Why you should let anyone say something positive

Today we had a bit of a clash around communications policy.  We have had a number of problems at work recently with availability, software quality and defects, and an understaffed support department who were ineffective at getting back to individual users to address their issues.  We’re finally clear of the backlog, software quality is improving, and in general system stability is at a place where we can finally start tooting our own horn again.  The CIO decided it was time to create a marketing campaign to help rebuild IT’s brand with our end users.  This campaign would be focused on the end users of our platforms.

There are some complications to this that bear explanation so you can understand why this is more difficult than it would otherwise seem.  First, 75% or more of the user base sits outside the corporate firewall and does not have access inside the network.  This means that without a significant engineering effort to authenticate them, we cannot easily provide content and messaging to them from a simple to use platform like WordPress.com or any other public SaaS.  We decided that the best way to reach them would be from within the software they use every day, a web based CRM system, but since we didn’t want to make it into a blogging platform too, we decided it would be easiest to post the messaging in a blog on WordPress.com.  It was publicly accessible and everyone would be able to read the same content.

However, as it turns out, it’s better to ask forgiveness than permission.  We decided to check with the public relations and legal teams to ensure they’d be ok with this.  As it turns out, not surprisingly, they want to control the messaging around our brand.  Now, to communicate with our users, unless we can put it behind an authentication system to ensure only reps can see it and not the whole Internet, we need to get Legal and PR to approve every posting.  The best case scenario from writing a blog post to send to our users and approve the posting is 2 days.  Obviously, this process is burdensome and defeats the purpose of blogging, which is to get out quick, concise, and often time sensitive messaging.

I first started blogging 7 years ago.  I started video blogging 6 years ago.  I was on Facebook 4 years ago.  Corporate America has had 7 plus years of customers, suppliers, employees, and everyone else having self-publishing capabilities where they will write about your brand.  These people writing on platforms not controlled by the company need no approval! 

One thing is certain about your employees when they want to communicate.  They will write good things about you.  With a minimal amount of training from Legal and PR they can be instructed not to give any forward looking statements, reveal sensitive information, or communicate anything that might be damaging to your brand.  You must trust your employees.  Creating undue process and centralized communication systems will ensure your employees are given a strong disincentive to try to communicate good things on your behalf!  Being part of the conversation on Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, WordPress.com, Tumblr, etc, requires brand ambassadors who are enthusiastic about your brand and are willing to be your advocates.  The conversation certainly is going to happen whether your company approves of it or not, and if your company does not learn to trust its brand ambassadors, I am quite certain they will regret it.