Day 2 of the inaugural MarketingProfs B2B Forum in Chicago started out with a discussion between MP President Roy Young and Forrester Research Senior Analyst Laura Ramos examining "What's New for B2B Marketers." Amidst her comments, Laura expressed her take on corporate blogging: that it should only take place after a corporation has its policies in place.


What an interesting conundrum, I thought. Should a marketer simply start blogging or wait instead until all of the blogging policies and procedures are established before beginning?
Although the absolute answer is that it depends on the organization, the industry, the product or service, I suggest strongly that the blog come before the policy.
Here's why:
? Social media [i.e., all those tools like blogging, podcasting, tags, wikis and online networks that defy marketing tradition and make for immediacy, authenticity and community] cannot be delegated to an agency. You may get outside guidance, but ultimately the responsibility resides within, requiring that you build your own internal expertise.
? Social media must be experienced firsthand and then perfected over time. It has to be figured out.
? Social media doesn't get turned on and off. Rather, it requires slow and consistent building over time .... adding content, developing credibility, strengthening voice and maintaining presence over time.
? Social media takes personal commitment. It takes an individual to champion the regular posting of content, to channel the passion, to develop a voice .... individual or corporate, to establish credibility.
? Social media is not for every organization.
Read the full article here on MarketingProfs today for my reasoning.
And consider two interesting examples that emerged from the B2B Forum concurrent sessions. From Josh Hallett's "Bringing B2B Blogging to the New Level," Deborah Franke, e-Marketing Manager for Emerson Process Management, described her three year path to launching Emerson's external blogs. Her case illustrates the more conservative approach that Ramos advocates: beginning with key corporate stakeholders [e.g., legal, HR and executives] to establish policy.
Interestingly, although not part of the initial strategy, Franke found that the launch of an internal blog wound up demonstrating more effectively than a year's worth of education, presentations and policy setting, the value of blogs. That led quickly to the launch of the first external blog, Emerson Process Experts.
From David Armano's "Social Media in a B2B World," Todd Andrlik, Director of Marketing and Public Relations for Leopardo Companies, Inc., shared with us the powerful and vibrant newsroom, Leopardo Construction News, he created using a blogging platform.
Certainly not a traditional approach, but it absolutely injects freshness and true newsworthiness. It even includes a window onto a Leopardo YouTube.com channel offering easy access to company videos, and earlier this summer, it made RSS available to visitors. That level of creativity comes from a willingness to experiment and explore, something that a policy-first focus often discourages.
So, tell me, now that you've read the full article, which you do think comes first: the blog or the policy?