CEO Bloggers, good or bad?

I stumbled across a blog post about choosing the best writer for your company blog, and it got me to think about the emerging trend of CEO bloggers and CEO blogging. The well known CEO blogs tend to do quite well, and it is entertaining to here what the top level execs are thinking in regards to their monolithic brands.

But is having a companies CEO blog really a good thing?

The pros of CEO bloggers

There is something to be said about actually having the CEO of a company take the time to blog on a regular occurrence. If the blogging is unique and genuine it can add a lot of value, credibility, and humanity to a blog and to a brand.

It shows a level of caring and realism, shown in a way that a middle level manager could not replicate even if the messaging was the same.

So there is value, no doubt.

The cons of CEO blogging

What happens in many cases is that a CEO blog simply gets pushed aside. The unfortunately reality is that CEO’s have so much on their plate that blogging will always be an afterthought. Even if they make the time to write blog posts it will not receive the care and attention needed to make the blog a success.

This is the more common situation, as most CEOs have a lot to oversee and fewer managers to ensure that all aspects of the business are running. It is only after a company has reached a certain level that a CEO can really focus on the vision of the company and relationships with the world rather than the day to day operations.

This is why in most situations we heavily recommend that you find someone who is passionate about the company, but in a situation where they have more freedom to build the blog into something worth conversation. The blog ideally should be one of the more important tasks they take on in their job role.

Depends on the situation…

Like always it is very situational, but consider how much time your CEO (or you, if you are a CEO) have to dedicate to your blog before you actually try and launch it.