Blogging has practically become an inalienable right in France, if this piece by The New York Times’ Thomas Crampton is any indication. Not only do the French read more blogs and write more blogs than do Brits or Americans, but they are also, not surprisingly, more vocal and more passionate in their online writings.
French blogs stand out in other measurable ways. They are noticeably longer, more critical, more negative, more egocentric and more provocative than their United States counterparts, said Laurent Flores, the French-born, New York-based chief executive of CRM Metrix, a company that monitors blogs and other online conversations on behalf of companies seeking feedback on their brands. “Bloggers in the United States listen to each other and incorporate rival ideas in the discussion,” he said. “French bloggers never compromise their opinions.”
Blogs are crucial to French politics too — the article suggests that blogs might even curb the French tendency to protest in the street. Politicians in the country, however, live or die by blogs.
“You cannot be elected president of France without a blog,” said Benjamin Griveaux, director of Web strategy for Dominique Strauss-Kahn, a former finance minister and current member of Parliament who in 2004 was among the first politicians to start a blog. “Blogs have not replaced traditional media, but they are absolutely necessary for every politician.”
Not so for corporate CEOs, who seem to be allergic to blogging, according to this piece by the Times’ Randall Stross. Despite the power of blogging to reach customers and shareholders, only one major technology company CEO, Jonathan Schwartz of Sun Microsystems, has a blog. But, other CEOs fail to blog at their own peril.
C.E.O. blogging should no longer be viewed as extreme sport. Mr. Schwartz’s example shows that blogging fits quite naturally into the chief executive’s work week. In an exhortatory piece, “If You Want to Lead, Blog,” published in The Harvard Business Review last year, Mr. Schwartz predicted that “having a blog is not going to be a matter of choice, any more than having e-mail is today.”
“My No. 1 job is to be a communicator,” Mr. Schwartz told me last week. “I don’t understand how a C.E.O. would not blog if committed to open communication.”
Cynthia Brumfield at 11:04 AM|Comments(0)
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