Richard Edelman is blogging. Or should we say, “business logging” 🙂 He is the CEO of the Edelman PR agency, and is attempting to bring a voice and vision to his company with a weblog. But does he succeed?
I write this on the plane en route to India, which I will report on later in the week. Today’s subject is not a happy one. My friend and former colleague, Gus Weill Jr., age 42, took his life three weeks ago in New York City.
Our heart goes out to Gus and his family, however, is this the type of content that should go on a CEO’s weblog? The Chief Executive Officer of a company is supposed to instill faith and hope in the company’s vision, but his weblog doesn’t appear to be used for that purpose. It looks like a simple journal to me.
There is a major difference in the types of corporate weblogs you can have. You can, 1) write about things that matter to you (the CEO, etc.), or 2) write about things that matter to both you and your readers. It appears to me that Richard Edelman is only writing about things he wishes to write about. But if his readers don’t care about his day-to-day activities and want more insight into his business mind, then this is not the place to get that information. It appears as though his weblog fails to communicate directly to his audience.
Does this mean his weblog as a failure? Of course not. He is communicating the human side of his life to thousands of potential customers, however, was that his goal when he started his weblog? Was he trying to bring more customers in, or just wanted a soapbox to get up on? Only time (and Richard) will tell.
