For those who do not know what Sun Microsystems does you can check out their about section on their website.
Here are a few videos I found to be of interest:
The first half of the video has the senior director of global communications for Sun Microsystems explaining why Schwartz started to blog publicly. She explains how Schwartz felt that if people were passionate about their job they would comment and blog about it.
This video has Jonathan Schwartz talking about participation with networks. He call this the Participation Age, he talks about the importance of interactivity and content rich sites, with images and embedded video.
Jonathan Schwartz’s on his blog has this video that talks about what Sun as a company wants. He wants openness with his customers.
Corporate Blogging Best Practices article has small case studies on corporations with blogs, and Sun Microsystems was said to have successful internal and external blogs. The article explained that their internal blog is used as an informational tool for the employees, researchers and developers. These blogs can be found publicly through an aggregation called Planet Sun. These blogs are not managed by the communications department and the employees are encourage to write about anything. The only policies are to not tell a secret, use common sense and if there is uncertainty, ask a manager. However, Suns most popular blog is ‘Jonathan’s Blog’ written by Jonathon Schwartz the CEO and president of Sun. Why his blog so well known? He was one of the first Fortune 500 companies to start a blog. He frequently posts openly about Sun as a company and their ideas, and discusses his view on the technology industry. He gets between around 50,000 visits or more a month and each post has many comments from shareholders. Schwartz started blogging in 2004 and wanted to use his blogs to reach out to his consumers, and believes if people are passionate about their company they will/ should blog, and share ideas. Jonathon Schwartz has an article in the Harvard Business Review called If You Want to Lead, Blog he talks about how CEOs or executives needing to blog. He gives points on how to to start a blog. Knowing a companies strategies and guidelines for a blog was a main point he stressed along with, openness, honesty, and authenticity. He also believes the biggest advantage to blogs is the ability to participate in communities that are relevant to the company.
Strategies:
Sun wants employees to be involved in the blogging process of connecting to its stakeholders and expressing their ideas
Sun does not have a strict policy on blogging and no communication department overseas what is written. Even though employees are encouraged to blog this also helps to not shy away from posting.
Having a CEO who actually is posting his own opinions and thoughts brings trust to a company and shows the public how involved and devoted they are to the company. Also they become more transparent to their consumers.
Sources:
Corporate Blogging Best Practices
Blogging: a new play in your marketing game plan
I admire the transparency that Sun Microsystems has embraced with their corporate blogging strategy. Having employees be able to post and comment to blogs without executives and administrators approving the content lets the audience know that their is a complete atmosphere of trust and authenticity within the company. In a way, it is like saying they have nothing to hide. Also, having a CEO that blogs is a great way of putting a face to the company.
I love that Jonathan Schwartz wanted to reach out to his constituents without a communications person standing in front of him. It really shows how much he invests into the company by blogging. People that are passionate about their work should blog and share ideas. The internal blog of Sun Microsystems is crucial on getting every employee on the same page. Everyone should have a chance to voice their opinions. Jonathan has created a outlet to listen and learn from his employees and feedback is key.
I feel like a corporation should have both an internal blog and external blog because communication with employees and separating other public is important. Employees need to be in the loop and updated on whats going on and information they need or want is and can be different from what other public need to hear.