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When Will Bill Gates Blog?
Young Urban ProfessionalOver at the Church of the Customer blog Ben McConnell asks when will Bill Gates blog? Excellent question. He points out that Microsoft already has 400 bloggers. I think it's just a matter of time.
Right now CEO blogging is more on the fringe. It's limited to very outspoken execs like Jupitermedia's Alan Meckler or HDnet's Mark Cuban. However, by the end of the decade every extrovert chief executive who still is not scared of the blogosphere will blog - perhaps on a private Weblog for key customers/stockholders.
My question is, who will write these posts? A corporate speech writer? The Chief Communications Officer? Or maybe the top dog him or herself. I'm not sure, but what I do know is that the blog has to be genuine to be considered credible.
If anyone has experiences or opinions here, please leave comments.
Reader Comments (1)
While a good idea in theory, CEOs or any executives of public companies blogging for key investors won't pass legal/regulatory muster due to Regulation FD and Sarbanes-Oxley. My brief perusal of Alan Meckler's blog didn't show me anything that would get him in trouble with the SEC. I can assure you that the above legal issues would invalidate the private blog for key investors - that is plainly illegal under the guidelines for public disclosure of any information that can/would move a company's stock price.
While a nice idea in theory, it's not going to happen unless Reg FD and Sarbanes-Oxley are repealed. If you need examples, check out the releases from public companies and compare the quotes from CEOs in them to the quotes you see in the press - they're verbatim, if used by the reporters/publications at all.
Public company execs speak publicly only at shareholder meetings (webcasted and conference-called, and announced well in advance over the wires), but other than that, the corporate attorneys have to sign off on everything before those releases hit the wires, as there are huge legal ramifications if they mess up.
PR and IR are two different animals. Blogging on the PR side is okay, but blogging from the IR side won't happen unless, as I said, Reg FD and S-A are repealed/modified.
Keep up the good work with your blog, either way.
Regards,Mark