Internal Blog Guidelines
Yahoo! Personal Blog Guidelines: 1.0
Yahoo! believes in fostering a thriving online community and supports blogging as a
valuable component of shared media. The Yahoo! Personal Blog Guidelines have been
developed for Yahoos who maintain personal blogs that contain postings about Yahoo!’s
business, products, or fellow Yahoos and the work they do. They are also applicable to
Yahoos who post about the company on the blogs of others. The guidelines outline the
legal implications of blogging about the company and also include recommended best
practices to consider when posting about Yahoo!.
LEGAL PARAMETERS: The following two bullets cover your legal responsibilities
and non-disclosure obligations. Failure to abide by these two guidelines can result in
serious ramifications for individual bloggers and/or individuals who post on the blogs of
others.
Legal Liability
1. When you choose to go public with your opinions via a blog, you are legally
responsible for your commentary. Individual bloggers can be held personally
liable for any commentary deemed to be defamatory, obscene (not swear words,
but rather the legal definition of “obscene”), proprietary, or libelous (whether
pertaining to Yahoo, individuals, or any other company for that matter). For these
reasons, bloggers should exercise caution with regards to exaggeration, colorful
language, guesswork, obscenity, copyrighted materials, legal conclusions, and
derogatory remarks or characterizations. In essence, you blog (or post on the
blogs of others) at your own risk. Outside parties actually can pursue legal action
against you (not Yahoo!) for postings.
Company Privileged Information
2. Any confidential, proprietary, or trade secret information is obviously off-limits
for your blog per the Proprietary Information Agreement you have signed with
Yahoo!. To obtain a copy of your agreement, please contact your HR manager.
The Yahoo! logo and trademarks are also off-limits per our brand guidelines.
Anything related to Yahoo! policy, inventions, strategy, financials, products, etc.
that has not been made public cannot appear in your blog under any
circumstances. see Yahoo! Guides 2. Disclosing confidential or proprietary
information can negatively impact our business and may result in regulatory
violations for the company.
Press Inquiries
3. Blog postings may generate media coverage. If a member of the media contacts
you about a Yahoo!-related blog posting or requests Yahoo! information of any
kind, contact PR (pr-corp@yahoo-inc.com or 415-318-4120) You should also
reach out for PR for clarification on whether specific information has been
publicly disclosed before you blog about it.
BEST PRACTICE GUIDELINES: These four recommendations provide a roadmap
for constructive, respectful, and productive dialogue between bloggers and their fellow
Yahoos. These are not “rules” and thus they can’t be broken. There is no hidden
meaning or agenda. We consider these to be “best practices guidelines” that are in the
spirit of our culture and the best interest of all Yahoos, whether they blog or not. We
encourage Yahoos to follow these guidelines, but it is not mandatory to do so. It’s your
choice. We really mean that.
Be Respectful of Your Colleagues
1. Be thoughtful and accurate in your posts, and be respectful of how other Yahoos
may be affected. All Yahoo! employees can be viewed (correctly or incorrectly)
as representative of the company, which can add significance to your public
reflections on the organization (whether you intend to or not). Yahoos who
identify themselves as Yahoo! employees in their blogs and comment on the
company at any time, should notify their manager of the existence of their blog
just to avoid any surprises. To be clear, you are not being asked to alert your
manager of your posts, just to consider letting them know you have a blog where
you may write about Yahoo!. Whether your manager chooses to occasionally
read your blog or not, the courtesy head’s up is always appreciated.
Get Your Facts Straight
2. As a Yahoo! employee with intranet access, you have the opportunity to contact
the Yahoos who are responsible for the products, services, or other initiatives that
you may want to write about. To ensure you are not misrepresenting your fellow
Yahoos or their work, consider reaching out to a member of the relevant team
before posting. This courtesy will help you provide your readers with accurate
insights, especially when you are blogging outside your area of expertise. If there
is someone at Yahoo! who knows more about the topic than you, check with them
to make sure you have your facts straight.
Provide Context to Your Argument
3. Please be sure to provide enough support in your posting to help Yahoos
understand your reasoning, be it positive or negative. We appreciate the value of
multiple perspectives, so help us to understand yours by providing context to your
opinion. Whether you are posting in praise or criticism of Yahoo!, you are
encouraged to develop a thoughtful argument that extends well beyond “(insert) is
cool” or “(insert) sucks”.
Engage in Private Feedback:
4. Not everyone who is reading your blog will feel comfortable approaching you if
they are concerned their feedback will become public. In order to maintain an
open dialogue that everyone can comfortably engage in, Yahoo! bloggers are
asked to welcome “off-blog” feedback from their colleagues who would like to
privately respond, make suggestions, or report errors without having their
comments appear your blog. Bloggers want to know what you think. If you have
an opinion, correction or criticism regarding a posting, reach out for the blogger
directly. Whether privately or on their blog, let the blogger know your thoughts.
SOME WORDS FROM THE WISE: As you may know, Yahoo! has some talented
and experienced bloggers who are very active in the social media circles. We’ve asked
them to share their wisdom and they have provided the following insights for those who
are new to blogging:
Jeremy Zawodny
Jeff Boulter
JR Conlin
Russell Beattie
