As you begin to blog and appreciate the complexities, benefits, and potential offshoots of blogging, you will undoubtedly begin to wonder how to get your employees to blog. The first step is to realize that it’s entirely likely that some of your employees are already blogging.

With millions of blogs in the world, assuming that none of your employees is blogging is about as naive as assuming that none of your employees has ever downloaded music online it could be true, but the odds definitely aren’t in your favor. Communicate with your employees about blogging. For some companies, this may mean a staff meeting about blogging; for others, it may be an e-mail asking for input. At a bare minimum, it should include a blogging policy and some information to managers about how to handle blogging-related issues. The goal of any blogging policy or guideline should be to communicate what is and isn’t acceptable. Some companies actually choose to make blogging a required part of an employee’s day. Creating a healthy blogging atmosphere goes beyond the policy you create, however. Having executives who blog and who encourage blogging is a great way to introduce blogging, though it isn’t a requirement. The key to a healthy blogging atmosphere is to have the company, leaders, and managers value blogging, bloggers, and blog feedback.

This is why having a corporate blog, product-specific blogs (if you make products such as cars or software), or market-specific blogs (if you create a wide variety of products) is important: it allows your customers to provide feedback in a variety of locations and therefore allows you to use that feedback in a variety of ways. Far too many companies who blog have only one official blog, which is so focused it seems like just another marketing vehicle. This approach is problematic, with the biggest problem being that it allows customers to communicate with you via only one blog venue instead of many. Building a culture that values blogs requires that you create foundational value statements such as these:

• We value blogs.

• We value bloggers.

• We value blog-based input.

• We value employees who blog.

• We value customers who blog.

Each of these value statements is important. Valuing blogs means realizing that while a fair amount of noise is being made out there, finding and reading actual customer feedback can be more valuable than any other form of customer communication. Valuing bloggers involves more than just saying “yes, they’re out there”; it means reaching out to bloggers and customers for feedback on your company and your products. Creating passionate customers is effective, but reaching out to existing influencers and creating relationships with them will not only revolutionize your business, it will also pave the way for the third value statement: valuing blog-based input. The challenge with blog-based input isn’t getting feedback; it’s knowing what to do with both the positive and negative feedback, as well as having a place where you can respond to feedback in an open and timely manner.

THE VALUE OF CONVERSATION: THE iUPLOAD STORY

One company that values blog-based input is iUpload, which creates content management and blogging software for enterprises such as Adobe and CTV, one of Canada’s largest television networks. iUpload is a fairly small company, with about 20 employees, though the company is growing quickly. In early 2005, blogger Mark Vandermaas approached the company looking for information on services, pricing, and other features. During the conversation, wires were crossed and people got confused (as sometimes happens in real-world communication).

Mark posted information about his experiences with iUpload to his blog (at http://voiceoflondon.iuplog.com/default .asp?item=99350), which was, ironically, powered by iUpload: As of today, April 11th, nearly one month after my initial request, I still do not know the price of the Community Publisher software, and no one from iUpload has contacted me. My wife summed it up best when she asked, What’s the big secret? – Mark Vandermaas iUpload had dropped the ball and he, justifiably, wanted to know why!

Within days of Mark’s post, Robin Hopper, iUpload’s CEO, responded (http://hopper.iuplog.com/default.asp?item=85308). Hopper succinctly explained where and how things went wrong, apologized, and promised to make things better. He cleared up, in public, the question about pricing and promised to take a number of concrete steps to avoid this kind of confusion in the future. The net result was that Mark updated his post with the following: I have to admit that after notifying iUpload’s CEO, Robin Hopper of this post I was half-expecting that my blog’s switch would be flipped to the off position. Since my intent was to help rather than offend I offered to take the post down once he had a chance to review it. This is where it gets good: not only did he not want me to delete this post; Robin told me that he appreciated the feedback, and that he wanted to post something on his blog with a trackback to it! You can read his post by clicking on the link in his comment below. Today, I heard from iUpload. Turns out they weren’t trying to brush me off; I just got lost in the middle of a frenetic growth stage and misread their actions. We all make mistakes. If you’re good, you fix them. [emphasis mine]

If you’re really good you fix the mistakes and then fix the procedures that didn’t work. But if you’re destined for greatness, you have the guts to let someone like me tell the world what you learned from it. Well done, iUpload! – Mark Vandermaas

This story illustrates a number of core concepts for successful business blogging. First, Mark complained in public about what had happened. When you drop the ball, customers will complain. Second, iUpload wasn’t afraid to respond honestly to Mark’s commentary. Not only did iUpload leave his post on the site, but the CEO responded to Mark’s concerns in public on his own blog. The net result?

Hopper’s response and effort transformed Mark from a mistreated customer into a customer evangelist. And all it took was a little bit of blog love. Imagine the situation if Hopper hadn’t responded, or if he’d responded by dismissing Mark’s claims. It’s entirely likely that not only would Mark not have bought software from iUpload, but he would have told a fair number of people in his circle of influence about the experience. The lesson? Creating a blog-friendly culture requires moving past your fears. Fears paralyze us in everything from skydiving (in my case) to spiders (ditto) to responding effectively to customers. There is nothing wrong with being afraid of something new, but taking that first step and actually going skydiving or blogging is an incredible experience. Trust me!