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Business Blogging 101: Have Fun, But Not Too Much
Posted on Dec 15, 2005 at 01:47 PM by John Foley

Microsoft's prolific blogger Robert Scoble has just returned from what sounds like a jam-packed 18-day trip to Europe, where he met fellow bloggers, talked late into the night about technology and blogging, and wrote about it all. Scoble's about to reveal how other business people can get in on the action, too. His book comes out next month.

While in Europe, Scoble spoke at two blogging conferences, IT@Cork in Cork, Ireland, and Les Blogs in Paris. He does this kind of thing in the States often, meeting with other bloggers and tech geeks, lending a sympathetic ear to their complaints about Microsoft, and sharing his experiences on Scobleizer.com. During his European tour, that included descriptions of models he met, a visit to an Irish pub, dinner parties, and much more. It all makes for one exciting itinerary; I'll come back to that in a moment.

But first, Scoble's forthcoming book, "Naked Conversations, How Blogs Are Changing The Way Businesses Talk With Customers," is due for release in January, published by John Wiley & Sons Inc. The book is co-written by PR veteran and consultant Shel Israel, and it's meant to encourage business people to blog and to go about it in the right way. "We're in the very early stages," Scoble tells me via E-mail. "Very few businesses blog at all, and even of those, only a small percentage blog well." Naked Conversations will help you get started with tips like a 34-point "corporate Weblog manifesto." Scoble is a shining example of how it can work, having single-handedly improved Microsoft's image through his easy-going style, wide embrace of non-Microsoft people and technologies, and willingness to acknowledge his company's mistakes. I'll have more to say about Scoble's growing influence in the Dec. 19 issue of InformationWeek.

But Scoble's road show raises a question. How far should business people go when writing about the indulgences of their last meeting or trip? In this day of heightened sensitivity to corporate governance, budget pressure, and workload issues, should you really be writing about knocking down stouts in Ireland, eating mussels in Brussels, and gulping white wine in London? Maybe it’s a refreshing break from the workplace doldrums, and maybe this kind of transparency does more good than harm. Scoble's certainly had success with it. But can you? Depends on where you work, how you say it, and how far you go.

To be fair, Scoble's job is largely about social interaction (he describes himself as an ambassador for Microsoft), restaurant and bar scenes are only a small part of what he writes about, and Microsoft's corporate culture isn't offended. Naked Conversations has chapters on how to blog right, how to do it wrong, and how to avoid getting fired for ill-advised postings. Scoble and Israel put it simply: "Do nothing stupid."

My interpretation: It's OK to write about a frothy pint of Guinness. Just leave out the part about chasing leprechauns till the sun comes up.

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