November 18, 2008 108 Comments

Should Every Outward Facing Employee Have a Web Presence

Addressable Space In writing up my visit to Gannett, I realized that I was missing something that I wanted: I went to link Jim Lenahan’s name, and then realized that he doesn’t have a blog or any kind of external web presence. I wanted to link Michael Maness, their VP of Innovation, and realized he doesn’t have an external web presence. Ditto Ken Paulson, etc.

It dawns on me that this is a missed opportunity in several ways.

  1. Links are love. If I link to them, Google values that link and helps search traffic find the site.
  2. Links encourage exploration. You click links on my site all the time. I watch you do it.
  3. Web presence gives us a public glimpse of you. It gives people backstory.
  4. Web presence provides you more opportunities to meet new people.
  5. Web presence makes a larger showing of your company’s thinkers.

Not every employee needs a blog, and not every employee should be outward facing from a web perspective (several might not want that, actually). But the folks who have jobs that put them in contact with people like me? I think you need a web presence, please.

Agree? Disagree? Thoughts?

Related posts:

  1. Starting Points for Online Presence
  2. Lijit Tidies Up Your Presence
  3. Facing 2005
  4. Twitter as Presence
  5. The Power of Links

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  • http://blogs.courierposonline.com/mojodojo Whitney

    I agree. It opens more lines of communication to those in and outside the company, as well as reinforces how Web involvement is a give/take, multiple channel kinda deal.

    I wrote a post about social networking in journalism here: http://blogs.courierpostonline.com/mojodojo/2008/11/24/why-journalists-should-use-facebook/

    Why are employees saying no? I find it’s because they’re afraid of posting things they might regret. I come from the generation that grew up on these tools and I’ve seen everything from naked, drunken photos to hate symbols to ‘I hate my boss’ tirades. Good thing to leave those off … but do you really need to avoid these services completely to keep from embarrassment? Why not try some tact?

  • http://blogs.courierposonline.com/mojodojo Whitney

    I agree. It opens more lines of communication to those in and outside the company, as well as reinforces how Web involvement is a give/take, multiple channel kinda deal.

    I wrote a post about social networking in journalism here: http://blogs.courierpostonline.com/mojodojo/2008/11/24/why-journalists-should-use-facebook/

    Why are employees saying no? I find it’s because they’re afraid of posting things they might regret. I come from the generation that grew up on these tools and I’ve seen everything from naked, drunken photos to hate symbols to ‘I hate my boss’ tirades. Good thing to leave those off … but do you really need to avoid these services completely to keep from embarrassment? Why not try some tact?

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  • http://www.carlosx360.com CarlosX360

    “Do you specifically mean having your own blog by establishing a web presence? I agree that those involved should be on the web. But if they have a Facebook account, LinkedIn account I would consider that to be a very good web presence. Twitter would even be one step further.”

    To this comment, i don’t agree that going just “one route” will just do it justice. Twitter is cool and all, but you need more than that to build a “web presence.” Web presence merely means that your “brand” or company is wide and far. I see a few people that are doing the same exact thing I am doing, and they have a really good idea what “web presence” really means; personal platform. PERFECT definition.

    But what really bothers me is that employers DON’T want this for their employers. I don’t care what you read, I read a few websites saying that employers don’t want their employees to be blogging, whether it be good things about the company or bad. And even if that person isn’t doing anything surrounding the company with regards to blogging, they still don’t want it. They don’t even encourage it; they’re creating rules on not blogging, ESPECIALLY during work.

    That’s not all, I’ve read newspapers saying the same thing, what’s worse is that, what they say about blogging is kinda leave it, or embrace it. On top of that, they seem to imply that the person’s brand is tightly connected to the company’s brand. And they say that “when a company employee spews negativity, the brand is a jerk.” Its not exactly like that, but similar.

    It is a very good concept if you want to take control of what people say about you. But you have to be ‘there’ first. That is, your brand has to be present FIRST.

  • http://www.carlosx360.com CarlosX360

    “Do you specifically mean having your own blog by establishing a web presence? I agree that those involved should be on the web. But if they have a Facebook account, LinkedIn account I would consider that to be a very good web presence. Twitter would even be one step further.”

    To this comment, i don’t agree that going just “one route” will just do it justice. Twitter is cool and all, but you need more than that to build a “web presence.” Web presence merely means that your “brand” or company is wide and far. I see a few people that are doing the same exact thing I am doing, and they have a really good idea what “web presence” really means; personal platform. PERFECT definition.

    But what really bothers me is that employers DON’T want this for their employers. I don’t care what you read, I read a few websites saying that employers don’t want their employees to be blogging, whether it be good things about the company or bad. And even if that person isn’t doing anything surrounding the company with regards to blogging, they still don’t want it. They don’t even encourage it; they’re creating rules on not blogging, ESPECIALLY during work.

    That’s not all, I’ve read newspapers saying the same thing, what’s worse is that, what they say about blogging is kinda leave it, or embrace it. On top of that, they seem to imply that the person’s brand is tightly connected to the company’s brand. And they say that “when a company employee spews negativity, the brand is a jerk.” Its not exactly like that, but similar.

    It is a very good concept if you want to take control of what people say about you. But you have to be ‘there’ first. That is, your brand has to be present FIRST.

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  • https://www.jobsindubai.com/career.asp?qArticleID=53&page=2 Nofel Izz

    I think that an employee should always know how to show gratitude to their company if it was giving them a good time, and this can be done through web presence. but if not having a blog can also do some nasty things to degrade the reputation of the company :D

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