It's great to see the Foreign Office's Stephen Hale raising his head above the parapet, and blogging about his job as 'Head of Engagement'. (Quite a job title, by the way.) Makes sense for numerous reasons of course, not least as a means of setting a good example for colleagues. I mean, would you trust a 'blogging expert' who didn't blog?
Stephen has already touched on the FCO's choice of the rather obscure Roller blogging platform - 'because of the ease with which we could integrate it with our web platform'. His latest post reveals something I hadn't previously appreciated: 'we opened up the blogs over the summer so that any member of staff with a valid business reason could start an official blog'.
That's a remarkable move in itself, and perhaps unexpectedly, puts FCO on a par with hi-tech companies like Microsoft - but I'm still in two minds about the wisdom of people blogging in a personal capacity on an official platform (generally speaking). My instinct remains that corporate blogging is best done on a project basis, with more personal stuff (again, generally) kept separate.
In that respect, we should all be grateful to FCO for testing the water here; we'll only find out what works - if anythying - by trying it, and they've certainly got the Boss most likely to give them the freedom to experiment.
[...] Simon Dickson reports that Stephen Hale, the FCO’s “Head of Engagement, Digital Diplomacy” is now blogging: Makes sense for numerous reasons of course, not least as a means of setting a good example for colleagues. I mean, would you trust a ‘blogging expert’ who didn’t blog? [...]
Simon - thanks for the encouragement. I agree with you about the value of project blogs - I think we need to do more to link Foreign Office blogs to particular campaigns, projects or niches, rather than them being personal blogs that happen to sit on an official platform. Having said that, it's the personal angle that often makes them interesting and engaging. In that sense I don't see Foreign Office blogs as being that different from your blog, which is an official blog (it's about your work) written from a personal angle.