7 Pieces of Advice for Corporate Bloggers
In this article, I want to consider Corporate Blogs, i.e. blogs run by an enterprise. As you can already see from the document survey of the blogosphere (Vermessung der Blogosphäre), Corporate Blogs have a huge problem when it comes to triggering the desired response. Many readers consider blogs a portal for background information, modifying one’s opinion through discussions and contacting people. Mostly, enterprise diaries fail to give that impression – which is exactly where you should spend your energy.
Here, too, you have to ask yourself the basic question: what is my target group? After the target group has been identified, you can decide if a blog is the right way to approach the readers. Structure, design and extent can often vary considerably. They should be analysed before you launch.
As soon as the target group is identified, you should define the goal of the blog.
What does the enterprise want to gain by the blog?
- Acquire new customers?
- Make the logo or brand more prominent?
- Use it as a medium for communicating with customers?
- Use it as a portal for criticism and advice for improvement?
- Report about the social dedication of your enterprise?
Also, an enterprise must be prepared to spend money for its online image.
- Design,
- articles of high quality,
- maintenance,
- advertising and
- statistic analysis
cost time and therefore money.
Employees should also be informed about the blog and the corporate design that goes with it. Corporate blogs have a problem being publicly accepted, which is why it is important to include all hierarchical levels. Because, as can be seen if you study the document survey of the blogosphere (Vermessung der Blogosphäre), employees, experts and apprentices are considered more trustworthy than managing directors.
Consequently, you should try and get your employees to contribute to the blog by all means.
Well, enterprise blogs are often filled with content by a variety of authors.
Basically, a blog should also motivate discussions. Employees should be encouraged to participate. An active exchange of opinions between readers and the enterprise is a measurement of its being-up-to-date and customer closeness.
Consequently, the reader should always get the opportunity to voice his opinion. To be sure, this also requires a lot of sensitivity by the presenter. You should always have an open mind for criticism. That will promote both the credibility and the image of the enterprise.
In order to guarantee a constant flow of articles it might be a good idea to pre-arrange a sort of calendar. In it, you could list the topics for authors to choose from as they write something. A “brownie-points” or bonus system, too, might encourage employees to write articles on a regular basis.
A monthly review showing the success of the blog based on statistics might help to modify the blog strategy. In order to meet specific reader interests, you might consider expanding particularly interesting content. The strategy for acquiring new readers, too, might call for an occasional correction or two.
Robert
(Translated by EG)
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