Blog Rules: A Business Guide to Managing Policy, Public Relations, and Legal Issues

As a retired owner of several businesses owner and current SCORE Counselor [www.scoreworks.org] who deals with many startup businesses, this book gets an 11 out of 10. It is one of the few books that says and then is written for a business owner/manager who needs a reasonably non-technical introduction to the issues that blogs present. I was very impressed with not only the breadth of the topics discussed but just the right amount of depth in each to leave the reader with an appreciation of the issues. I have been sued a number of times [all when I was right!] so am aware of how difficult it is to protect yourself even when committing no wrong. Another reviewer faulted the author for over stating the dangers of having either a corporate blog or having employees involved in one. Well you are over stating right up until you are in a law suit against folks who will go to any length to win, and then you will appreciate her points. I like her policies and methods of implementation. Great that it is short, sweet and to the point.

The book make for an interesting read. I found it intriguing how Nancy begins to blur the line between corporate bloggers (who bolg on their company's blogs) and individuals who also happen to be employees of companies. She points out that although corporate bloggers create a façade of independence by blogging outside work hours using personal resources, their views may be quoted as that of their employer. She elaborates on the topic in the sections on `Employee Bloggers beware: Blogging can get you fired/sued.' One way for individuals to air their views in public would be to create explicit `Chinese wall' between their personal blogs and their professional affiliation, but this technique may not always be effective. This said, the challenges may not be as profound as the author makes them out to be: Individuals have been writing articles, columns and books expounding their personal viewpoints, differentiating them from the "official" viewpoints of their employers by explicitly stating so. A similar protocol for blogging may begin to emerge. Until then, prudence and caution are in order while blogging.

Nine million U.S. bloggers currently operate with some 80K new blogs appearing daily - but despite this proliferation of blogs, many businesses are missing the boat on their money-making potentials. BLOG RULES: A BUISNESS GUIDE TO MANAGING POLICY, PUBLIC RELATIONS AND LEGAL ISSUES covers both pros and cons of the blog revolution, clarifying threats, revealing opportunities, and covering both external bloggers outside the company with internal bloggers. Among the issues covered: keeping company politics and organization private, protecting confidential company information, and keeping track of the contents of official company blogs. Diane C. Donovan California Bookwatch

If you or your company is not blogging yet... you will be very soon. There are currently over 9 million bloggers in the U.S. It takes about twenty minutes to set up your first blog in fact it is so easy and quick that about 80,000 a day are doing it. There is no doubt that if the internet has changed doing business as we know it then blogging has changed marketing as we know. And not just a little bit, but to an extent that we are just starting to figure out. Blogging is the most democratic of what the internet has to offer. With the right blog a person can become world famous literally over night. Suddenly authors who could not get their works published use blogs to create a following of readers large enough to get the attention of publishers who sign them to book contracts. There is the case of the young unknown New York City woman who decided to work her way through Julia Child's cookbook one recipe at a time and then create a blog about it. That young lady is now world famous with an instant bestseller to launch her writing career.. Businesses are using blogs to get closer to their customers. Their employees are using blogs to complain about those businesses. Blogs are being used to influence politics both local and especially national. But now this virtual free for all is over, rules and regulations have come into the picture as the law has come to this "last frontier" of commerce. And with the arrival of the rules comes this down to earth easy to read" rule book" by Nancy Flynn, written in a wonderful easy to read and appreciate prose this book takes all bloggers veterans and novices alike through the peaks and valleys of blogging. From the firsts section where Ms. Flynn describes the importance of blogging and its impact on the global marketplace to tips on how to make your blog successful, to most importantly her section on how to keep your company out of court, this book proves invaluable. Here are some examples of the more pertinent advise you'll get from this book: * Blog etiquette: What you can and cannot say on your blog. * Employee bloggers beware. If you are an employee and you knock your company you can and will be found out and in the best case you will only be fired, worst case sued. * Don't allow IT to dictate your business blog program. (personally I say don't let your IT people anywhere near your blog, or your web site for that matter. Just let them help built it, connect it and keep it running other than that do not listen to a single thing they have to say about marketing and customers. They don't have a clue they are IT people for heaven's sake!) * The casual conversational tone of a blog is what makes it particularly dangerous. You can be sued for libel for what you say on a blog as much as you can be for printing it in a newspaper. I have to admit that I am hooked on the whole blogging thing and that's why this book appeals to me. In the past couple of months I have purchased a whole shelf of books on the subject and

"The choice is simple. Be paralyzed with fear over the concept of open communications channels. or put a blog policy in place and start using these new media in a strategic way". These are the words of IBM Corporate Affairs Director Brian Doyle in Nancy Flynn's Blog Rules: A Business Guide to Managing Policy, Public Relations, and Legal Issues (2006, AMACOM, 226 pages, ISBN 0814473555 ). A specialist in e-policy development, Flynn sets out to describe the ecosystem that blogs exist in, and to lay out common sense rules for companies to follow if they want to enter the blogosphere. For the most part she succeeds, but occasionally the book falls down with an over-conservative approach, acknowledgement of a recent Forbes article without painting the whole picture of that article, and in one case, what I see as a questionable legal interpretation. Disclaimer: I was interviewed for this book and am cited in both the acknowledgements and end notes. Flynn starts out with a discussion of why blog rules are needed. Much like what Richard Schwartz and I wrote in "Managing the Business Risk of Blogs" in Compliance Solutions Advisor Magazine (see http://complianceadvisor.com/doc/16543 ), Flynn points out that blogging is here, is real, and presents a new kind of risk for business, while presenting opportunity as well. As such, a reference manual for managing this risk is needed. In Chapter 2, the author goes into more detail on the risks and opportunities faced by business contemplating blogs. Chapter 3 covers the strategic decision of whether to blog or not. Chapter 4 provides a self-assessment checklist. In Part 2 of the book, Flynn covers legal risks and regulatory rules. Perhaps the most important discussion in this part centers on the topic of blogs as business records. This part also covers potential legal headaches, issues of protecting confidential information, as well as best practices for public companies/regulated firms. In part 3. she covers blog rules, policy and the importance of communication. Part 4 deals with content management issues, discussions on how to handle comments, and comment spam. Part 5 covers employee rights and termination issues. Part 6 covers public relations issues, including positioning of the CEO as an opinion leader. Part 7 goes on to discuss the importance of reputation management in the blogosphere. Part 8 presents cases studies from and interview with IBM and Edelman Worldwide. What I Liked About the Book Of all of the 4 books I have by Flynn, this is by far the best. She has conducted extensive research, and presents the information in an easy to read, easily digestible format. She lays out what she see as the risks and how best to address them. What I Did Not Like About the Book At times, the author takes an ultra-conservative view towards the risk management, advocating that all postings be reviewed by legal experts and that all comments be screened before posting. Doing this puts no trust in the employees an