stay off message

Over the weekend, I noticed that my blog got mentioned in the content to be different blog earlier this month. He's talking about 'putting the voice and passion back into webtalk'. He chose my blog as an example (!), and said the following:

staying off message: here’s what happens when another big corporate doesn't just 'let' its staff blog but actually encourages, enables and supports them: they say things off message but things you can use to build teams, relationships, new products.

Lessons for artists: think the power of the crowd. Create networks and ride the network effect.

I hadn't looked at my blog in that way, although I think it's a great way to look at it. I see blogging as about having a genuine conversation. I'm not here to sell you on an idea. I'm here to share with you what I think about certain things, to tell you about things that I care about, things that I think are interesting or important. I also like the comments from you guys where you tell me what you think about something I've posted, or when I meet one of you in person and learn what you think about these things.

There's no message to my blog. No-one in MacBU has ever asked me to post something, or to change anything that I've posted. There are things that I'm not going to blog about -- while I love you guys, I'm not breaking NDA for you. I do have lots of support from my management chain for blogging. It's even one of my annual commitments: post at least once per week to this blog, and once per month to Mac Mojo.

I'm not sure what 'staying on message' would look like. But it wouldn't be this blog. I wouldn't bother blogging if there were a message that I had to adhere to. I don't have a big overarching goal. I let things happen organically here. If it helps build a community around what we build, if it helps give a face to a big nameless faceless corporate entity, if I'll get an idea about how to solve a user's problem as a result of the conversation that's going on here, that's all a bonus.