Social Media Rubrics and Blogging Behind the Firewall: Options?

I've been thinking a lot about Wendy Harmon's advice about ROI and Social Media:

• A project that won’t take much time and relates to org goals.
• Write down your successes.
• Write down your challenges.
• Ask the people you want to connect with whether they think your outreach and listening is valuable.
• Watch other nonprofits and copy and remix for your next project.
• Rinse, repeat.

I'm working a "rubric" of different types of social media projects, from the easiest lowest risk to the more complicated and resource intensive.  Here's a low risk approach to using del.icio.us from Matt Goddard

If you are new to social media, in terms of the tools and technology or how to integrate them into your product release strategy, consider the following activities.

Sign up for a del.icio.us account. It’s a free social bookmarking service. As you release your product, find some interesting articles or blog posts on the Web and bookmark them. Because your prospects and customers typically search the Web for reviews and recommendations, you can help them save time by rounding up some of the more interesting ones. Even when the articles that you find aren't necessarily positive, you should bookmark those, too. Your customers will find them anyway (you did), and you'll earn their trust by presenting a different viewpoint.

Furthermore, your R&D department will appreciate the fact you did some of their work for them. By using some of the tools that come with a del.icio.us account, you can even integrate those links directly into your Website.

If you want to try some more intermediate or even advanced techniques for using social media, you can move from collecting third-party content to producing your own. There are two principal ways that you can do this. First, as part of your product release strategy, you can develop some video content. Because we know that customers and prospects are searching the Web for reviews and testimonials, you have a lot of in-house knowledge that you can tap and distribute on the Web. For example, as part of your product release strategy, you can interview some of the engineers and quality assurance personnel who ensure product quality or safety. Start with an inexpensive video camera and conduct some informal interviews. Ask them about your product and how their role at the company directly shaped the product that we see in the marketplace.

What thing I'm wondering about is "blogging behind the firewall" -- staff use a blog as an knowledge capture/sharing project.  What are the blog software options that offer password protection?  Your thoughts? 

Comments

[Wendy]

I've tried several iterations of this using both Wordpress and Blogger. None of them have taken off. I'm missing a key piece of the sales pitch - not communicating the value that participating in something like this would provide for my colleagues.

I think you're on to something, though, and I'd love to figure out how to make it catch on.