There are tons of opinion pieces and articles/posts out there about corporate blogging, and most of them seem to have a negative spin.  They focus on the risks that a company takes by having a blog and all of the potentially negative outcomes associated with them.  We’re of the opinion that a bad corporate blog is just that, bad – bad for your reputation, bad for your business, and ultimately a risky venture.  However, when corporate blogs get things right it can be a public relations gold mine.

Here are 5 of the top reasons that corporate blogs succeed:

1. They Take It Seriously. Blogs are extremely easy to set up and pretty difficult to maintain in a meaningful way.  Corporate blogs who succeed take it seriously, often dedicating an entire team of staff members to their maintenance.  They put a specific plan in place so that content is created on a regular basis and realize it is a long-term investment.
2. They Take the Time to Brand their Blog. Successful corporate blogs take the time in the beginning to define how the blog will fit in with the firm’s existing corporate culture and set up specific objectives/goals.  They realize that a blog is just another type of communications tool, and they make sure it fits together with the rest of their PR efforts.
3. They Don’t Use the Blog for Blatant Self-Promotion. Yes, we all know that the reason a company has a blog is probably to promote itself.  However, no one will bother to read it or get involved in a discussion if the blog is just a glorified advertisement.
4. They Research the Blogging Community Before Launching a Blog. The human voice is a big part of why blogs are different than websites.  Bloggers will want a certain level of interactivity (comments/feedback) and will be turned off by overly corporate-y, structured, or impersonal language.  Corporate blogs who realize this fare better, and it is a reason that a blog may not be the best option for all companies.
5. They are Original in Both Structure and Content. Successful corporate blogs realize what makes a blog a blog and structure theirs accordingly – using visual elements, links, comments, and layouts that make the content easy to digest.  Blogs that just type up their latest press release for the next post, or only serve as a news feed suffer.  Also, blogs that are doing well are contributing to the community’s discussion in an original way, either by offering a new idea/point of view or putting a new spin on an old topic.

Tags: blog, corporate, promotion

This entry was posted on Monday, January 12th, 2009 at 4:18 pm and is filed under Media Relations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.