People are always excited about building a new web site. In the early phases of site development, they dream of how the site will transform their organization leading to a golden era of publishing/selling/consulting/etc. Then, the site goes live, and it just sits there. This is true even when the site is "dynamic", and easy to update. Why is this?
The reason is that most staff think of adding web site content as an
extra task. The web site is not an integral part of how they do their
real work. It is an extra showcase, an after-thought. This web site avoidance is a difficult behavior to overcome, and simply telling staff that the web site is
important is not enough.
I have found that the only thing that works to change staff attitudes about the web site is to have the staff of your organization get their hands dirty on the "back-end" of the site. This can be accomplished, quite painlessly, with a Group Blog authored by any and all staff members. Once staff are comfortable with the Group Blog, adding and updating other parts of the web site naturally follows. The site, in general, feels more like a valuable tool, and less like a superfluous appendage.
Group Blogs provide a means for staff to share their thoughts and ideas. At best they are a perpetual brainstorming session, that is fully archived and interactive. The blog in which
this article appears, "Best Practices", contains posts that are more like "articles", and these types of postings take time and planning. This is not necessarily the type of post I would recommend for the Group Blog.
Rather, it is best to encourage staff to do the following:
- Publicize Discoveries: How often do we find ourselves browsing on the web and reading an article or visiting a web site that makes us think, "that is what we should be doing." Well, that is exactly the type of post that is perfect for the Group Blog. Each time any staff member stumbles upon anything of interest, why not take a moment to alert the rest of the group about the discovery? In a healthy organization, discovery alerts can be competitive (in a good way), leading to more and more content (and valuable ideas for your organization).
- Promote Your Work: The Group Blog is a great place to update others to what you are working on. This practice not only acts as a means of spreading knowledge, it also is helpful to the author of the blog post. As we all know, summarizing your work in writing helps to clarify sticking points, and exposes weak points.
- Ask Questions: Why not use the Group Blog as an internal support system? Have staff members write about the aspects of their work that are causing the most trouble. Allow the group to respond. You will be amazed how effective this technique can be.
The Group Blog can be public, private or semi-private. In some cases you may want the public to be able to read the posts, as this is a great way of attracting attention to your organization. In other words, let the world see how smart you are. In other cases, you may desire that the content of the blog remain completely private to your organization. Finally, you can apply a mixed-mode of security, allowing certain posts to be public and others to remain private.
Here are a few great examples of Group Blogs in action: