Debbie Weil
author
The Corporate Blogging Book

Debbie Weil was the TypePad featured author for October 2006. Her TypePad blog can be found at BlogWriteForCEOs.

 

How did The Corporate Blogging Book come about?

It was a would-be author's dream. Megan Casey, then an editor at Penguin Portfolio, emailed me out of the blue asking if I'd ever thought about writing a book on the topic of blogging.

I'd been writing about the benefits of business blogging for several years, through my e-newsletter, WordBiz Report, and also on my original blog at debbieweil.com. I was thinking about a book but hadn't done much about it. I'm a huge procrastinator. Luckily I saw her message and responded. We chatted by phone and hit it off. She subsequently left Portfolio to go to Squidoo.com, but I've had a great experience with my new editor, Adrienne Schultz.

On a side note: Writing the book was the hardest thing I've ever done. Due to many reasons (Did I mention that I procrastinate?), but one is the fixedness of writing for print. I've gotten so used to being elliptical when I write online, by creating links to ideas I want to reference or that expand on a point I'm making. I have to say it's more fun to blog than to write a book.

What was the most surprising thing you came across while writing the book?

Fear and skepticism. I knew that was the mindset amongst corporate types when they thought about blogging. But as I talked to more and more people, I realized those were issues that needed to be addressed head on. So I've got a chapter about "Confronting Fear" and another one called "Cheat Sheet: Making the Case for Blogging to the Boss."

As I was finishing the book, my husband said to me, "So real people don't blog, right?" I was kind of bowled over. I realized he was a proxy for lots of professionals who neither understand nor believe in blogs as a powerful new business tool. That attitude towards blogs is changing, but not as fast as you might think.

If you had to give three pieces of advice to a company considering starting a blog or a group of blogs, what would they be?

1. This isn't optional. You have to start a blog. Blogs are next-generation web sites.

2. That said, spend some time monitoring what's being said about your company on other blogs. What's the tenor and substance of the conversation? Just as you would as a guest at someone's dinner table, listen first -- then join in.

3.You can plan and strategize all you want but ultimately there's something organic about effective blogging. It's highly creative -- or should be. You have to jump in and do it in order to learn how the "conversation" works. You'll know it when it happens. You'll feel connected and "heard."

What are some of your favorite CEO blogs?

I've got lots but here are a handful I read regularly:

• Jonathan Schwartz, the only Fortune 500 blogging CEO
• Richard Edelman, Edelman PR
• Karen Christensen, Berkshire Publishing
• Matt Blumberg, ReturnPath
• Zane Safrit, Conference Calls Unlimited

Zane is a great example of someone who didn't think of himself as a writer but who has developed a really distinctive voice and style through the act of blogging.

How has your own blog affected your work?

Well I alluded to that earlier. I write differently, more fluidly, more spontaneously than I used to. Blogging is one of the most important things I do to keep up to speed as a consultant and speaker.

Blogging makes me think. I don't try to blog about everything that's happening with social media. (I leave that to Steve Rubel and others.) I do try to blog about stuff I want to clarify in my own mind and that I think other folks want explained in plain language. There's this notion that everyone is plugged into all the latest Web 2.0 toys and tools. They're not.

Are there topics that you'd like to write or blog about that you haven't tackled yet?

I'm still trying to get into the guts of CEO blogging. It fascinates me. Maybe it's my next book. Which CEOs should blog; which shouldn't?

How and why is it effective and what's the ROI? Where does blogging DNA come from? Why do some senior execs have it and others don't? Will ghostblogging become more common? (I don't believe in it, but I'm also a realist.)  I've been chipping away at the topic. Here are some recent posts I've made on the topic of CEO blogging.

What blogs do you read regularly?

The usual suspects for someone interested in marketing/tech/media/design. In no order,  Guy Kawasaki, Lifehack.org, Kathy Sierra, Seth Godin, John Battelle, The Dilbert Blog, Hugh Macleod, Garr Reynolds' Presentation Zen. I've left out a dozen others. 

I also look at the big corporate blogs: GM's FastLane, Dell's Direct2Dell, Wells Fargo's new Student LoanDown blog and a new one that just launched: Verizon's PoliBlog.

What are you working on once your book tour is over?

Hey a book tour is never over in the blogosphere, right?! I'm trying to work fewer hours and be more productive. To take more yoga classes. To breathe. Oh, and I'm working with new corporate clients on how to execute the stuff I talk about in the book. It's surprisingly challenging, even if you know what a good blog looks and sounds like. Who should write the blog? What about? How do you respond in a crisis? How do you initiate a conversation about an issue that's critical to your company, without sounding like you're on a PR mission?

Why did you choose TypePad?

Is that a trick question? Just kidding. I still think TypePad has the best interface and is the best out-of-the-box solution for the non-techie manager. I like to say that blogging - especially a hosted service like TypePad -- lets the marketing and communications types *take back* the Web site from the IT guys.

Finish this sentence "TypePad is..."

Cool.