. As Des points out, government policy makers like familiar voices that can explain new ideas and challenges clearly.
Kami Huyse
December 7th, 2007 at 11:15 pm
First, I must say that I did not say the council was naive, but I see that you were trying to link to everyone who talked about this, so I appreciate being included. I actually said that I saw clearly the reasoning and appeal for the formation of the organization and that I hoped they would use the forum for the good of the entire community.
Now to your conspiracy theory.
You forget something, the council is a networking group, and their founding docs don’t include anything about regulation or advocacy. Working and living in DC, as I did for 13 years, this group doesn’t even remotely resemble the picture you’ve painted above.
Still, your thinking reminds me that the PR crowd is very creative group with a wonderful imagination. Big business is still not trusted, and this makes it clear.
JohnP@Dell
December 8th, 2007 at 2:11 am
Hi Colin — For Dell, the impetus to join the Blog Council was our desire to participate in an additional forum of our peers — in this case large companies already engaged in blogging — where we could listen, learn and improve. Garnering influence isn’t really part of the equation. Rather it’s about focusing on skills and tools that can help us have a better two-way dialogue with our customers.
In today’s Web 2.0-enabled marketplace, it is they who have the influence and control.
Bob LeDrew
December 8th, 2007 at 9:54 am
Where I think you’re right, Colin, and some of the response to this is wrong, is to make the facile leap to say that this is simply “Andy Sernovitz’s Next Big Thing”, linkbait, blah blah blah. These companies don’t do ANYTHING just for another meeting (who needs that). This council will do SOMEthing. It would behoove (how do you like that word, eh?) us all to keep this on our radar.
Judy Gombita
December 10th, 2007 at 2:22 pm
What’s the big deal and why do so many bloggers care so much about the formation of this council? Honestly, it’s not like the idea is going to implode, just because smaller shops can’t play a part or someone (ahem) thinks it is part of a bigger-picture conspiracy theory.
People who really want to get in on the council’s “conversations” should think about applying for a position in the social media department at one of the council member companies. Otherwise, I’d suggest you move on to discussions where you actually might contribute information or influence things.
Of course I could also stop reading posts on this topic. Which I think I wi….
Colin
December 10th, 2007 at 2:24 pm
Actually, Judy, I think the creation of the Council is another step to the corporate adoption of social media - and by corporate, I mean corporations that aren’t tech-driven.
The point I was making was about the influence such a Council could have on standards-setting, if it wanted to.
Judy Gombita
December 10th, 2007 at 3:02 pm
Well, social media is *not* a regulated profession–or even that defined a discipline as yet– (it shares this trait with public relations, marketing, etc.). By that I mean there is no government legislation or any government statute-sanctioned regulating bodies (similar to medicine, law, professional accounting bodies, etc.).
Ergo, the new council could go ahead and draw up/set standards, but adoption will be purely optional. Just like it is with the industry association relating to public relations and marketing.
I think it is more akin to a power networking body, similar to the Canadian Council of Public Relations Firms (http://ccprf.ca/). There was no hue-and-cry from sole practitioners and small shop consultants/agencies when that body was established. Nor, as far as I can tell (at least from its moribund blog), has it set or (publicly) published standards that could be adopted by any non-member firms.
Why is this different? Because it concerns social media, meaning the early adopters and evangelists should and must be included, or at least consulted? Honestly, the blogosphere has become so bloated with egos, as evidenced by all of these outraged and sanctimonious postings. (And no, I am not saying your posting was outraged or sanctimonious. I wouldn’t have commented here if I thought it was.)
But as is the same for most things, time will tell.