Do you remember what it was like after graduating college?  How did you feel as you prepared to jump head-first into the professional world?

What about on your last day of high school?  Were you scared?  Overwhelmed?  Excited?

I think most of us have spent some little time reliving those experiences – let alone dissecting our stories while learning and sharing our thoughts with others in the same boat.  We professionals are way too busy for that, right?

My friend, Tyler Durbin, disagrees, at least in terms of young professionals.

Tyler has built Generation Y Journey from the ground up, in hopes of providing a model for young people to use as a guide when making decisions during their high school and college careers, and as they explore their professional career.  It operates as a collaborative blog, pulling multiple guest contributors to submit content alongside Tyler’s own writings.

Who Should Use Collaborative Blogs?

The major advantage of using collaborative blogs is your ability to spread the workload of frequently posting new content across multiple contributors.

My take on the usefulness of collaborative blogs is that, from an execution standpoint, collaborative blogs make a ton of sense for solo entrepreneurs building communities around a niche topic.  It’s a powerful way to tap into a niche community and add value one member at a time, by offering your community a podium and audience where they can share their ideas.  As the blog owner, the social capital, interest and traffic that is generated also works in your favor.  Win-win.

For mid-sized and large businesses, collaborative blogs are almost essential to long-term success, especially in terms of keeping post frequency high.

Why is this?

1. All companies experience turnover.  If your business picks one or two or three bloggers to write content for your audience, what happens if they leave?  Does your company blog shut down?  How long will it take to find and train a replacement?
2. The majority of professionals working in mid-sized to large companies will agree that their time is scarce and precious.  That seems to be a universal truth in the working world.  Even with the best intentions, making the commitment of writing daily posts is often not even possible.  The result: blogging gets shifted to the back burner and, in the worst case, forgotten altogether.
3. Most mid-sized to large companies are reluctant to hire full-time bloggers.  It can even be seen as dangerous to do so, in that full-time bloggers with an already sizable reader base also come with a personal brand.  That could potentially present a detrimental conflict of interests.  For instance, what do you think will happen to Comcast now that Frank Eliason has landed at Citi?

Small businesses, however, are a bit of a different case.  For them, it can be tough to make collaborative blogs work because this style of blogging typically requires large teams of regular but infrequent contributors.  With a staff of 5-10 people who wear multiple hats (as is typically the case in small businesses), keeping up can be challenging, even with the right technology tools in place.

Now, I’m not saying your small business shouldn’t consider building a collaborative blog.  I simply want you to be aware of the challenges you are likely to face, in terms of generating fresh content from your team as time goes on and your blog matures.  As an alternative, small businesses might consider selecting one individual to blog, making it a part of their daily duties.  Having one dedicated resource is a simple solution to what could eventually turn into a complex problem.

It’s Not About You

In this portion of an interview with Tyler, he brings some of the other challenges he faces in managing Gen Y Journey. These are thoughtful comments from someone currently on the front lines. It’s a short clip.

There are two valuable lessons here:

1. When taking a collaborative blog approach, it’s critical to allow each contributor to maintain their own style and voice.  As an admin, editor or even a proofreader, this can be a necessary – and daily – struggle.  Take a step back from your own style and always keep in mind that it’s not about you.
2. Get to know your contributors.  Learn how they talk and write.  Know their voice.  Tyler uses gChat, Skype and other tools to do this.  If you are administering a collaborative blog from within your company, this will be a bit easier since your bloggers may sit in the office to your left (or right).  Make a point to have lunch discussions, or even schedule mastermind groups, for the entire blog team to attend.  Collaborative blogging also means being open to collaborative learning.

As a final note, I know Tyler is always looking for contributors to the Gen Y Journey blog.  I’m even in queue to write a post in the near future.  If this is something that interests you, and you have a story to share, contact Tyler here.

Have you started blogging yet?  What’s your biggest challenge?

nateriggs

Like what you just read and want to get my posts delivered to your inbox? SUBSCRIBE HERE

More Posts

Follow Me: