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Should Sprint executives be blogging? IMHO, yes
By Justin Goldsborough | October 16th, 2008
Justin case you were wondering…IMHO, our execs should be blogging, internally and externally. The Sprint blogging train has left the station — you can look no further than Sprint Space or our external social media efforts to see that — but not enough members of our leadership team are on it. Actually, I can only think of three:
- Chief Service Officer Bob Johnson has been blogging on Buzz About Wireless by requesting customer feedback on how we can improve our service, addressing customer comments and even offering to personally help with service issues — big step in the right direction — and has shown interest in blogging internally.
- Boost SVP Matt Carter recently posted an internal blog entry about Dan’s Vans at CTIA. I’ve got nothing but praise for a post like this that shows off our CEO’s personality and offers employees a chance to join the conversation about the lighter side of Sprint.
- And SVP of Human Resources Sandy Price is planning to blog/chat with employees about this year’s annual enrollment changes.
Executive blogging has always been an asset, but lately it’s becoming an expectation. Why else would Bill Marriott, the 76-year-old chairman and CEO of Marriott International, put in the effort to blog despite the fact that he is an admitted technophobe and doesn’t know how to type. This past summer, Bill admitted to NBC Nightly News that he doesn’t actually post his blog entries. There’s a 24-year-old employee at Marriott who helps with the technological aspects — she helps Bill record his posts on a digital mp3 recorder. Not the easiest process in the world. So why go to all this trouble?
“I make it work because I know that it’s a great way to communicate with our customers and stakeholders in this day and age,” Bill said in a recent post.
Perhaps what’s most frustrating about the lack of executive blogging at Sprint is that several of our company leaders seem to have ideal personalities for blogging. Employees and customers alike want to know that representatives of the brands they use are willing to listen and that leadership is open to having an honest and informative conversation. From what I’ve seen of our top execs, they would do a great job of providing that type of two-way dialogue.
And we know customers and employees are interested in this type of conversation. Many have e-mailed Dan Hesse as a result of our Simply Everything commercials. And there are several people having a conversation with Bob Johnson via his blog on Buzz About Wireless.
This post is not a knock on our leadership. We’ve taken great strides over the past year, especially in customer service. Just check out the Pali Research results on our Care response times. These improvements we’ve made have set us up perfectly for executive blogging to succeed. These blogs could be a great forum to re-emphasize the Sprint story and one more piece of evidence to show customers and employees how we’re changing.
IMHO, executive blogging is integral to improving our brand perception. So I’m making a list. Not a bucket list or a Top 10 list, but a list of reasons executives should consider blogging (Note: Some of these reasons are mine, some came from fellow employees and some from friends on Twitter):
- Personality. Customers want to see that the execs behind the brands they choose are real people.
- Customer service. You can not only manage but create great customer service situations that everyone can see, not just the recipient.
- Willingness to listen. Execs who blog show they care what employees and customers have to say about their brand. In fact, some companies have created separate sites to manage ideas (e.g. Starbucks, Dell).
- Access through conversation. Dan’s commercials are just the beginning of the conversation and a blog to employees and customers would keep it going. We have 56,000 employees and millions of customers. What other tool besides a blog allows those folks engage our leadership in a conversation?
- Expectations. As I mentioned previously, people are beginning to expect corporate leaders to provide this type of open access. And those expectations are only going to increase as the digital generation makes it’s way into the workforce.
These are just a few reasons, the start of a list. I know there are more, so feel free to share your favorites. Or if you think executive blogging isn’t worthwhile, I’d like to hear your thoughts too.
“The postings on this site are my own and do not necessarily represent the positions, strategies or opinions of Sprint.”
October 17th, 2008 at 11:26 am
Hi Justin,
Great post, as usual. Enjoy reading your thoughts on implementing social media for business value, and have subscribed to the RSS feed. But how does someone contact you (email, Twitter, etc.)?
Best,
Daria
http://www.steigmancommunications.com/wordpress
October 18th, 2008 at 10:54 am
Hey, Daria. Thanks for the feedback. I definitely need to add that info to my blog site.
You can e-mail me at justin.goldsborough@sprint.com and my Twitter ID is jgoldsborough.
Looking forward to checking out your blog!