Hire a blogger redux

Well, I did a long post about this and promptly lost it.  So this is the abbreviated version…

I thought about this a little more and here’s my take.  Jeremy wrote a nice outline.  2/3 was about building the case for corporate blogging.  Good summary, no arguments from me.  The last third was about hiring a blogger.  Jeremy equates hiring a blogger with hiring a consultant.  That’s close.  I see it more like hiring a contractor.  A consultant advises, contractors do work.  Nitpicky, I know, but I can be a bit of a pedant.  Next, I don’t really see how buying a blogger for a couple of months will add value to the brand, or increase customer loyalty.  At best, it’s an amusement.  At worst, the outward-facing communication comes off as being inconsistent, since this contractor/consultant eventually goes away, and their unique voice with them.  I do a complete about-face, though, if we start talking about internal folks doing the actual blogging.

Jeremy notes reasons why hiring a blogging consultant is better than "just a writer" from guru.com or elance.com.  Mainly because the writer wouldn’t have a strong grasp of the business and marketing drivers.  I say: then the company ought to hire a Mar/Comm person, since that’s really what we’re talking about here anyway.

Regardless, bully for Jeremy and Darren.  They’re going to get good publicity out of this, and I’m truly stoked that they’re able to pull it off.  I’m just pessimistic about the lasting value that they’ll leave with the hiring companies.  Unless…they teach the folks there how to do it themselves…