The Doers, The Talkers and Our Bloggers

Posted on May 7, 2008
Filed Under Advice, Entrepreneurship, Startup |

Yesterday Technosailor wrote a blog post that initiated a great conversation on the District of Corruption show that both Aaron and Geoff Livingston do every Tuesday at 4pm EST.

I won’t lie – I hadn’t read the blog post so I rapidly jumped in because I thought Aaron was saying that CEOs have an obligation to blog and need to be transparent.

That wasn’t what the conversation was about, but let me start with that none the less.

CEOs Are Doers with Little Time to Blog

Although I also share the belief that CEOs probably need to be blogging, it’s for an entirely different reason and it has nothing to do with needing to be transparent…it has everything to do with the fact that the CEOs (particularly in startups) are the major doers, and movers and shakers of a company. The CEOs are out there making things happen. They are the brains behind the operations and the strategists. Therefore, they ought to be blogging because they know and can justify what they are talking about. They have awesome content to provide.

On the other hand, the many people who are blogging - have never started or been part of a startup or run a business – end up being the loud talkers with the audiences and the ones imparting “knowledge” and knick picking what the CEOs are doing without proper qualifications or justifications.

So you end up with doers who know the scoop but are too busy doing to report it, and the talkers who scoop the scoop and make noise. So yes…more CEOs need to be blogging.

However, here is the catch…most CEOs don’t have the time. They also don’t make the time. Why, don’t they make the time? I personally think it’s because they don’t understand the real value, power, and importance of blogging. They also take for granted what they know and what they do and that many people are fascinated by it. They live by doing and can’t be bothered in the midst of things to be educating or explaining what they do.

But NOTE! If you are a BRAND NEW CEO (I’ll cover this in a future blog post) and you are not blogging than you are simply put: a dummy. A blog is your key to contacts, new networks, and future customers/members.

Example of three excellent doers and bloggers:

  1. Loic Le Meur Founder and CEO of Seesmic
  2. Mark Cuban owner of the Marvericks
  3. Mark Andreesseen Founder and CEO of Ning

What Technosailor was Actually Saying…

I ended up agreeing with Aaron’s point…for once (Aaron is like a brother to me so arguing with him comes naturally) – which is, if you are a successful entrepreneur and you have a “personal” blog, you have a certain level of responsibility to have a good blog. As in, a blog filled with solid content, bits of interesting information, and educational points in order to provide your audience what they are looking for.

If you are not interested in catering to your audience than a) don’t have a blog or b) don’t make your blog public…because the fact of the matter is, other entrepreneurs and people will come to your blog seeking information, inspiration, and knowledge.

The kick back that Aaron received on this blog went something like this: “Aren’t CEOs allowed to be regular people and have regular public online lives?” The answer to that is yes they are however, it’s not the way it works. People, who are by the way your customers and target audience, have expectations. So listen, if you don’t know by now that life isn’t fair – I’m sorry you have to find out this way.

Of course, if you absolutely want to be a CEO with a regular average Joe blog than make sure you say so in very BOLD LETTERS, while completely disassociating yourself with the company (ies) you run. Yep, that does seem kinda pointless…hence Aaron’s point.

I’ll part with what I left on Aaron’s blog: “Blogging is an art and before you get into it, you better know what you are getting yourself into - realize what some of the expectations and restrictions might be and proceed wisely.”

Comments

3 Responses to “The Doers, The Talkers and Our Bloggers”

  1. Geoff Livingston on May 7th, 2008 9:16 am

    I am not sure if there is a one size fits all answer to this. As a CEO Blogger, I cannot blog everyday. I need my team to help.

    I have more important things to do, quite frankly, like meet payroll, ensure our sales pipeline is healthy, etc. At the same time I recognize the importance of our blog to the company’s long term health.

  2. Ann Bernard on May 7th, 2008 9:33 am

    Geoff you are an awesome blogger - wait, didn’t you write a little something like a book about it ;) And you have wisely included your team in on the blogging so you don’t have to carry all the load.

    37 Signal has an amazing team blog: http://www.37signals.com/svn/

    You know you don’t have to write every day and it boils down to having good content to provide. Blogging is time consuming so it is an extra load for a CEO to carry if he or she chooses to blog.

    The rewards of blogging are tremendous though and CEOs need to understand and realize that before they’ll carve out the time…particularly new CEOs

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