On the topic of corporate blogging, should companies grow corporate bloggers organically or should they just hire a superstar blogger? Recently Microsoft hired famed blogger Hugh MacLeod from Gapingvoid and it really started me wondering. Clearly he’s not being hired as a shill/spokesperson, he is a very creative, subversive, change agent, and this seemed to happen very organically because of some cartoons he did about microsoft.
I guess the other question is why would you hire a blogger beyond the mundane diarist… change agent, idea generator, instigator, consultant, conversation starter?
Thoughts?
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Karl,
Everyone knows that bloggers don’t grow on trees…
I think home-grown bloggers tend to be more passionate about the ideas. It doesn’t necessarily matter who they work for; they’d be blogging anyway. I think in cases like yours (and David’s), your employers are lucky to have you!
By growing a blogger within the company, you’re spreading the company’s message. By hiring a blogger from outside of the company, you’re a lot more likely to infuse everyone on the inside with fresh thinking. The former is a marketing initiative, whereas the latter is a growth initiative.
There are a lot of CEO bloggers, some good, some not CEO: http://www.thenewpr.com/wiki/pmwiki.php?pagename=Resources.CorporateBlogsList
Hiring bloggers: desperation?