Over on Twitter, I’ve been discoursing with someone regarding legal firms that are outsourcing their corporate blogging.
OK, to me this is sort of oxymoronic in certain ways. First, almost *any* company has internal employees, be it in sales/marketing, or even someone in HR that has aspirations to become a writer. Why pay an external company extra money without taking advantage of your already existent talent?
Second, outsourcing a blog says that you don’t trust your own internal teams to disseminate information properly. Especially at a legal firm, this says a lot to me as an outsider about their business practices. It smacks of dishonesty to me; the external vendor is representing *your* firm yet the reader doesn’t know it.
Finally, and to me the most important, if you outsource your corporate blogging, you are structuring a message that doesn’t connect with your corporate culture. And, to be honest, one of the reasons companies encourage/allow blogging is because they are trying to connect with clients, potential clients, show that the firm is "in touch" with current trends and tools. Hiring someone else to do it invalidates all of these, in my book.