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Company Blogs, Like Other Corporate Assets, Must Be Properly Managed

One subject which generates some frustration, as reported in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I?, concerns blog ownership - and specifically, "How do I take over ownership of a blog which I need to control?".

In some cases, this is because the blog was owned by someone who just died, or maybe somebody optimistically chose the wrong "friend" to co-administer a blog. As Blogger blogs become a more common website platform for small businesses, we are seeing a third scenario
How do I get control of the blog about my business? The employee who setup the blog has left the company.

Like similar issues about blog ownership, this is not as simple as it may appear.

A blog, like other corporate assets, should be properly controlled by the corporation or small business.

If you, the owner of your business, entrust a computer, or a car, to the personal control of an employee, you are still responsible for the actions of that employee when he or she is acting as an employee.

A blog, though not a physical item, is still a corporate asset - and you, or some other responsible employee, must be diligent, and properly maintain control of that asset. Blogger Support cannot act on any blog ownership issues, without proper validation. Proper validation requires details that are known only within Google.

If you need to take control of a blog, when the employee who owns the blog leaves your control, you need to assess the situation.

  • Does the blog clearly identify the business? Blogs that are obviously about your business, and obviously published by your business, will be more easily transferred to your control, than blogs which merely mention your business.
  • Can you clearly identify yourself as an officer or owner of your business? If you can easily identify yourself as someone who controls your business, you can be more easily given control of the blog.
  • Are you a blog member? Blogger can more easily transfer control to you, if they don't have to actually add your Blogger account as a blog member.

These are all questions, that you would do well to ask yourself now, rather than after your employee leaves your control.

If the employee used a corporate email account as backup to the Blogger account, you (or another company employee) should be able to gain access to the employee's email account - and then to the Blogger account. Using the Blogger Forgot? wizard, you can recover blog access by retrieving recovery email sent to the email account in question.

If the former employee deleted his Blogger / Google account, you may be able to recover control of the blog with no administrators - if it's a team blog with authors.

Without the ability to recover access to the email account, and the Blogger account, you're at the mercy of Blogger Support and Google Legal. If the need is severe, a court order may be the final choice.

Proper business management requires planning. Planning control of all assets - including blog or website ownership - is part of proper planning.

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