Thought I would put out the table of contents of the Corporate Blogging book that I was potentially going to write in two months time (those following here may know that I was approached by a publisher out of the blue earlier this year).
Now those that are following the blogging book games, the two competitive offerings that I needed to address during the proposal phase was Hugh Hewitt’s book (on general blogging) and the forthcoming Shel-Scoble book (on corporate blogging) open for development at the Red Couch. Things had been moving along pretty well, but the original book idea had been killed (friendly-fire) by the release of more details on the book at the Red Couch. The essence of things is that the Shel-Scoble book looks like it will be too strong. The publisher had received feedback from the buying community, and the buying community (purportedly) did not feel that there was enough space in the market for another book with as wide of a coverage of corporate blogging. The publisher wanted me to consider addressing three case studies in-depth instead. I haven’t quite found my passion for that type of book, so there you have it.
A few more comments on the TOC:
- I thought it might be useful to publish this TOC for those considering developing or currently developing a book on Corporate Blogging. This TOC had made it to the final stages with the acquisition editor and publisher before getting killed in informal network reviews with buyers, etc.
- Shel and Scoble’s current table of contents are published here.
- I had hoped to have a forward by a prominent person recognized by CEOs (who is basically opening the door to the audience of executives) with an afterward by 1 or 2 venture capitalists (which would provide some perspective on the future). This would also help me to build a base of support as the Hewitts, Scobles, etc. are much more widely known in the blogging space than I am.
- I wanted to provide an underlying framework that would help to extend the life of the book. There are some who claim that blogging books will be outdated by the time they hit the market. One of my counters to this is that there are some books that have stood the test of time (e.g., more than 25 years and still used in business schools) as foundational works (I am not saying my work would be foundational, but I am saying that putting in a base that is solidly grounded in a foundational work helps a lot). As far as business books go, one foundational work is Michael Porter’s book on corporate strategy and competitive advantage. Although in the end a major portion of the book I envisioned was influenced by Michael Porter’s book on Competitive Strategy, I also kept coming back to works like Treacy and Wiersema’s book on the Discipline of Market Leaders. I had also consider leveraging frameworks from the Fifth Discipline. Getting back to Michael Porter’s book, there are cases in there back from the days when Ivory soap used to be marketed as the "soap that floats". While the case itself may be outdated, the lessons within these frameworks still hold to be true because his framework was grounded in economics and accepted business theory.
That said, here is the table of contents. I am no longer pursuing the corporate blogging book endeavor, but thought that it might be interesting for some.
FOREWORD
Chapter 1 A Call To Action
1.1 Rise of the Blog
1.2 Competitive Advantage and Speed
1.3 Corporate Blogging Chasm
1.4 Three Core Corporate Blogging Strategies: Based on
Michael Porter’s Foundational Work in Competitive Strategy
1.5 Types of Teams for Executing Blogging Strategies
1.6 Execution
Chapter 2 The Elements of Corporate
Blogging
2.1 Encouraging Voices, Angle, & Personality
2.2 Managing The Conflict Between Individuals and Corporations
2.3 The Good: Leveraging Networks, Gatekeepers, and Grassroot
Connections To Suit The Corporate Agenda
2.4 The Bad: Lacking Transparency and Murdering The Company
or Yourself
2.5 The Ugly: Getting Greedy While Managing Risk
PART I –Case
Studies of CORE Corporate Blogging Strategies
Chapter 3 The Strategy of Differentiation
3.1 The Strategy of Creating Something Unique
3.2 Leaders Live Longer
3.3 Marketing Magic
3.4 R&D Resources Required
3.5 Comprehensive Coordination
3.6 Acquiring A-Players
Chapter 4 The Strategy of Cost Leadership
4.1 The Strategy of Operating Efficiently
4.2 Why Process
Engineering Matters
4.3 When Supervision Works
4.4 How Customer Care and Product
Development Connect
4.5 How More Structure Can Work
4.6 Where Reducing Transaction Costs Works
Chapter 5 The Strategy of Focus
5.1 The Strategy of Serving Particular Market Segments
5.2 Connecting With Customers
5.3 Creative Coordination
5.4 Creative Flair Using Chronology
5.5 Harvesting Competitive Information
5.6 Building a Micro Blogosphere
5.7 Testing Customer Reactions to
New Ideas
PART II – TYPE OF TEAMS FOR EXECUTING BLOGGING STRATEGIES
Chapter 6 Employee Bloggers
6.1 Any Employee Can Blog – Crisis?
6.2 No Policy Models
6.3 Heavy Policy Models
6.4 Technology Control Models
6.5 The Fear of Getting “Dooced”
6.6 Perspectives on Effectiveness
of Models
Chapter 7 CXO Blogging Models
7.1 All Eyes Are On the CXO Blog
7.2 Visionary Types
7.3 Market Leader Types
7.4 Traditional Types
7.5 Extreme Types
7.6 When Crises Calls
7.7 Perspectives on CXO Blogging
Models
Chapter 8 Accidental Evangelist Models
8.1 From Out of Nowhere And Into Swarms of Scrutiny
8.2 Inside the
Commenting Tornado
8.3 Outside the Commenting Tornado
8.4 The Authority and Trackback Labyrinth
8.5 Not So Accidental Hired
Blogging Guns
8.6 The Dark Fiber Network Equivalent
of the Blogging World
8.7 Perspectives on Evangelist
Blogging Models
Chapter 9 Functional Department Models
9.1 It’s About the Starting Point Stupid
9.2 Going With
Corporate IT or Going Alone
9.3 Getting to Know One Another Better
9.4 Getting to Interdependence
9.5 Frankestein Experiments and
Markets of Ideas
9.6 Perspectives on Departmental
Blogging Models
Chapter 10 Entrepreneurial Models
10.1 Leveraging and Taking Risks
10.2 Extreme
Personalities
10.3 “Fisking” Foes and Friends
10.4 Building Buzz
10.5 Venture Capital Bloggers
10.5 Riding the Search Engine Wave
10.6 Reaching Round The World
10.7 Perspectives on
Entrepreneurial Blogging Models – You Needed to Ask?
PART III – Execution
Chapter 11 Aligning Everything
While Not Getting Wrapped Around the Axle
11.1 Strategy
11.2 Skills and
Resources
11.3 Organizational Requirements
11.4 Technology
11.5 Project Structure
Chapter 12 Getting Familiar
with Tools of the Trade
12.1 Blogging Platforms and Content Managers
12.2 Group Blogging
Platforms and Content Managers
12.3 Browsers
12.4 Directories
and Search Engines
12.5 Portals
12.6 Syndication
12.7 Measurements
12.8 Wikis
Chapter 13 Conclusions
AFTERWORD
Appendix A: Summary Guidebook Corporate Blog For
Competitive Advantage
Steve Shu
Managing Director, S4 Management Group
