The break-room watercooler is a gathering point for conversation, a place where company news is shared and opinions are debated. At the watercooler, employees converse openly and casually with their peers, without the apprehension of being mandated or persuaded to listen or respond. People enter and leave the conversation when they are interested in what’s being talked about and hear ideas and suggestions from people they know and colleagues they feel share their values and perspectives.

An internal corporate blog is an excellent way to create a virtual watercooler, and the primary reason it can be effective is its ability to connect with employees in a more human tone. The same company news discussed at the break-room watercooler or delivered via a mass e-mail can have dramatically different levels of understanding, interest and impact. The dialogue is going on at the watercooler–bring it to an internal corporate blog so you can hear and participate in it.

An internal-facing corporate blog allows for real-time response to pressing issues and provides a forum to bring communication with employees beyond just disseminating information. Instead, you can share values and ideas in a way that expresses the personality and culture of your organization and keeps the interests and concerns of employees at the center.

Once you are convinced of the opportunities associated with creating an internal corporate blog, you may still have some concerns. Many of these may be related to managing content and monitoring the open forum associated with allowing commenting on posts. But by setting the ground rules clearly and giving employees a sense of accountability and inclusion, communities most often police themselves. A little nudge will likely be all that is necessary to keep discussions on track. For further insurance, you can implement a few key features to ensure that many concerns often raised by corporate management can easily be mitigated, including:

  • Login.
  • Blogging policy.
  • System for approving posts.

Five requirements for a successful internal corporate blog:

  1. Open corporate culture
  2. Strong organizational commitment
  3. Well-defined blog mission
  4. Clear editorial guidelines
  5. Great content.

(Source: PR News, April 20, 2009)