Here’s a truism about corporate blogging: generally, nobody cares about your widgets. What people do care about is stuff related to your widgets – cool things you can do with them, related lifestyles, industry issues, etc. This is where it gets a bit trickier. Should you be deadly serious? Can you have a bit of fun??
The cleverest tack I’ve seen lately is one taken by the Ethics Crisis blog. It’s the marketing companion to a business called SRF Global Translations. (The blog appears to be the company’s Web site, as well.)
SRF is a family-run business established in 1976 that provides “mindful, nuanced, professional multilanguage translations” of unglamorous materials like corporate codes of ethics and compliance documents.
Not the kind of widgets that make you say “cool” but certainly a very useful service.
So what’s the blog about? Well, there are sections for serious discussions of global ethics. But the fun part is an Ethics Confession page where you can type in — anonymously — the most unethical thing you’ve ever done at work (“we’re not talking about taking home the office pencils,” the blog advises).
After you’ve submitted your 250-word anecdote, readers vote on how egregious your actions were…
…on a scale of 1 (always acceptable) to 5 (never acceptable). There are only a few submissions thus far but they’re fascinating.
One is about whether it’s OK to take clients with you when you leave
your job (readers give that a “3”). Another is about being dissed by
the boss and then going online to order expensive office equipment
using his name. Readers say “4.” I give that a “5.”
At any rate, this is a fun idea. It’s interactive, it’s instructive
and it’s a welcome note of levity in the corporate blogosphere. As to
to whether it can be sustained, time will tell. I hope the blog can
attract some submissions from different countries. It would be
interesting to see what’s acceptable – or not – in other business
cultures.
Start here to enter your confession or here if you’d rather rate other people’s.
Interestingly, the blog is the brainchild of B.L. Ochman who was one of the creators of Budget Rent A Car’s blog-based UpYourBudget treasure hunt. She’s a partner in the business but her acid tongue works well here too!