MN Interactive

Is Corporate Blogging Right For Your Business?

In the early nineties, blogs exploded on the scene is a way no one would have imagined possible. Their full potential was realized only in the late nineties, when companies began to understand their intricacies and demands, and appreciate the value they truly held. Today, as newer companies are being created, the wonderful world of blogging continues to grow rapidly. But out of the thousands of blogs launched each day, only a handful of them will succeed.

Before you pour your corporate heart out into your blog, it is important to step back and think about if blogging is really right for your business. That’s correct; not all companies elect to have blogs, and the success of those who do, depends on a number of factors, some of which can be challenging. If you think a corporate blog is a good idea for your company, there are a few considerations to ponder.

For instance, what is the Goal of your blogging attempt? Most people, business owners or otherwise, get carried away with the idea of starting a blog. It’s easy to set up and run a blog, but harder to maintain it. And without a well defined goal, a blog lacks direction. This means the audience you attract will be varied and without focus. An easy way to determine your goal is to do the following:

• Visit competitor blogs, lots of them
• Read about blog publishing
• View comments
• Participate in blog forums

Once you have a goal is mind, the next step to consider is the Voice of your blog. Who will be writing it? The company’s CEO? Marketing Manager? Publicist? A freelance writer? Will you have guest posts? Set up forum groups? Who will manage them? This is a big step to blogging. Almost all blogs fail in their first year of being set up, because of a lack of time and commitment in maintaining them.

If you’ve heard the saying, Content is king, then it holds all the more true in the instance of blogging. Recycled posts, copied posts, and boring posts, have a limited lifespan. Blogs which are popular produce fresh output on a regular basis. Various companies set up their content delivery in different ways: weekly posts, an editorial calendar based on the corporate calendar, daily headlines etc. Whatever you elect to use, it should be consistent so readers know what to expect. How you acquire this content too is important. Most blogs will get theirs the following ways:

• A designated in house person writes it
• Via PLR and recycled content
• Paid freelance writers
• Guest bloggers
• Free ezine articles

Some bloggers will talk of their life, hopes and dreams, and this works well if the blogger has some kind of celebrity status which others may wish to emulate. Other bloggers will try and sell their products and services directly on their blog. This too works well, but only with a limited audience. The best way to market a blog is via a soft sell approach, and by providing information which matters.

Blogs also face their own set of Challenges, namely trying to attract both a large audience, and a correct audience, to make it worthwhile. There are also certain technical aspects to running a blog which need to be fully understood, before a blog can be promoted. In addition, comments need to be managed, rules and policies implemented, and guidelines drawn out. In certain instances, there are legal implications which need to be addressed, and most corporate blogs will get their legal department involved to a limited extent.

While it’s true that corporate blogging can be a highly valuable communications tool for a company, it’s equally true that its creation and success depends on a strong time-money commitment, and the decision to start a blog therefore needs to prove its value. Unless you can justify this time/money outlay for your business, blogging may not be the right marketing tool for your company.