I've said many times - everyone blogs; but they aren't all using a blog solution to do it. That email you sent last week to outsiders hyping your latest company news is fundamentally a blog post with limited (but not always private) distribution. ;-) Since the Internet (and other communications conduits) provide so many ways to create additional risks for a company, it might make sense to address blog risk at a higher, more strategic level. David Meerman Scott's new book, The New Rules of Marketing and PR suggests exactly this idea. Mike Moran [Biznology] called this book to my attention in a recent post, but also snagged a little [semantic] disagreement from me when he said: I like to tell people that there is no risk at all with blogging—none. Rather, it's an absolute certainty that someone will eventually do something stupid. -- Mike Moran
This is a simplified assessment of a potentially complex issue. For starters, it's not an absolute certainty that someone blogging within your company will do something stupid, but it's prefectly reasonable to assume that the probability of a blogging mistake occuring is relatively high, ergo, the risks of problems associated with business blogging are greater than when not blogging. But setting that distinction aside, the probability of mistakes by your own emplyee bloggers is only one of the causal factors that may create greater risk for your company. As we all know (by now) it's possible for a company to be sued without legal merit. Therefore, it's possible to be sued without making any mistakes. This idea also applies to blogging; and unfortunately, the nature of blogging provides exceptional awareness about the things you say and the speed and reach your comments have across your industry segment. Because of this, the probability for being mistaken as a company that should be sued, rises ever so slightly, even if the blog content is accurate, fair, well researched, and non-confrontational. There are many risk factors associated with all forms of communications; each one affects the probability that you will encounter problems. So, Mike is in error [perhaps only at a semantic level] - the assumption that eventually there will be blog-related mistakes doesn't imply that there's no risk. This assumption simply shapes the risk probability in one dimension - i.e., the level of risk created by the employee blogger. | 
