by Perry Binder, J.D.

About 70,000 new blogs are created every day, providing information for more than 32 million blog readers. The growth in blogging has created new arenas and new challenges for companies. Increasingly, companies are using blogging as a means to communicate internally as well as to create buzz externally and reach new customers. How does a company balance taking advantage of this new medium with responding to employees who blog with or without authorization?

Allowing employees to blog is a decision largely based on a company’s culture and its willingness to give up some control in an effort to create Internet buzz. Blogs can personalize a company and create loyalty when an insider writes candidly about the workplace, its culture, and products or services. This type of information connects the customer to the company in a way that traditional advertising cannot. On the other hand, there is an understandable trepidation of having employees write about the company and its officers. And then there are the employees who are blogging anonymously -- or at least unofficially.

Depending on the state, employees have a duty of loyalty to the employer, which includes keeping proprietary material a secret and refraining from defaming or even criticizing the company. Unless there is a viable claim under discrimination or whistleblower statutes, the fired employee usually has little recourse against the employer.

The core issue is whether to restrict blogging activities both on and off company time or to permit such activity with limits. Allowing employees to blog may be risky, but the company could experience increased profits with this forward-thinking approach to the Web as a vehicle to promote the company’s visibility. Having a clear blogging policy that addresses what can be posted and the consequences of violating the rules could mitigate some of the risk.

For example, Yahoo permits employees to blog about the company within parameters: Employees are personally liable for their inaccurate or defamatory statements, and that proprietary information is off limits. Its blogging policy promotes respect for colleagues and encourages employees to notify their managers that they blog.

It is equally important for the company that prohibits blogging to delineate which activities are permissible and impermissible. A caveat for companies that do not permit blogging: If an employee is discovered posting critical commentary, consider the ramifications of terminating the dissatisfied employee who morphs into a highly motivated, disgruntled ex-employee with even more things to blog about.

The Blogging Genie is out of the bottle, especially with respect to larger companies. Employee comments will find their way to the Internet. At a minimum, companies should monitor Internet chatter about their organizations. Sourcing agencies such as eWatch or IBM’s Public Image Monitoring Solution software can help with that effort. Another simple way to find comments is to use Google’s Blog Search feature. In addition, a proactive policy that is presented and enforced effectively can provide some certainty in dealing with employees who blog freely about the company's successes and warts.

Company privacy officers can drive this important discussion on several levels, including assisting in developing, implementing and monitoring a blogging policy. Such involvement is pivotal in linking blogging activity to the arena of reputation risk and creating a partnership with key business and human resources executives, in-house and outside counsel, and IT professionals.

Perry Binder, J.D., is a legal studies professor in Georgia State University's College of Business, where he received the 2005 Teaching Excellence Award. He can be reached for comment at www.PerryBinder.com.

 

Ponemon Institute