AZ have shown up, and that’s great. Small steps, etc. It’s all good.

Everyone needs to find their voice, and the most recent post on the AZ blog is encouraging.

That said: I’d have preferred a little more ground work. There’s not much of a sense of a schema having been drawn up that’s being adhered to and fine-tuned. This is on-the-fly stuff which seems to suggest merely ‘we’re here!’ rather that ‘we’re here! And here’s our plan!’

That bothers me rather less than the comments policy, however. How many other blogs do you read that have formal comments policies front and centre? Borne from etiquette and decency inform our choices as commentators not to be boorish, abusive or defamatory, and that should suffice. It’s a tacit expectation. If you behave like an idiot, your community will not be backward in telling you about it.

Also, being read the riot act in advance isn’t likely to settle me comfortably into an open, conversational mode. No-one likes to be hectored with a long list of ‘Thou Shalt Nots’ when you haven’t even done anything yet.

The biggest fumble, however, is the ‘thanks for your idea! I’ll take it’ clause in the first paragraph. That’s a big no. In this space, our default mode is to give first, and only take what we’re offered, when we’re offered it. A comment is not a gift.

Best of luck to Earl Whipple; he’s put his head above the parapet and for that I salute him.

Ref: http://blog.medimmune.com/

It took a while for me to get to a point where I think my posts are meaningful and this corresponds with an increase in engagement from my readers. It certainly didn’t happen right away. On top of this, I’d written a blog before, so I was generally comfortable with the way one “works.” If the authors of the AZ blog have never blogged before, just that alone will make it take a bit longer before the blog is at its best.

I also do agree with the idea of starting small with social media. I think this is important for a slightly different reason than Shwen though. For me, starting something small allows you to test your internal process. Where are the roadblocks? Whose approval do you need? Which pieces will regulatory not budge on? You have to know these things before you consider a larger program. In addition, knowing how your process works allows you to immediately respond to an “emergency” situation if necessary. You can’t take 2 weeks to get something out these days.

Great post. Thanks for the additional perspective, Shwen