I was watching the evening news the other night as one of the local channels began the countdown to the shutdown of our state government over budget issues. Interestingly, they finished the broadcast with blog responses from a number of voters/residents. Not only did they read the blogs on the air, they also showed the text in large letters on the screen.

And you’re wondering if your company should blog?

This  example involved state government but in this day and age could just as easily have been your company. We will take a look at the impact of commercial blogs and why they are important to your company and your relationship with your customers.

First Some History

BLOG comes from the evolution of the term “weblog” that became “we blog” and eventually the noun/verb BLOG.

BLOGs are seen as very open or frank comments, taking on a validity that may or may not be truly deserved. However, the fact remains that they are now a part of mainstream communication and can have either a positive or negative impact on your company’s reputation depending on how you manage them.

Commercial BLOGs

A corporate BLOG should be published as part of a company’s marketing strategy and will typically fall into one of three types.

• Internal blogs, for addressing employees, close vendors or customers.
• External blogs, for general communication to the open market or express a political or public statement.
• The CEO blog, (which could be for any top executive in an organization) that provides a more personal face to the ramblings of a company’s officers.

It’s estimated that 5% of the Fortune 500 have external blogs and as many as 70% of large companies have either established or plan to start a blog. The importance in coordinating with a marketing plan is that the ultimate goal is to create interest in new products or manage the corporation’s reputation. Unmanaged blogs can have the opposite effect as evidenced by executives that have expressed personal opinions outside the corporate party line and then faced serious repercussions in the market.

So here we go with the countdown.

1. Blogs can create buzz or interest in new products or services. Because of their candid nature, a blog creates an interesting way to break through the clutter and get potential customers to pay attention to your offer.
2. Blogs can help position you or your company as an industry expert. This is a great way for your company to discuss a topic in depth (for example – blogs!) and at least create the perception that you know what you are talking about. Hopefully this leads to credibility on future topics too.
3. Search engines love blogs. A good ranking on a search engine is worth its weight in gold. Blogs are included in search engine rankings as the engines review your content. As part of your overall plan to grow organic search rankings, a good blog should be a cornerstone of your SEO efforts. As an example, we recently posted a blog about a new collaboration product (COLLANOS). The CEO of COLLANOS picked it up and wrote a return blog. Before you knew it we had been found at multiple levels by numerous search engines. Trackbacks are part of this scenario but I’ll leave this topic for a future blog.
4. Blogs enhance reputation management. A competitor is preparing to unleash a new product or an officer of your company has done something very bad! (I hate it when that happens). What do you do? Having a well read blog in place can be your quickest way to address negative publicity or preempt some other type of event. The operative term is “well read”. You can’t wait until the last minute to start a corporate blog and expect everyone to be reading it.
5. Blogs help you COMMUNICATE with many customers and prospects simultaneously! In my mind (and that’s a very scary place) this is one of the greatest reasons for a blog. Blogs are viewed as more personable and combined with the ability to receive comments you get immediate feedback from your customers or prospects. Keep in mind however, that it may not necessarily be positive feedback but at least you’ll have feedback. You will need a thick skin to deal with some of the eventualities but managed properly this can be a great way to gauge interest in new services or changes to existing products.

Well there you have it, a blog blog. Matt will discuss some of your options for running your own corporate blog. Love them or hate them, they’re here to stay.

Resources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog Wikepdia - blog definitions and history.
http://www.flyte.biz/resources/newsletters/05/05-blogs-vs-email.php Miscellaneous blog article.
http://www.dmnews.com/cms/dm-news/catalog-retail/39432.html Kevin Hillstrom’s reasons to blog.

Filed under: Business Articles on October 8th, 2007 |