Marketing Technology

A few Metropolitan Police (the force that serves London) officers appear to have had their collars felt following the decision of their employer to issue guidelines on blogging. The full set of guidelines have not been published (a missed opportunity by the way, Mr Plod) but like Antony Mayfield, I don’t see anything too controversial in the extracts that have been leaked.

The way it was communicated does seem to be guilty as charged, though.

Firstly, I’d be worried that this blogger only knew about the guidelines because a colleague emailed them to him.

Secondly, I find the tone of the introduction a little heavy-handed:

“Recently the organisation has become aware of a series of web-logs or blogs – where authors – claiming to be police officers – have offered their views on a number of issues in a highly personalised, often controversial manner.”

Contrast this with our own policy, which contained a lot of the same guidance, which was introduced with the following:

“Hill & Knowlton views personal websites and weblogs (blogs) positively. Blogs are powerful tools that are already influencing reputation. They form part of some much wider changes taking place in online media that will increasingly affect our business and our clients’ brands. By experimenting with the medium – personally or on behalf of the company – our staff will learn more and be able to advise our clients better and more credibly.”

I’m not saying we’re the model for perfection, but whether or not they asked their bloggers to write the guidelines or not (there are pros and cons of both) The Met could quite easily have turned these guidelines into an opportunity to communicate positively rather than negatively.

Finally, where’s their alternative? I’d have thought that blogs are an ideal way to connect with a public who are more and more concerned about policing. Those officers who are blogging – and their readers – no doubt realise this. So why not create a blogging community that can be properly (ahem) policed and encourage all their officers to blog. It would provide a fantastic insight into the inner workings of one of the most interesting organisations in the country.