Jamie Chabra, Web site administrator for Bob Evans Farms, shared a great success story of how the company used an internal blog to introduce new CEO Steve Davis to the organization.
- Blogs are a powerful way to overcome decentralization in an organization.
- Benefits of an internal blog:
- Insights of other employees
- Access to executives
- Pictures
- Personal Stories
- Creating a community - people started using the comment section to share best practices. They responded to each other's comments
- The only thing they have ever had to edit is profanity - and only had to do it once. An employee said, "This blog sucks Donkey S#@!" and they kept "This blog sucks" and then Steve responded to ask why he felt that way.
- One of the reasons that employees are so active in the blog is that in posts Steve recognizes great ideas from employees.
- The people who are most active read the blog from home, so immediacy of responding to comments is not a huge issue.
- One of the benefits of the blogging is the archiving, so they can go back and find the information.
- They are not worried about blog content getting leaked because there is nothing business sensitive on the blog.
- Personal voice + Accessibility + Relevant and timely information = Employee Engagement. This is the "Blogging Success Equation."
- Everyone has an agenda: Communications, authors, IT, Legal. You have to meet in the middle and it is best to do this up front.
- Before they started, they searched for conversations online from employees. This gave them an idea of what to talk about.
A blog author must:
- Have something to say
- Embrace the idea
- Care about what they say
- Care about comments
- Balance work and personal
- Sustain practices
The author doesn't have to be a CEO.
- Do your research and compare the blog to other internal communications tools.
Time:
- 5 to 30 minutes per day
- Same as drafting an e-mail
- Small price to pay for continuity in the organization
Cost:
Less than $200 a year
Create your process
- Little bureaucracy
- Communicate quickly
- No sterilization
- Minimal approval process
To build credibility
- Embrace it
- Expose the personal side
- Must align with company culture
- Position it as "the place" to find the information
- Update it frequently
Drive the "water-cooler conversation"
Technorati Tags: Bob+Evans, Chabra, Steve+Davis, CEO, blog
Thanks for your help in Vegas, I look forward to decompressing this week and catching up soon.
Best, Jamie
Posted by: Jamie | Saturday, March 10, 2007 at 10:05 AM
Jamie,
As I said, you guys have a great story; thank you for sharing.
Posted by: Jeffrey Treem | Tuesday, March 13, 2007 at 09:19 AM