Starting a Group Blog: Pre-Launch - Expectations

Starting a Group Blog series:

• Introduction
• Preparation - Strategy
• Pre-Launch - Expectations
• Launch - Execution
• Post-Launch - Growth / Conclusion

Once you've chosen your strategy and found your bloggers, you'll need to set expectations with them. Each blogger's actions will affect the reputation of the sponsoring organization, of the other bloggers, and of the blog itself, so all parties will need to be comfortable with these standards.

First come analogs of journalistic standards. Controversial statements are fine (and will probably increase traffic), but libel (false and damaging statements) is illegal in the US. Be sure bloggers understand the difference. While no law requires the retraction and correction of an error, it's good practice for bloggers to strike through that text and add a correction, either at that point or at the bottom of the post. Let your bloggers know that you require them to do this. For a particularly important error, they may want to also write a new post explaining and correcting it. Writing a new post without altering the original one shouldn't be permitted, since visitors may come only to the original post from a search engine and not see the correction.

Next, set up your posting/commenting standards. One common method is to assign a person to each day you plan to post (for instance, one blogger is responsible for posting every other Tuesday). Bloggers should be expected to monitor and comment in the comment threads of their own posts, and you'll jumpstart commenting and increase the community feel of your blog by also expecting them to comment on your other bloggers' posts on a regular schedule. If your posting schedule has each blogger posting every two weeks, it's reasonable to expect them to also make a comment on another post every two weeks.

Determine how you'll allow content reuse. Can your bloggers cross-post their writing on their own sites/blogs or elsewhere? Must they wait before republishing? This is related to the copyright decision in the preparation stage above.

Set expectations as well for leaving the blog. You should require bloggers to give you some notice when they quit - for someone who writes every two weeks, maybe they need to give you a month's warning. On the other hand, if a blogger isn't meeting the expectations set above, have a process for ending their participation. They might be removed if they miss a certain number of posts, a certain number in a row, if they miss without warning you a certain number of days in advance, etc. You should also determine what will happen if you decide to stop sponsoring the blog: will you take down the site, will you leave it up but static, or will you sell it to the bloggers or another organization? That plan might change over time, but you need an initial idea.

You'll want a written agreement laying out the above expectations, and your lawyer may want it to include a clause in which bloggers indemnify you for any libel they might commit. It's unclear whether this will actually protect you (depends on how much you dictate the content, whether the blogger has the resources to pay any judgement, etc.), but do have your lawyer work with you on the agreement.

Finally, set expectations for readers: draft a privacy policy, a comment policy, and needed disclaimers. The sponsoring organization will create the privacy policy, which should mention how commenters' information will be used - for instance, if they will be subscribed to the newsletter of the sponsoring organization. The sponsoring organization will create and have final say over the comment policy, though the bloggers must be comfortable with it. In particular, bloggers will need to agree on how rude, insulting, or irrelevant comments should be dealt with (look up disemvoweling for one option). You may be able to have one overarching disclaimer, or you may need to have each blogger create a personal disclaimer to be inserted at the bottom of her posts, depending on her own legal counsel's advice.