Marketing Technology

Seems slightly bizarre to be reporting on a company not setting up a blog, but I found this snippet from Shel Holtz interesting.

Let me preface these thoughts by saying I am not advocating that every business should blog. You need to reach your own decisions, but acknowledge that you might need professional help making them.

Anyhow, the story is that Deloitte in Australia have decided not to blog, and gone public to explain why (you may need to register).

Whilst I fully respect their decision – not that they should care what I think – I’m not sure I understand the rationale. But then I’m not a partner at Deloitte.

They cite client confidentiality as the first reason. Fair enough, and we faced the same issue until we realised that it’s not an issue limited to blogging. All we really needed was a policy linked to existing employment contracts and a code of practice to make it clear.

The second issue connected to the regulation of partnerships is clearly very specific to them, and one that I don’t even pretend to understand. However, it seems to me like something that could have been addressed by creating a blogging community where everyone could be accountable for their own thoughts (with no individual view “holding sway over corporate policy”). I’d have thought that could also have addressed the point about public commentary being left to those with that expertise.

Maybe there’s more to it, but at least they’ve debated it internally and made their decision. So well done to Ryf Quail for taking the initiative, and to Deloitte for coming out publicly, even if it was just to say they were going in again before it rains.

Tags: Deloitte, blogging