It's treacherous territory but I'm reconsidering my earlier posts here and here. I initially said Go Daddy CEO Bob Parsons made a huge goof in posting an essay about interrogation techniques at Guantanamo Bay to his blog. Yes, it was offensive to many. But, according to Parsons, many others responded positively in private emails. Parsons clearly has a big following on his blog. (His blog is the 23rd most popular blog site, according to a Go Daddy press release. Hmmm, the computation based on combining his Alexa ranking with the Technorati Top 100 seems a bit garbled. No matter, his blog gets a lot of traffic.)
As I opined in my second post, maybe stirring up a bit of controversy was worth the increased exposure, even though much of it was negative. But there's still the nagging question... if you're a CEO, can you really have a blog that is separate from your company, i.e. that doesn't represent your company in some way? I think not.
Previous Comments
FMF said on July 7, 2005 at 09:01 AM
I don’t think you can separate the two. If you’re a CEO, whatever you say has a reflection on your company.
That said, it think it’s wise to at a minimum separate your blogs if you MUST write about politics. Have a blog about the company and a blog about your political beliefs/commentary. I know I have stopped reading a popular PR blog because the author regularly posted on (what I would consider off topic) political issues. It also made me never want to hire her. After all, I would consider hiring her for PR, not for political advice, so why’s she talking about politics?
jb said on July 7, 2005 at 12:30 PM
Personally, I would rather have a CEO with the guts to be transparent and to talk about whatever he/she is passionate about, regardless of whether I agree with him or not. CEOs and politicians that blow whichever way the wind blows are not leaders; they are the ultimate followers of the crowd. If I don’t agree with the actions or words of a CEO it may or may not change how I view the company, but if they are honest and consistent about how they feel then I am more inclined to respect them for voicing their opinions.
——-
Subscribe via RSS
Subscribe via Email
Social Media Blogs