King Marketing

First of all, I wondered what the issue was. The solution to bad blogging is stated in his argument: it's a meritocracy, and if the blog is not of interest, people won't read it. Eventually, the CEO will either adapt or stop blogging. I would hope for the former, rather than recommending the latter.

All of the nice stuff about direct, honest contact applies to the CEO just as much as it does to anyone else. Cue the tiny violins if you like, but CEOs are people too. And they are just as likely as anyone else to be stuck behind the PR firewall, frustrated by their inability to communicate directly with customers and other stakeholders.

People don't get CEO titles out of crackerjack boxes. They get the job because they're driven, and because they've been successful. And most, if not all of them, took some risks along the way. Risks like putting yourself in front of customers, competitors, employees, investors and other stakeholders in a public forum with little or no control over the direction that conversation will take.

Driven, successful risk-takers: seems to me that they'd have something to say. In general, I've found senior managers to be very personable and interesting to speak with. Given some time their blogs could reflect that. And while it would be ideal for their blogs to be candid, urgent, timely, pithy and controversial right from day one, I would settle for Godin's afterthought - utility - as a good starting point. The rest can be learned - having useful information, not so much.

Any CEO making the effort should be encouraged, not told to stay away.