Spreading The Word - Corporate Blogging

It is becoming more apparent that in order to manage the brand, companies need to be actively involved in social networking.  People are out on the net and they are talking about you.  The trick is to get your advocates (customers) talking about you.

   

One way to help facilitate this type of discussion is to start a corporate blog.  “More and more companies”, writes Mitch Joel, “are looking at the power of corporate blogs”.  In Joel’s latest post, he does a great job outlining the seven basic types of corporate blogs: 

   

·        Industry

·        Idea Storm

·        Individual

·        CEO

·        Departmental

·        Parody

·        Customer Service

   

But, as with anything you do, even this type of customer contact needs to serve a purpose.  If your readers (customers) don’t find your blog interesting, what good have you done?

    

Did you see Jake McGee’s post about the Graco blog?  In this post he outlined several key components of a successful corporate blog.  First and foremost it must have good content.  “The Graco blogging team clearly understands that they’re here to connect with parents,” writes McGee, “and what better way than to talk about parenting?”  Along with the content, the Graco blog  makes it easy for customers to interact and become involved in the conversation.  They keep the content fresh by enlisting a number of bloggers rather than relying upon a single individual.

    

Spreading the work load among several people certainly has its advantages.  However you need to enlist volunteers rather than draftees.  Otherwise you run the risk of being exposed as shown in this news excerpt from Barely Political.

    

    

    

         

Until next time,

    

Dan