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Comment by davycro | Hacker News Reader

Reasons that I did not blog when I ran a company:

1) I'm a poor writer 2) Any insights that I shared would benefit my competitors and would be insignificant for customers

37signals is an outlier because their readers are potential customers

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I think points #2 and #3 are the most important thing. Even if are a great writer, if your potential customers aren't going to be reading your blog, the only person you are helping is your competitors. It just doesn't make sense to blog, you are putting your own ego ahead of the success of your company. If writing helps you do your job better, write to a journal.

And if you think little bits of information can't help competitors, I strongly disagree. A little perspective (like where a company is focusing or where growth is coming from or whatever) can go a long way, and when you blog you are just leaking those things to everybody else.

One of the most important roles of a CEO is to tell a good story, so writing is an excellent way to practice that and you don't need to write about things that will benefit your competitors.

> 37signals is an outlier because their readers are potential customers

Your readers are always potential customers.

Yes, as in anyone you meet in the street is a potential costumer. So this is a very weak counter-argument. But there are companies that have more economic value in maintaining a blog than others, YC, 37 signals, and other companies that market directly to people who work in the same business, will benefit more from famous blog posts from their CEOs than B2C companies or B2B companies that develop products for companies in different fields.

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