February 5, 2012

Obsolete Skills and the Skills Needed for Today’s Blog Communication

The other day I heard about a neat little blog entitled Obsolete Skills. It covers the skills that all of us seem to be leaving in the dust of technical progress. I encourage you to check it out.

Today, some of the skills being used in communication are changing as rapidly as technology and the Internet flashes forward. Blogs seem to be popping up everywhere. I’ve joined at least a half a dozen site just to “socialize” this blog, a skill in itself. I’ve applied to many of them to be accepted into their site. It’s like joining a country club.

The number one parameter they examine — your topics. Blogs are becoming so omnipresent that blog directories are becoming selective in their acceptance of your blog. Find an unexploited niche (your cat’s diet or nuclear physics) and you can find room on their directories. Of late, I’ve been discussing blogs in more detail, this third in a series will examine topics. My case study has focused on “Company S” where I’ve been priviledged enough to have access to their Intranet and its associated blogs. They are top-notch and the employees are just starting to explore what can be discussed and accomplished with blogs.

Everything from wikileaks and Wired Magazine’s coverage of the whistleblower site is being discussed with a tint of how it affects Company S. Other topics include how to make the best use of cutting edge virtual worlds like Second Life in business or graphic design within the company. There is tongue-in-cheek blog that plays on the name of the company’s founder and covers everything from how the company is marketing itself to the latest news that affects the industries the company is involved in.

What blog topics do you think are the most popular? Which ones are the most popular at your company or on your blog? For me it’s about anything discussing this new corporate world that is using Web 2.0 technology. What are your interests and what do you want to hear more about?

Let me know. Until next time, Tim


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The Corporate Blog – Tackling Topics of the Day

This is my second in a series on a company I have unique access to, I’m calling Company S. While its a global company and has a very “corporate” culture its very progressive in its acceptance of technology. They have added a blog component to their very comprehensive Intranet and are experiencing growing pains in getting acceptance and usage from their employees. But that’s what I covered in the first blog entry about Company S.

Let’s discuss some of the topics that are being tackled on their various blogs. In the last entry, I covered that they were experiencing some usage issues by the employees of their managment blog which is presented by the entire management team. After asking some questions of why a lot of employees are reading the blog, yet only a handful are actually leaving comments, the feedback was quick and powerful. They received the most comments back on this entry and the consensus was, discuss topics that affect the employees in their everyday jobs, rather than academic or generic topics pointed to not offend or stir up controversy. These were the majority of the comments. But it was interesting that the questioning-the-value-of-the-blog entry received the most comments in this blog — ever.

The follow-up entry asked more specifically about what topics employees want to hear and what obstacles are in place that hammer the employees from doing their jobs. The feedback has been honest and hopefully helpful for the management to hear. Everything from broken equipment to revising the travel planning system that the sales team uses have been brought up.

Time will tell, and time will also judge the next steps for the blog in the corporate world. But it seems Company S is getting to what truly blogs can do for your company, opening up the communication lines, getting beyond hierarchy and politically correct topics – back to honest and free flowing communication.

The next in the series will cover some of the lighter topics being discussed on Company S’s blogs.

I’m really intersted in hearing what your thoughts are on management blogs. Can they have multiple authors? What topics are most effective for corporate blogs? How is your company using blogs, or what’s preventing them?

Until next time, Tim

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