WebProNews

Lucy Kellaway wrote a terrific piece on CEO blogging for the Financial Times. Her thesis is that the key point about executive blogs is risk.

"If they are made risky in any way - either through publishing negative comments, or because the author is honest about themselves or their business, people will take notice. If they are merely another conduit for sanitised corporate information, or exercises in executive vanity, they will go the way of the corporate mags, the voicemails and the company spam."

Amen. As I told the crowd at Search Engine Strategies this week: if you're a corporate exec who embodies Dr. Phil and you know how to talk human and "keep it real," then blogging is for you. If you're a corporate exec who embodies the Soviet Union, locks down information in a silo until the message missile is ready to be fired upon the masses, then blogging is not for you. Lucy's piece mirrors my thoughts.

Steve Rubel is a PR strategist with nearly 16 years of public relations, marketing, journalism and communications experience. He currently serves as a Senior Vice President with Edelman, the largest independent global PR firm.He authors the Micro Persuasion weblog, which tracks how blogs and participatory journalism are changing the public relations practice.