Those of you who have been to a presentation or course of mine know that I talk about staff being members of other communities. And how you should maximise their input as part of your branded community. I usually talk about geeks who work for telstra or optus hanging around with a nom de plume like ‘gandalf77’ on whirlpool.net.au answering questions and being Gods of Telco.

When you do bring them inhouse, be wary of creating a situation where you set them up to fail. I always thought Tom Reynolds was the best blogger on NowWeAreSlagging – honest, straight up, not a yes man. Now he’s been sacked for quite an unoffensive post. Read the full story here and his personal blog here. I used to read his personal blog a while ago – it seemed to be mostly about motorbikes and his wife/partner. In that order. 🙂 That News link has some good comments – one guy wrote that corporate bloggers have a public profile and they must be handled professionally, particularly when it comes to moving them along. Nice point.

Interesting old article here about staff being sacked for having a personal blog. I think I read yesterday that CNN have banned all staff from having personal blogs? Formal, branded, brainwashed blogging is ok, doing stuff in your personal time is not. I must find (and read) that article – it just sounds too big brotherish to be real. Serves me right for not clicking it when I saw it on Google Desktop, scrolling by on its way to who-knows-where.

Ciao for now, off to have a drinkypoos.

Technorati Tags Online Communities, Australia, blog, NowWeAreTalking, Tom Reynolds, staff