¶ Q&A: Billy McCormac on Corporate Blogging

Billy McCormac is a corporate PR blogger. He writes the English section of JKL Blog, a weblog started in January 2004 and authored - in four different languages - by members of JKL Group.

A 34-year-old San Francisco native, Billy relocated to Europe in 1992. Four years ago he joined JKL Group, a Nordic strategic communication counseling firm with offices in the capitals of Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and Norway. JKL - which has about 100 employees and reported earnings of 14.9 million euros (December 2003) - is currently owned by Publicis.

I discovered JKL Blog a short time ago, and wanted to find out more about JKL's vision on how weblogs can be used, both internally and externally, to help a company to communicate with its publics. What started as an email exchange is now an interview; I hope you'll enjoy it.


Constantin Basturea: What's the "best scenario" for introducing weblogs in a company?

Billy McCormac: More often than not, the idea for an enterprise blog is hatched by the rank and file. The key is to increase awareness and understanding of blogs among senior managers. "Evangelists" need to quell concern by presenting their case in terms management can relate to. How much will this effort cost? What are the risks and benefits? Does this make us vulnerable to our competitors? What are the experiences of other companies?

What role should public relations professionals play in corporate blogging?

PR professionals should help clients build a solid foundation for the blogging effort. First and foremost they should help craft the weblog policy. Second, they should educate potential bloggers in the dos and don'ts of blogging, and introduce them to blog-style writing. PR people should avoid micromanaging the corporate blogs. Preferably, a knowledgeable PR person should then guide the client through a time-definite dry run, offering helpful tips and honing bloggers' skills along the way. At the end of this period, the PR people should help the client evaluate the effort. Once things are up and running, though, I think PR people should avoid micromanaging the corporate blogs. They should of course step in if things start to go awry, but it's counterproductive to tweak posts and so forth.

As a member of JKL's financial communications team, do you see a role for weblogs in Public Affairs and Financial Communication?

When it comes to swaying and shaping opinion, blogs are carving out an influential niche. They are expanding the public arena by allowing others to be heard and to interpret processes and events. Blogs give political organizations, lobbies and other movements a personal voice, an identity.

As far as financial communications is concerned I could see blogs playing a role in certain situations. Say, for instance, two widely held public companies were planning a merger. Mom and pop investors, in my experience, would bombard call centers with questions about the stock. A blog published by the investor relations department could help these investors get the information they need without having to pick up the phone.

In an article you wrote in September 2003 in JKL's newsletter, Agenda, you were saying:

"While blogs have become a key tool employed by ardent news gatherers and professional communicators in the U.S., Canada, continental Europe, and Australia, they're fairly unknown in Sweden. But it's only a matter of time before blogs sweep the Nordic countries."

What's the situation now, six months later?

Predictions always come back to haunt you. Admittedly, blogging is still in its infancy in the Nordic countries. But things have progressed since I wrote that piece. For one thing, JKL didn't have a blog six months ago. And I've also heard through the grapevine that another Nordic PR firm is thinking about launching a corporate blog. We think that's great! We're hoping to inspire more companies to join the fray.

Why did your company decide to launch a weblog? Was it an initiative coming from the "grassroots" or from senior management?

JKL has had its eye on the blogosphere for several years. It's been interesting to watch it mature from what you might call a rag-tag separatist outfit into a highly evolved and symbiotic organism.

Not surprisingly, our own blog grew out of a need. JKL has been publishing a quarterly magazine, Agenda, since the mid-1980s. (I've been a member of the editorial board for about a year.) At every editorial meeting we'd reject plenty of good article ideas due to long lead times. "Sure it's a great story, but who'll care in eight weeks?" In other words, we had a lot to say but nowhere to say it. And we weren't putting our watercooler conversations - "Did you read today's op-ed piece in…" or "I heard about an interesting study showing…" - to work for our clients or ourselves. The blog harnessed all this rogue information.

JKL Blog was built from the bottom up. In December 2003 fellow blog "evangelist" Tove Lifvendahl and I presented a plan to the firm's partners. They recognized the upsides of early adoption and 24 hours later a fledgling blog was up and running.

The tag line of JKL Blog is "Monitoring your world." Whose world are you monitoring - what is the target public of your blog?

Our news media consumption is massive at JKL. Our intake spans print, broadcast and online outlets featuring content in numerous languages and covering the gamut of topics. We try to offer a range of audiences - from CEOs, board directors and corporate communicators to politicians, journalists, prospective employees and college students - commentary and insight that throws light on today's issues.

Do you have a policy about blogging? Is there any "editorial arm-twisting" involved in the blogging process? :-)

Yes, we've crafted a weblog policy. I've read David Weinberger's comments on this issue, and I respectfully disagree. Leaving the overarching objective of a corporate blog up to individual interpretation will only give management and PR folks gastrointestinal disorders. Leaving the overarching objective of a corporate blog up to individual interpretation will only give management and PR folks gastrointestinal disorders. That said, a policy should be brief and straightforward, not to mention malleable and amended to reflect new circumstances.

In answer to the second part of your question, Tove and I are the blog's sole authors. But we keep the "editorial arm-twisting" to a bare minimum, mostly adding links or writing headlines.

How did your clients react when you started JKL Blog? Are they reading it? Was the weblog useful in gaining new clients?

The response has been overwhelmingly positive - and not just from clients. Other bloggers have welcomed us to the fold. From what I've heard JKL Blog is a regular read in many circles.

Though the blog hasn't generated any monetary revenue, it's helping to build brand equity. PR is like any other business: reputation is everything.

Is JKL encouraging its clients to use weblogs? Do you have clients requesting assistance in understanding how to use blogs in their communication?

This month we're hosting our first ever weblog workshop. Every business, organization and opinion-shaper has a blog waiting to be published.Among other things we're giving clients an in-depth look at the blog phenomenon and providing concrete examples of how businesses can use blogs to open new channels of dialogue. We believe that every business, organization and opinion-shaper has a blog waiting to be published.

Are you using blogs in the process of internal communication at JKL? Do you have project-oriented or issues-oriented blogs?

We're looking into using blogs to coordinate our pan-Nordic assignments. Internal, firewalled blogs are ideal for connecting clients and consultants based in different countries. They can facilitate problem-solving and knowledge-sharing, while allowing key account managers to efficiently archive searchable information and reduce the barrage of email. And when all is said and done these blogs can provide an interesting record for post-project follow-up and evaluation.

How do you feel about being a "corporate blogger"? What are the challenges, and how do you address them?

Being in on the ground floor of business blogging in the Nordic region is, well, pretty cool. It's been a pretty smooth ride so far and the only challenge is to maintain a constant flow of content. PR is not a 9-5 job and our consultants are very busy. Fortunately we have a core of dedicated bloggers who contribute regularly.

Do you think that PR professionals should see bloggers as journalists? If so, how will this impact their relationship with the "traditional" media?

The blogging/journalism issue is a thorny one. Bloggers, though not journalists in the traditional sense, do produce editorial content. More and more gadget businesses, for example, are pitching blogs such as Gizmodo and Engadget as part of their campaigns or product launches. These companies know that gadget blogs have legions of loyal readers, so it's natural to include them. Blogs and traditional media outlets, I believe, dovetail each other nicely.

Do you encourage your clients to include pitching blogs in their media campaigns?

We address this in our workshop, actually. Once we begin to see high-profile Nordic bloggers attracting massive readerships, I think that pitching blogs will become a natural part of campaigns and product launches.

Billy, thank you so much for taking the time to respond to my questions, and for sharing your thoughts about corporate blogging!