During a break at WOMMA/WOMBAT I was talking with Tara from Yahoo Search about how some organizations have empowered their employees to speak on their behalf, sometimes via blogs. Tara then made a quick statement about Jeremy Zawodny:
Jeremy is our canary in the coal mineUpon hearing that, I thought, "What a great analogy." Corporate bloggers (at least those that are true bloggers, i.e. connected with the community) are perfectly positioned to sense any issues with their company. They're also in the position to speak on behalf of the company and head-off any issues before they become blown out of proportion. Case in point the big 'Yahoo Gives Up' meme today.
For those of you that don't get the analogy, here's wikipedia the entry for canary:
Canaries were once regularly used in coal mining as an early warning system. Toxic gases such as carbon monoxide and methane in the mine would kill the bird before affecting the miners. Because canaries tend to sing much of the time, they provided both a visual and audible cue in this respect
Visitor Comments
Hi Josh,
I'm one of Robert's PR bloggers, I met you last spring when you came to visit the foundations class.
I agree with the canary analogy with regards to corporate PR blogging. We learned in our case studies class the extreme importance of understanding the climate of the community in large corporations. Time after time in the case studies, this huge corporation would make an even larger mistake because they were unaware of the way the community would respond to a change.
Community-minded corporate bloggers can serve as a liaison between external publics and the organization, and like the canary analogy describes, this could save a situation from pending disaster.
Posted by: Melanie | January 24, 2006 10:44 PM
Jeremy speaks for himself, but we all get to bask in his... glow.
Posted by: Tara Kirchner | January 25, 2006 11:34 AM
Josh that is a pretty cool analogy. When I think about the analogy it shows me how important good PR people are. In the case of the miners it was their life which is definetly more serious. But with an organization it means going down the tubes if the bird doesn't sing(tell in human cases.)
It would be a huge compliment for someone to say that I am the eyes and ears of the organization and doing a great job at it. But at the same time it is a responsibility.
I agree with you, bloggers give a unique advantage to their organization if they are blogging correctly. A lesson for me is even though I am not a professional yet I should use this time as a student blogger to learn how to use my blog correctly. So one day maybe I can be the canary for an organization.
Posted by: Wes | January 28, 2006 3:21 PM