Now this is just an excellent article written by Robert Scoble on Tom Peter’s website that I think every business owner should read.
The only objection I can think of that a Caribbean executive might have to blogging is that relatively few people in our region are computer-literate. My response is, “if you build it, one day they will come.” In other words, it is only a matter of time until people become computer-literate, and start reading blogs, and by the time a company decides to jump in, the space will be too crowded to be heard.
Also, it is a good idea to create an online dialogue about your company, before someone who could very well be disgruntled, creates one about you… As the article explains, what blogging is doing is taking underground conversations and making them visible. It is a good idea to assume that whatever people are whispering about you behind closed doors, will one day turn up as part of an online conversation (better give up that mistress now!).
Plus, there is a tremendous learning curve to blogging. Only a year ago, I was still puzzled at what the term really meant. Beating the learning curve is just a good idea!
Let me know if you find the article useful, and if you are thinking of blogging also.
I so agree that it is only a matter of time. I am posting this comment because , one week ago, I did not know what a blog was !!! I was directed to this site, decided to explore, and I immediately see the implications for my own professional development. Now, I am teaching in a teacher training programme . Eight months ago, I started requiring my students to send me their homework online. Many did not even have an email address. They did not know how to attach a document , create a powerpoint presentation, navigate a website. I taught them that. Now you know next semester they are going to have to post comments in some relevant blog. Those thirty leave college and step into the workplace . Meanwhile I am teaching all my students to use all this technology. So maybe one day we lap the learning curve . And maybe I better go and find out about that HI 5 site they keep sending me !
Roona,
I hope it happens sooner than later also.
I started blogging only a year ago myself, after reading about blog and struggling to understand what the heck a blog was and how to even start. Now that I have one, I am amazed at how little I knew.
I assume that you are a Caribbean teacher?
Now, I need to go and find out what the HI 5 site is also.
fwade:
please excuse my poor blogging manners ! I am just seeing your reply , two months later. I am happy to say that I was in the throes of finishing up my M.A. degree . Yeah ! Thesis in ! coursework finished !! I can start plan graduation hairstyle !!
I read your Coming Home To Jamaica blog regularly and am amazed that you only started these since a year ago. I find that reading these blogs is such a valuable experience for me . so thanks and big up ! I was encouraged to start my own blog and I have decided to do just that . Not tomorrow , but as soon as I internalize the notions that a) I might have something to say that others may be willing to hear b) they may actually talk to me too
Yes, I am a Caribbean teacher , in Jamaica. Recently at work there was a whole episode that made what you said about ” taking underground conversations and making them visible” resonate very powerfully with me. I did not agree with the way an event happened . I mentioned my thinking to others, some sharing happened, and I decided to raise the issue with the principal. WOW ! I was rapped very sharply over the knuckles and definately put in my place, leaving me feeling that my opinion was not asked for, not welcomed. But what if we had a blog where we all could raise our issues, and dialogue ? Hear and understand what thinking is out there. Maybe that is the blog I will start with my students. DIALOGUE FOR DEMOCRACY ! Am I going to suggest anytime soon to my administration that a blog could be a useful tool ? I wonder !