David Meerman Scott points out the reason why most CEO blogs fail:

CEOs and executives expect that the world will stop everything and pay attention and The Wall Street Journal will write about them as soon as they put out their first blog post. The posts they do write shout: "look at me!" - CEOs don't comment on other people's blogs or link outside their own little world. Yeah, a few ass kissers might comment but unless the CEO is saying something interesting, the blog will fail to gain traction. Then the executive will quit blogging.

This goes beyond blogs though - how does your company do PR in general? If most of it concentrates on the CEO, then you need a new PR agency, because that approach is just as useless.

Here's the thing: customers don't buy your CEO, they buy your products. If your CEO can add to the discussion about your products (try reading Jonathan Schwartz for an example of this), then go ahead - promote that. If, on the other hand, you're just touting your CEO as the CEO? Well, you might as well head out behind your building and light up stacks of $100 bills every day - because that's equivalent to the value you're adding.

If you aren't promoting your products and solutions, what message are prospects taking away from your efforts?

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