We act differently when we feel like we own something.

Look at Apple, Google, and other technology companies who encourage their employees to take ownership of projects and ideas.

Scan the latest Fortune Magazine 100 best companies to work for, and you’ll see near the top of the “reasons” people love their companies is a sense of ownership.

They know that it’s not the money, and it’s not the benefits that encourage hard work and dedication. It’s that feeling that, “This is my company … my project … my product.”

And it’s this same sense of ownership that either enables a company blog to thrive, producing the desired results, or wilt and die in the absence of ownership.

Let me explain by example …

A close friend of mine is a nurse who has worked the past 17 years as part of a close-knit team. They’ve always made decisions as a team, discussed their options thoroughly, and came up with solutions that helped their patients and the hospital.

As a result, she and other team members would routinely put in unpaid overtime to make sure their patients were well cared for.

With new management came new policies. In spite of frequent complaints from team members, the management team made decisions that effected everyone, without any discussion.

To make things worse, one person on the team was “promoted” to a quasi-leadership role, given an iPhone, and told that she was now in charge of all the decisions the team had been making.

Do you think my friend has any loyalty to the hospital, or contributes her spare time freely? Not on your life.

How this might work with your blog …

Say you’ve gone to the trouble of creating a blog for your company, and you’ve put your marketing department in charge of maintenance of the blog.

The single biggest concern facing any blog is getting a steady stream of useful content. Typically, one or two people are charged with the task of maintaining the blog … on top of their regular jobs.

The blog isn’t theirs. It’s the company blog. Plus, nobody else in the company has any say in what happens with the blog.

In other words, there’s no real “ownership.” There’s just responsibility, and there is a huge difference between ownership and responsibility.

I own my car, and I’m going to take very good care of it. I am responsible for putting the garbage out, so I do it out of a sense of responsibility.

What if you could induce more of a sense of ownership for the blog? What if, instead of merely assigning people to maintain the blog, you gave them the blog (with some guidelines, of course).

You might want to have legal review blog posts before they go up, for example. But, otherwise, the blog owners could cut loose.

In fact, they could enlist some of the company engineers to “own” a part of the blog, or invite customer service to participate. How about the front line people? Think they might have something to contribute?

Ownership is a Powerful Motivator

Don’t underestimate the power of ownership to motivate people. The more stake they have in the success or failure of the blog, the more they’ll put into making it successful.

And simply paying them for a job assignment or telling them they’re lucky to have a job won’t motivate them nearly as much as telling them that, “it’s your baby … make it or break it.”

If you do decide to take me up on this idea and “give” your blog to some of your employees, then remember this:

It’s a lot like giving the keys to your car to your teenager. The moment she pulls out of the driveway, it’s her car, not yours. You care about her safety and about “your” car, but from the moment she pulls away until the moment she returns, she owns the car in her mind.

And, if you’re a parent, you know by experience that the more ownership of that vehicle you instill upon your teenager, the better she’ll care for “her” car.

So, try handing the keys for your blog completely over to some of your employees. I think you’ll get a lot more mileage out of the blog and your employees.

Sid Smith

P.S. If you’ve got an underperforming blog, give me a call. I’ll give you some ideas on how you can make it work for you instead of you working for it.