There have been countless how-tos and rationales for corporate blogging. I’m not going to re-hash those points (at least not totally). I’ll try to take a more real-world approach, with some nitty-gritty suggestions and other items for your consideration — and feedback.
As we know, blogs are an excellent way to personalize a company, among other benefits. A company blog can make the company seem more informal and familiar. Of course, before jumping into and joining the blogosphere as a “celestrial blog-being,” research, read, monitor and even comment on blogs that are in your markets, and those blogs that can influence your customers and prospects.
Once you are familiar with blogging, here are some other considerations:
1) Have an internal blogging policy in place. Better yet, make sure it covers all employees and their responsibilities for making any public and Internet-related posts, comments, correspondence. If you as a corporation are stepping out into the blogosphere, it’s good practice to have a policy in place that governs what your employees can and cannot do. John Wagner has a good post about the need for a blogging policy.
2) Choose the software or blogging service. Six Apart’s Movable Type’s commercial version is one option. It sells various Typepad versions. If you want to go on the free side, you can download WordPress (though you’ll still have to pay for a server), or have your blog set up via Google’s Blogger or Wordpress. Having a blog on a free blog hosting site is not necessarily a bad thing. A lot of notable individuals — including Robert Scoble — have one. Though, granted, they are not corporations.
Along the software and blog hosting lines, do you want a stand alone site like GM’s FastLane blog by Bob Lutz, or part of the company’s site like Boeing’s Randy Baseler? There are pros and cons to each set up.
3) Plan the blog’s look. While there are graphic elements of a blog, the strengths of blogs are their simplicity. Plan what components you’ll want — archives, about and contact information links are common. Other possibilities include links to other blogs, links to your corporate site and/or certain pages within that site (like the media room), industry resources, etc. As part of the plan, get with someone who has a strong Web creative experience to ensure things like color scheme, fonts and type size contribute to the readability of the blog.
4) Plan the contents, at least the initial ones. This tip is from Haas MS&L’s David Binkowski’s recent WOMMA column: “Have 12+ ready-to-write ideas for posts.” (Thanks to Wendy for the pointer.) I’d even go so far as to develop initial draft posts for the first few. If they don’t see the light of day, at least it’s good practice. It’ll get you in the blogging groove.
5) There should be strong collaboration between the corporate executive(s) blogging and the company’s public relations personnel. The blog’s content should be developed jointly between the execs and the company’s PR person or agency contact. Post topics can come from anyone. Ideally, they should be written by the company executive for true authenticity. However, PR personnel experienced with the blogosphere can develop drafts or rough outlines for the company exec to finalize. If there is close enough connection between the exec and PR representative, then ghost blogging is okay. Regardless, the company exec needs to review and have final approval on posts. (This still is not the ideal situation, but, as I’ve stated before, it can be acceptable, and likely will be more commonplace as more companies blog.)
In addition, the PR staff/contact should be primarily responsible for reviewing comments (whether they are moderated or not), monitoring the blogosphere, and promoting the blog.
6) Post at least twice a week. Daily is ideal, but early on, a couple times a week will get you into the practice. Start out easy and gradual to develop the habit and, as some say, your “blogging voice.”
7) Post for one or two months before aggressively promoting the blog. Still register the blog with the key search engines like Technorati, Blogdigger, and the host of other blog search engines. Let traffic gradually build as your company becomes more comfortable with the blog. Once it is established and you are fairly confident it won’t dry up, then promote it to your employees, customers, the media, etc.
Of course, nothing goes perfect the first time through. Blogging, in general, is still in its infancy, though many blogs are “toddlers.” But, if we can share ideas, thoughts and experiences, we can lay a smoother groundwork for those still to come.
– Mike
Technorati tags: public relations, PR, blogging, corporate blogging, business blogging
