Something big is happening in the IT infrastructure blogging world: Previously-independent bloggers are being hired in droves by the major hardware and software vendors, particularly EMC and VMware. What does this mean for the community? This series of articles investigates the impact that this transition will have on the IT infrastructure community.
Why Do Vendor Bloggers Matter?
I suppose it’s best to get some definitions out of the way at the outset. Blogging and social media is a diverse and ill-defined region of the Internet, a world which itself in its infancy. What I write here is focused on my particular corner of the online world: Enterprise IT infrastructure, and enterprise storage in particular. I am sure that other areas, both inside and outside of IT infrastructure, have different norms and values.
In fact, this particular focus on who is a vendor and who is not will seem peculiar to many. Some areas are dominated by insiders blogging for their employer, other companies are entirely absent from the blogging sphere (Exhibit A: Apple), and still others don’t make much of a fuss over who someone works for. Yet concern about payola and bias runs deep even in the most liberal circles.
Can You Trust It?
It boils down to a simple question: How much can you trust what you read? Blogging and other social media activities (Twitter, conferences, forums, etc) have come to dominate discourse and drive search engine ranking. An outspoken social media maven can drive mind-space and thought leadership using these tools. Yet the democratic Internet is open to any and all.
This kind of influence can be very subtle. A connected employee can be expected to be part of the larger conversation about a product, service, or technology. Once also expects them to influence this discussion, and this will always be biased based on their experience and background within the company. Where outside critics see a profit-motivated monolith, an employee sees an all-too-human company trying its best to succeed. And since that success feeds their children, it’s hard to expect them to be too critical.
Certainly some content is inherently trustworthy, especially in technical areas like IT. I love Chad Sakac’s posts on EMC/VMware integration, for example. I also look forward to reading what the VMware and Microsoft employee bloggers write, since they’re so detailed and factual. And finding this kind of content of a personal blog, even without disclosure, wouldn’t raise my hackles. But even the most technical blogs sometimes get into “mine is better than yours” arguments between vendors.
The world of strategy and opinion is much less black and white. Consider just about anything on Chuck Hollis’ blog. He writes at EMC.com and his content is always on point for that company. But many others (from many companies) write similarly corporate-focused pieces with much less disclosure. This is an old PR trick, and the Internet makes it easier than ever both to get published and to disguise affiliation.
But even with the best of intentions, we are all biased in one way or another. Our experience, our employer, our friends, and indeed the entire world we live in influence our experience. It is not a simple thing to be independent of this, and we should expect everyone to be impacted to one extent or another. The trick is to detect overt bias and manipulation.
Throwing Stones
I’m not trying to throw stones here. In fact, I write a vendor blog myself for my employer, Nirvanix. I am very used to wearing multiple hats, and I pride myself on my ability to step into and out of the corporate shadow. But it’s a very difficult game to play, and I’ve failed on occasion.
Rather, I’m hoping that this series of articles will spark some discussion on the whole concept of vendor blogs. I’ll be posting about the spectrum of options that corporate bloggers have, non-blogging soapboxes they use, and best practices to keep everything straight.
If you enjoyed reading this, you’ll probably also like my Foskett Services blog!
Stephen, great post. As one of the “previously independent bloggers” who is now working for EMC, one of my great challenges is to remain as impartial as possible, providing factual and useful technical information without allowing overt bias creep in. I’d be particularly interested to hear about you “step into and out of the corporate shadow”, the techniques you use, and how you check yourself. I do hope that this stimulates some conversation about this topic and I look forward to participating in that conversation!
Great post, Stephen — even if I’m one of the subjects!
You’re quite right that we all have our biases — it’s who we are, and it’s hard to ignore, deny or compensate from this very basic human truth.
I, for one, try to be just about as open and transparent as I can be around who I work for, my motivations, etc. Fortunately, I tend to be a big fan of many of the things my company does.
And, regarding the “trust” thing — even supposedly independent voices can lead you down the wrong path occasionally 🙂
Thanks!
Stephen – it is hard to avoid bias, and I’m aware when bias starts to creep in even on a technical blog like mine. I start to feel funny, which is a clue 🙂
Re: hiring, I haven’t set out to “hire all independent bloggers”. What I am trying to do is hire great people, and often the skills that make a great technical blogger (passionate, can communicate, can build a community, technophile) all are great “leading indicators” of being a great person for my team.
If they continue to blog – GREAT. If they remain as independent as they can on their blog – EVEN BETTER. It’s much more difficult to stay as independent as you can when you’re not with a particular vendor, not because people are forcing you one way or another, but you live in a world with constant inputs with a certain bias.
Interesting post, and I’m looking forward to seeing the rest of the series – especially since I fit the profile, heh. I try to go way, way out of my way to disclose when I’m talking for Quest, but I can see how it can easily be a gray area for other bloggers. You’ve only got one reputation, and you don’t want to sell that out too cheaply.
I’ll be suggesting things to watch out for in today’s and Wednesday’s posts, and will be writing about my own experiences on Thursday. I hope you find it valuable!
I didn’t mean that there was some kind of EMC conspiracy to scoop up all the independents. Quite the opposite: The fact that they’re independent bloggers makes them perfect candidates for any company, and EMC was smart enough to sign them up. It’s like Cuban baseball – how long will it be before you defect and sign a nice juicy MLB contract? Hahahaha! Maybe we should call it “Chad’s Yankees” from now on?
I think folks would be wise to check out what Brent does, actually. He’s a model citizen, in my opinion, as an excellent community participant and corporate employee at the same time.
I think you do a much better job than many about being straight with your connections and beliefs. Like you said, it helps when your personal feelings match your company’s objectives.
I particularly like that you blog from an EMC.com domain! As you’ll see, today’s post suggests that this is the best place to put a corporate blog. I wish all EMC blogs were similarly situated, and I would like to hear more about the corporate blogging policy. Perhaps someone can rise to that challenge?
And yes, of course, we are all biased. And we are all vendors (as I’ll be pointing out on Thursday!)
Hi
Understand your points on blogging from a corporate domain, but there’s more to it than that, as we dug into that issue.
Not all EMC employees who blog want to be closely affiliated with the EMC domain. They value their independence, and — should they leave EMC — would want to take their blog with them. As a corporation, we have to respect that.
Conversely, from a corporate perspective, it’s also the case that we don’t necessarily want all employees who blog to be closely affiliated with EMC’s brand. Some people get into topic that aren’t really aligned with EMC’s business, for example. We have to respect that as well.
So, we’ve chosen a middle ground: (a) visible disclosure on your blog if you’re going to discuss EMC-related topics, and (b) a “corporate roster” page for blogs that we feel reflect the best of EMC.
Now, I’m not saying there’s a right or wrong way to handle these issues — that’s simply the way we’ve tried to steer a middle ground that serves multiple agendas.
So far, so good.
— Chuck