A couple of co-workers and I were having an email conversation this week about blogging and its role in communication. The situation is our team is working on a project that involves people inside the team, some outside the team, and others who want to know the progress of the project.

After a series of emails, one co-worker (the manager of this project) brought forth great questions and honest thoughts about blogging as a communication tool. I want to share them with you with my replies to each because I think this could help shed some light on the topic of blogs and communication (names and specific projects have been left generic)

[Manager]: I was only thinking about [creating a blog] because someone [in another office] suggested having something like this to keep people informed.

[Rob]: The biggest hurdle to starting something like this is consistency and commitment. A blog is a great way to keep others informed. But it really doesn’t have to be a blog. A blog is simply a webpage that is easy to update and organized chronologically. Anything will work. A blog has some built in tools for interactivity and such, but as far as one-way communication, a blog is simply a website. The advantage of a blog is it’s ease of use and organization.

[Manager]: I feel like if I blog our [project] thoughts and plans, it will become more apparent our inconsistencies in plans and thoughts.

[Rob]: Blogging is about just being real. It’s about “here’s what’s going on”. Inconsistencies may show up in public. Would that be the end of the world anyway? Maybe others can comment on the inconsistencies to help make corrections. Finding faults isn’t the problem. Failing to fix problems is.

[Manager]: If we put down what we are thinking it will give us history and a place for people to give feedback.

[Rob]: Recording what’s going on does indeed give history and feedback. Blogs are perfect for this.

[Manager]: I think this should be done by the whole team, at least management, not just me.

[Rob]: I 100% agree that this should be owned by the entire team and/or management and not just you. That’s easy to create. It’s harder to see it through. It requires ownership by many people, and some people will not want to post because of various reasons (feel inadequate to post (nothing to say), shy, unwilling, etc). That is tougher to address. But if the vision is sold for an easy way to group-think, record, and ask for feedback, then maybe it’ll work. The audience is internal. It’s the team and others interested in it. Not a lot of people. It’s a safe audience.

[Manager] My concern is that someone will put something out there publicly I haven’t approved, of course I guess it could be taken down. But also it would be good to get it out in the open.

[Rob]: Something certainly could be posted that shouldn’t have been. It’s easy to take a post down or edit a post. There are also ways (at least with blogger.com) to have all posts emailed to someone (you) so that you know anytime anything goes up. You can immediately check it for editorial control. However, be loose with it. Don’t strike down everything or a lot. If you are, they won’t post and it’ll be obvious they didn’t get what their instructions were clearly.

[Manager]: My concern is that we would start and not continue it. Right now I am maxed out, can’t think of doing another thing.

[Rob]: Starting something new when maxed out is bad. The question is, “Is communication to our team and interested groups important?” If the answer is yes, the follow-up is, “What’s the best way to communicate to them while not taking too much time?” I think the answer is a blog because it distributes responsibility to others to communicate, their name is attached (accountability), and it’s quick. You don’t have to post articles. You can post paragraphs or sentences. A blog is informal. A blog is not a press release.

[Manager]: Should we wait and [build blog software ourselves], or we could use our message board for it?

[Rob]: You certainly could use our message board right now. It can work. You could also [build one as a project]. That would be good also. However, I think the question comes back to, “When should we start communicating and how should we go about doing it?” A message board would be good because of the threaded discussion. But will people really discuss? My impression is that this will be mostly one-way communication from [the project team], but will allow interaction through comments. Maybe you won’t get many comments. That’s fine. I think the goal is to let people know what’s going on.

I hope this helps. I’m happy to help…and happy to use email where I can gather my thoughts better! Let me know if you have any questions.

Bottom line: You don’t have to use a blog. Don’t blog for blogging’s sake. Answer the questions: “Is communication to our team and interested groups important?” “What’s the best way to communicate to them while not taking too much time?” I think a blog is a good solution. There are others, but I don’t think they are quite as good. The hurdle will be the commitment of those who contribute to the communication…but that is a whole’nother issue!