I get this question often. I think I am still learning the full answer–and how to explain it.
For now, I will point people to the explanations offered Brad Feld, a venture capitalist and a blogger with several years of experience. In his post “I Blog, I Tweet, But Why?”, he tounches on many of the points that inspire me.
Sun Microsystem’s is a public company. Its CEO, Jonathan Schwartz, writes a blog. The name of the blog is, not shockingly, Jonathan’s Blog. Without doubt, the content is screened by lawyers to minimize the possibilities of company information being shared in an inapppropriate way. My guess is Jonathan recieved numerous suggestions to not post a blog. I admire that he decided to become a blogger regardless.
In a recent post, Schwartz discusses Sun’s most recent quarterly results. He used a Q&A format, in which he teed-up the questions. The final question was “Why does Sun’s CEO waste time writing that blog?” His answer to his quesiton was:
Because I believe in providing clarity surrounding our strategy and operations - not just once a year in the Annual Report. I believe clarity behind our direction is useful for our shareholders, customers, partners and employees. In good times, and in challenging ones.
I wonder if any private company posts its results on a public blog. I can certainly see cons in doing so, but I can see pros too. Hmmm. Perhaps I will give it a try.
