Group Discussions

How honest and transparent should you be when blogging about your business?

I am a woman entrepreneur blogging about my experiences as I start my business. I am currently in the process of selecting a new company name that can be trademarked. I'm working with a creative agency, and yesterday got a list of 7 names to consider. My husband advised against posting the list for comments, saying "Some things should be kept close to the chest. And everything you post stays out there forever!" It led us into a discussion about whether businesses should really, truly be honest and transparent, or is this just a fad? What should be blogged about, and what should be kept private? Is this an old school/new school issue? A male/female thing? or maybe an experienced/naive thing? Where should I draw the line as a blogger?

Flag as inappropriate Posted by Anne Florenzano on 31st October 2007
In this case I agree with your husband. I think the list of names is crucial to your identity and you haven't completely announced that to the world yet so why risk putting it out there? That being said, I think your blogging about these experiences is fantastic and intriguing. Holding some things close to your chest though could really benefit you and protect you in the long run.

On a different note, I don't think all business should be transparent. Honesty is ALWAYS good (take responsibility for mistakes, know and share limitations, etc) but here, again, is where you have to pick and choose. We're looking into making a big move in the near future and while it won't effect business long-term it will for several days and we still haven't discussed this part with our clients. Part of it is personal, as a small freelancing business can be, so I don't want to go there yet and scare clients. Does that make sense?

I don't have answers for all of your questions but I hope you're finding some of them within yourself during this wonderful growth of yours!

Flag as inappropriate Posted by Mandy Nelson - Dandysound on 31st October 2007
Anne, those are such great questions and I don't profess to have any specific wisdom, except my own experience.

I think the bottom line is your personal comfort zone - some people are more comfortable revealing things, some are less. The key is I think to do what you are ok with, not what you think you should be doing. At least that's what I remind myself to do.

I recently started a personal blog about the adventure of going from a steady finance job to starting my own company. (learningoptimism.com, if you're curious - but I am horrible about posting there often - it's something about not having enough time My aim is to be pretty open about the process of building Work It, Mom! from an idea into a company - which includes writing about some things that are challenging.

I've thought about the questions you asked above and my own comfort zone and I think my personal comfort is somewhere in the middle - I want to be open, but there are certain things I don't want and don't think I should be writing about. For me, these include confidential issues, like company financing, legal issues, marketing strategy that's not yet executed, and so on. But I do think that by essentially live-blogging your start-up experience and being open about things you're facing, being challenged by, can give you some pretty awesome perspective through feedback.

Re the specific point on company name - I am not sure you should get it out in the open. As Mandy said, that's something that is so essential that I wouldn't talk about it before you've nailed it.

Flag as inappropriate Posted by Nataly on 31st October 2007
Thanks for your thoughtful reply, Mandy. Actually, I agree too. But what are the boundaries? Does it come from our gut feeling of what's appropriate, or is there a rule of thumb we can go by?

Consider the heartfelt post of Wendy P. about the first 6 weeks of this network. It was certainly much more honest and transparent than many things we see coming from a director/owner. But can she do that because this is a social network?

So far in my blog I stay within the boundaries of what I am comfortable with. I'm very interested in other people's views of this - thanks for your input.

Flag as inappropriate Posted by Anne Florenzano on 31st October 2007
One of the big benifits about blogging on the process instead of the product is it helps the reader really put themselves in your shoes with their own product/idea/etc. If you go and put out names we can no longer pretend we are you

your comfort level will be your guide! the tone of your blog (of what i have read so far - very interesting!!) is great! and i think you should keep going! you have a way of letting your readers know exactly what you are doing and the process issues and resolutions with out giving away the product or specifics.

In regards to the name posting, how can your readers pick a name if they dont even know what the product is or what it is designed to do? i wouldnt post the names, just pick the one you like.

Flag as inappropriate Posted by Kate on 1st November 2007
You have all given articulate voicing to my gut-level suspicions. Thank you for helping me sort this one out, although the consensus seems to be that there's no guideline except one's personal comfort level, regardless of age, experience or gender. But being reminded to trust my instinct in itself is helpful.

Nataly, your blog strikes a great balance of being personal about business issues - keep it up. I look forward to reading more of it, and of Kate's blog too.

Sometimes I wish there was a manual. But if it was easy, everybody would be an entrepreneur, right? My thanks to all.

Flag as inappropriate Posted by Anne Florenzano on 1st November 2007
I embrace transparency more than your average bear - but I wouldn't post business names or URLs that I was considering for my own projects. Those cards aren't ready to be laid down on the table.

I personally prefer to read bloggers who appear to be writing from their whole person as opposed to their business role - but I realize that not all businesses lend themselves well to personableness in writing.

Flag as inappropriate Posted by Kelly McCausey on 5th November 2007
My business partner and I blog together about the ups and downs as we are starting our own freelance company. We are fairly transparent, although their are some things that we do not necessarily share. We rarely give dollar amounts, and we have yet to share any actual client names. Lucky for us, if we're in doubt, we can always bounce the idea off the other person. We do occasionally worry that a client might come across our blog and decide that we're not "professional" enough or that we are too insecure (oh my gosh, am I saying that I'm insecure about my insecurities?), but we really see the blog as being one entire aspect of our business, so it's sort of turned into our "brand" in a way.

What we have learned from blogging is that posts that are more "personal" tend to get more reaction from readers, and posts that are more "busniessy" tend to bring in more traffic from search engines. A nice balance of both has been our guiding principle.

Flag as inappropriate Posted by Lorna Doone Brewer on 7th November 2007