Legal Department vs. Style Guide
Monday, April 27th, 2009
Robert Matsui United States Federal Courthouse by flickr user Rojer
IMO, blog policies R 2 make legal dept feel better, the style guide is more important 2 me when comes 2 work blog #blogchat
The above comment came out of last night’s #blogchat, hosted by Mack Collier. Later that night, I read an article in the WSJ, entitled “Corporate Blogs and ‘Tweets’ Must Keep SEC in Mind: Social Media Offer Immediacy and Spontaneity to Communications but Risk Running Afoul of Regulations.” From the article:
Blogs and tweets can run afoul of Securities and Exchange Commission regulations on corporate communications. But sanitizing such posts risks hurting credibility with online audiences.
Hrm. blog policies and post sanitation aren’t just to make legal departments feel better (although they probably do) - they protect the organization and its employees. Because organizations are held to different standards than consumers and those standards depend on the type of organization, I understand why companies take their time regarding social media adoption.
That said, organizations like Dell, EBay and Comcast have done an amazing job adopting a social media strategy.
What About Startups?
Startups have a unique advantage when it comes to blogging - they aren’t publicly traded so they aren’t subject to the same SEC regulations on corporate communications.
Startups can be scrappy, making much out of very little, figuring out how to get more for their money. The runway is only so long and business considerations like user acquisition, monetization, scalability and revenue generation tend to be high priority.
Blogging, while time intensive, consistently generates fresh content for search engines while sharing the organization’s story, thoughts, opinion and values. That said, startup bloggers should also watch what they say… litigation ties up resources, such as time & capital, and can distract from progress on user acquisition, revenue generation, etc.
Keep the style guide in one hand and your legal-approved blog policy in the other. Be bold, yet thoughtful.
If your online audience is turned off by you protecting yourself, use your blog and your tweets to explain to them why you need to include the un-fun* language. Alternatively, you can take a page from Virgin America’s book and figure out how to add the fun back.
*as used here, fun refers to unsantitized content. Your brand personality may or may not be fun. Write in your own brand voice, as it makes sense for you.
