Opening Up Two-Way Communication

The debate between whether or not to allow users to post comment to a corporate blog was a topic of client discussion this week. In a global organization it is a hard choice. Here are your three options with a little commentary on each:

Disable comment posting functionality: If this functionality is disabled, employee expectations might not be met because the medium will not be a true “blog.” Though this might be viewed as semantics, most employees have had personal interaction with blogs. The “look and feel” is known. Because of this, employee buy-in to the communication medium as a whole could suffer.

Allow comment posting functionality for certain posts: Allowing comment-posting functionality for certain posts is an attractive proposal if an internal resolution cannot be reached. Blog postings that might entice outlandish comment posting by users can undergo a risk assessment analysis and comment functionality can be disabled based on the results. The problem with this approach is the organization could foster an environment that could be viewed as untrustworthy. Potentially, users could ignore the communication medium out of distrust.

Allow comment posting functionality for all posts: MindComet recommends the final option because it is the best to meet employee desires and provide a true two-way communication medium. Users will not be allowed to post anonymous comments because of system restrictions that most large organizations have. Because of this, any dissenting opinions will provide more value because employees will know that their name will be known and viewable. This option will also provide the opportunity blog authors to respond to comments and have an ongoing dialogue with employees.