For decades now, email and phone calls have provided the backbone of internal employee communication. But these mediums are limited in their capacity to help employees connect and collaborate. Setting up a kind of interactive blogging system within your organization could help to fill in the gaps – and enjoy better internal communication overall.

Getting Started With Blogs

Getting started with blogs is the hardest part, for a few different reasons:

1. Technical infrastructure. Starting a blog-based communication infrastructure seems like a massive challenge, but it doesn’t have to be. Resources like The Blog Starter exist to help individuals and companies find easier ways to start blogs from scratch – and use them to better effect.

2. Employee resistance. Some employees may not like the idea of blogging as a primary form of internal communication, or they may be rigidly focused on sticking to phone calls, emails, and traditional forms of communication. Even after you roll out a new blog infrastructure, they may be reluctant to use it.

3. Individual styles and differences. Different people are going to use their blogging platform in different ways. That’s not necessarily a bad thing – in fact, in some ways, it’s a strength – but you’ll need to educate and unify your team if you want to see better results.

The Advantages of Blog-Based Communication

These are just some of the advantages of an internal communication system built on the foundation of blogging:

• Public and transparent communication. When employees write blogs detailing their upcoming projects or their personal progress, their writing is going to be public and transparent. Emails, by contrast, are only seen by recipients – and phone calls keep conversations even more in the dark. Sometimes, privacy is warranted, but for the most part, organizations benefit from keeping things transparent.
• Semi-permanent existence. Additionally, blogs are semi-permanent. While your employees will have the option to edit or delete the works they’ve posted on their personal blogs, if they’re left untouched, they’ll remain up indefinitely. You can argue that email has the same advantage, but the public visibility of blogs makes them superior in this area.
• Greater knowledge sharing. Blogs encourage people to share more about their personal knowledge and personal strengths. Individuals can show off what they’re able to accomplish and teach other employees what they know. It’s a great outlet for cross-training and an opportunity for every member of your team to get to know the others better.
• Comment threads and organized discussion. When an employee publishes a new blog post, other employees will have the opportunity to comment on it and discuss the topic. It’s a great way to keep the discussion clearly organized without detracting from the main point or losing sight of the reason for the discussion.
• Fewer interruptions. Emails and phone calls will likely always have a place as part of your internal communication strategy, but they suffer from a massive drawback; they tend to interrupt people. Even a single distraction can make an employee take 23 minutes to regain their focus – so distractions throughout the day can kill productivity. Blogs, by contrast, can be accessed at your leisure.
• A greater sense of personal contribution. Each employee who contributes to their blog on a regular basis will feel a greater sense of personal contribution to the organization. This, in turn, can lead to a higher sense of accountability and responsibility, and increase employee morale – all of which are good for your business.
• Higher productivity. Overall, employees in a system of internal blogging tend to be more productive. They have a better sense of contribution and wellbeing, they suffer fewer interruptions, and they’re able to focus more on the work that matters most – even if they’re spending a few extra minutes writing their personal blog posts.
• More opportunities for feedback, criticism, and advice. Blogs will empower your employees, making them feel more capable and like they’re a bigger, more significant part of your organization. That, in turn, will open the door to more opportunities for feedback, criticism, and advice from your employees. It can be a powerful outlet for organizational and individual-level change.
• A road to employee bonding. Let’s also remember that shared blogging and commenting can also be an avenue to employee bonding. When conversations happen more spontaneously, and relationships naturally develop through writing, your employees will find more in common with each other and be more willing to collaborate – even if all of you are working remotely.

Internal blogging isn’t the right communication strategy for every business, and it’s not guaranteed to work – especially if your team is full of traditionally-minded employees who want to have a phone conversation about every issue. But with these potential advantages and a path to a more productive future, it’s certainly worth considering.