I'm realizing I seldom blog anymore. When I began blogging back in '05, we were dawning the era of transparency... You know the one that says it's a good thing to publish your tell-all story as it happens? And if you're a CEO, even more so. All the social media experts suggest this as a great tool to let people see the real people behind a company.
I really wonder though, are people so over that now? Does anybody care? Who has time to write 'em and who has time to read 'em? Are they going by the way of the acid wash jean and the mullet? Maybe the CEO blog went by the way of Twitter's brevity?
For as many people who might earnestly read a given CEO's blog, there are just as many people reading it for competitive information, there are just as many reading it to make sure you don't say the wrong thing, and even more that don't care. And for that, it begs the question of 'is a CEO's time better spent working on changing the world?' The counterpoint to that is 'well participating in social media should be part of changing the world.' .....Or maybe you just don't have time to think about such a thing anymore.
Michael - I still think CEO blogs have an important role to play in all the standard benefits (establishing communication lines, building co awareness, etc). Auren Hoffman of Rapleaf does a particularly good job of doing this - he seems to use Twitter for short ideas and instant feedback, and the occasional long-form blog post to expand on a particular company-specific or personal topic of interest (basically any thought that is longer than 160 characters, although his tend to be on the short side which is nice for readers too)
Posted by: Kevin | July 29, 2009 at 12:40 AM
I think I have read every word Michael wrote on this blog, but before you congratulate me, lets see why I read every thing on here.
I am a startup guy myself and reading through CEO blogs is a good way of getting some free advice and learning how the whole startup thing goes. And as long as people like me exist, CEO blogs are going to be read thoroughly.
Posted by: Aliyu daku | July 30, 2009 at 06:31 AM