The Blog Council - A Corporate Blogging Trade Association Forms

Thanks to my new Dell friend Richard Binnhammer (more on him later) , I've heard about the announcement of a corporate blogging all-star team (by way of The Viral Garden).

I see that my old friend Andy Sernovitz is leading the effort. If Andy is even 1/2 as successful as his stewardship of the WOMMA group, expect to see council membership and social media headlines flourishing.

The council's mission is to "help corporate blogging efforts become more successful."

It's a delicate balance as The Blog Council's CEO Andy Sernovitz freely admits in serving up the need for a separate trade association:

"Major corporations use blogs differently while abiding by the same rules and etiquette," said Blog Council CEO Andy Sernovitz. "Individual and small-business bloggers don't face the same issues. For example, we still need to deliver a responsible and effective corporate message, but we need to do it in the complicated environment of the blogosphere. We have to speak for a corporation, but never sound 'corporate.' And we have to learn to do it live and in real-time."

The four legs of the The Blog Council's stool are:

1. Best Practices: Promoting corporate blogging excellence through best practices, standards, and training.
2. Community: Providing networking and partnering opportunities for leaders of the corporate blogging movement.
3. ROI: Developing metrics programs that help deliver measurable ROI from blog activities.
4. Advocacy: Blog Council has a united voice to provide the corporate perspective in the blogosphere.

The founding companies are:
AccuQuote, Cisco Systems, The Coca-Cola Company, Dell, Gemstar-TV Guide, General Motors, Kaiser Permanente, Microsoft, Nokia, SAP, Starwood Hotels and Resorts, and Wells Fargo. (I'm surprised Sun Microsystems isn't on the roster given their CEO's avowed love of CEO blogging)

Corporations tend to hate missing out on stuff, expect more to join - particularly now that agencies, small companies and enthusiasts have been cordoned off from participating, this will allow companies to  deal with their issues without the feeling of being pitched on something. Social media moves ahead...