Corporate Blogging at Thomas Nelson Publishing

Photographer: Ian Britton (c) FreeFoto.com 

I discovered Michael Hyatt’s Working Smart blog with my interest in David Allen's book, Getting Things Done. Michael writes a very useful blog; he is the President and Chief Operating Officer of Thomas Nelson Publishers, the largest Christian publishing company in the world.

Recently he wrote (and I celebrate him!):

My company, Thomas Nelson Publishers, is about to launch a corporate blog aggregator site. Internally, we have tried to encourage a small band of employees to begin blogging. The aggregator site will simply link to the individual sites. It will be similar to OfficeZealot.com, but it will be accessible through our main corporate Web site.

This program has three primary objectives:
1. To raise the visibility of our company and our products.
2. To make a contribution to the publishing community.
3. To give people a look at what goes on inside a real publishing company.

In their Corporate Blogging Guidelines they write out 10 guidelines in trying to promote – not stifle - blogging within Thomas Nelson.

Here’s one of the guidelines:

Write relevant. Write often. Whether you know it or not, you are an expert. You have a unique perspective on our company based on your talents, skills, and current responsibilities. People what to hear about that perspective.

In short, this posting is more than about blogging, but Michael Hyatt’s leadership in encouraging expression of thought (and community) inside of the company he leads by setting an example of availability and to a degree, of transparency for a CEO. Well done!