Year: 2005

Norwegian politician’s blog flops

Kristin Halvorsen, leader of Socialistisk Venstre (The Socialist Left Party) in Norway launched a blog in October 2004. But the interactive format of the blog apparently was too much work for Halvorsen who hasn’t posted anything on the blog since March 30. Many of her readers critize her from being absent on her own blog.

– This was a test. It turned out that the blog became too time consuming for me over time, Kristin Halvorsen tells Dagbladet.

– This is a culture where people communicate with each other several times a day and that’s not possible for me. It didn’t help that others replied for me, she said, meaning that she didn’t wish that others would reply in her name.

I don’t think you should be too hard on politicians who experiment with this new medium and fail. Her ambition to interact more with voters seemed to be honest. However, when you come to a point where you realize that you don’t have time to blog, you should really consider killing your blog altogether. Why? Well, basically for just one reason. Halvorsen’s blog is ranked #2 on Google when you search for her name and you wouldn’t want a web page full of negative comments about yourself be ranked that high if you are a top politician. Either you continue with the blog, or kill it.

I meet the Bloglines Plumber too often

Here’s a guy I’m getting tired to see. He’s the “Bloglines Plumber” and he comes on to my screen every time Bloglines is down for “a little fixer upper”.

Hi,

I’m the Bloglines Plumber. Bloglines is down for a little fixer upper. We’ll now be back at 1 Am Pacific Time. Bloglines will be all better when I’m done with it.

Thanks,
The Bloglines Plumber

The down time wouldn’t be much hassle if it:

1) Didn’t happen so often; and
2) Didn’t affect a vital part of my media monitoring.

I wouldn’t accept a “little fixer upper” on a regular basis for my email client, nor do I think it is acceptable that Bloglines goes down now and then. RSS has become an important channel for my news consumption. I use it for monitoring media, reading important blogs, monitoring the blogosphere for mentions of my company’s brand etc. It’s nothing I am especially pleased at being locked out from for several hours. Sure, they often do it during non-office hours in the US, but hey, the blogosphere is awake 24/7 so when it is a convenient time for an upgrade in the US, it is not in Sweden. Perhaps it would be possible to run the service on a limited scale while doing the upgrades. I don’t know how, I just feel that if this continues I might have to abandon Bloglines for a more reliable service.

Don’t blog if your boss is Norwegian

Managers at Norwegian companies don’t like their employees to blog, according to a survey by Dagens Næringsliv. The survey asked what managers considered to be the greatest threats to their business. The primary worry was to lose key personnel:

1. Lose key personnel
2. Breakdown of IT system
3. Hacking
4. Identity theft/Phishing
5. Loss of intellectual property rights

The paper writes that one of four key koncerns for Norwegian managers is blogging. “Norwegian leaders don’t want their employees to blog. They don’t wish that internal information will be made public through that kind of channels.”:

Blogging: Norske ledere ønsker ikke at egne ansatte skal skrive blogger. De ønsker ikke at intern informasjon skal komme ut via slike kanaler. I USA har flere teknologiselskaper åpnet for ansattes blogging, innen gitte rammer.

Of course there is a risk involved in having blogging employees, but the potential rewards may be even greater. If your greatest concern is to lose key people, then maybe the strategy should be the opposite – let key people blog within given policies. There is a chance it will make them more committed, more satisfied and better spokes persons for your company. There’s also a risk they become so visible that someone else wants to recruit them, but having the most attractive work force on board is a luxury problem.

Car buyers spend money on fairy tales?

Seth Godin is on tour to promote his book All Marketers are Liars. The concept of the book is that marketers are good at telling stories that customers want to believe, but not necessarily are true. Here’s a comment from Godin on the What’s Your Brand Mantra blog about storytelling in the car industry:

If I ran GM, I’d figure out how to make the cars MORE different. Why doesn’t the Saab have Swedish words on the non-essential controls? Why doesn’t the Cadillac come with a better version of Onstar? Dollar for dollar, consumers spend more money on ridiculous stories for cars than anything else we buy. GM needs to learn before it’s too late that they are NOT in the assembly line business. They are in the business of telling stories.