At last someone other than me is talking about what it takes to create and sustain a good blog. Writes Annette Clancy in this blog entitled interactions:

"While I’m a fan (naturally) of social media I do think there’s a rich conversation to be had about just how much work it takes to be in a relationship… but I’m not seeing a lot written about the energy and time that’s required to maintain those relationships, generate new content and maintain the personal connection that many people want. Add to that the time it takes to comment on other people’s work and blogs and the time mounts up."

For people who love blogging and what they are blogging about, the required investment of time and energy is not a hardship. But to a point made in my Ombudsblog post of Friday, most corporate types at the executive level who have full-time jobs laboring in the traditional world just aren’t going to make the kind of commitment required to keep a blog alive and vital. This is why I continue to advocate for a hybrid model of some sort.

Meanwhile, if you have time, please read Annette Clancy’s piece in its entirety. It raises several very provocative issues about the future of social media, especially as it relates to artists.

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I'm wondering if any corporation has the courage to try an approach to blogging I am about to describe below? Given that many corporate blogs are now, or in the future will be, only marginally successful, I've been contemplating a way to keep the whole corporate social media experiment from failing. I've tentatively called this the Ombudsblog. Here's the basic idea:

In return for a one-year non-renewable employee contract, an individual with exceptional writing ability and blog experience, is hired to own and operate the corporate blog, posting in his or her own name on behalf of the company, and saying anything he or she wishes and, as a key part of the deal, may attend any meeting, visit any facility, converse with any employee.

Some more specific terms and implications of this fantasy business blog vision: The blogger can be fired but will be paid in full for the term of the contract. The blogger has no expectation that being biased in any way will gain him or her long-term employment stability because it is a one-year-only deal and so there's no incentive to be anything but fair and balanced. The blogger must adhere to corporate policies relating to confidentiality and all the usual standards. For three years after the one-year deal, the bloger may not work for a competitive entity.Readers of a blog of this variety would likely see it as a credible site versus the many corporate blogs being written today by folks who worry about their job security and, to be honest, can't in the main hardly write a lick.

I fear that without some remedy or approach such as this, traditional corporate communicators of the old school will continue to contort and corrupt the blog concept to create little more than daily website-like updates of the party line du jour again and again, over and over. No edge, no conversation, little or no credibility… zero value. That outcome, of course, ultimately taints and weakens the blogosphere in the aggregate.

Bad idea? Let me hear from you if you have a strong opinion either way.

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