Blog Rules: A Business Guide to Managing Policy, Public Relations, And Legal Issues 
asked by formula on November 2, 2006 2:18 PM
According to Fortune magazine, online journals known as blogs--short for web logs--are "a force business can't afford to ignore." With 9 million U.S. bloggers currently operating, and an astonishing 80,000 new blogs appearing daily, companies must quickly devise ways to take advantage of this new tool while protecting themselves from legal liabilities as well as critical or defamatory remarks. To complicate matters, the threats aren't all external. Consider the employee who reveals confidential company information on his personal blog. Or even the official corporate blog that misrepresents the company's finances. Blog Rules is a best-practices guide to establishing the blog-related policies and procedures businesses need. Readers will learn how to:
* legally and ethically regulate employees' personal blogs that mention the company * protect trade secrets and other proprietary information * manage the legal and business exposure associated with corporate blogs * respond swiftly and effectively to blog assaults against the company--and much more.
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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
Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch
reviewed by lovieduvie on November 14, 2006 7:07 AM
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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 Blog Rules is without question the most valuable book on the subject of blogs. If I had bought this one first, I could have saved a bunch of money and skipped buying the others.
This is the book that answers all the questions. This is without a doubt the "everything you ever wanted to know about blogs but were afraid to ask" book on the subject.
As I stated earlier, if blogging is in your future, and it is you have to have this book.
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 Blog Rules is without question the most valuable book on the subject of blogs. If I had bought this one first, I could have saved a bunch of money and skipped buying the others.
This is the book that answers all the questions. This is without a doubt the "everything you ever wanted to know about blogs but were afraid to ask" book on the subject.
As I stated earlier, if blogging is in your future, and it is you have to have this book.
reviewed by teacher on November 18, 2006 4:58 AM