Entries Tagged 'reputation' ↓
November 21st, 2008 — audience, bloggers, public relations, reputation, writing style
The first two part of this series discussed a semi-recent post made by Matt Cutts, that covered a few things that corporate bloggers need to know. The last point that we’ll cover in this series is what Matt had to say about blogging angry. There is some very powerful information and insight in his post, and we felt it deserved to be expanded upon in greater detail.
Business owners and corporate bloggers are human, and as such, we are subject to emotions. It is easy to get angry and fire off a few heated blog posts. What is not easy is to undo the damage that has been done. While you may be able to delete a bad post off of your blog, you’ll never be able to delete it from your reader’s minds. Posting angry is something that many of us have been guilty of in the past, but few stop to think about how this can affect them in the future.
The urge to vent to your audience and receive a few pats on the back can be very strong, especially when you’ve had a bad day. Whether you feel you have been treated unfairly, or a competitor is giving you a hard time, it is all too easy to lash out on your blog. This rarely works out the way that you plan however, and unless you want your blog to be associated with your rants, there are a few things that you need to do first.
1. Think before hitting the publish button.
As Matt suggests, never fire off a post and hit publish right away. You need to walk away from the situation for a few minutes to get a better perspective. In fact, after you cool down, you may wonder why you got so upset in the first place. If you haven’t hit post, no one will be the wiser to your problem or your outburst.
2. Think about how your readers will react to your post now - and how future readers will react to it.
You’d be surprised at what gets indexed by search engines. Let’s say that you fire off an angry post, and then forget about it. Six months from now, someone searching for information about your company stumbles across this post in a search. The first thing they see about your company is an ugly rant - what impression do you think that will give? You’ve got to look at the big picture, which isn’t easy when you are upset. That’s where the first point comes in.
3. Will the post tarnish your image, or the image of your company.
It’s one thing if readers think you are a blowhard, but how will that trickle down to your company? You are representing the face of your company through your corporate blog. Do you really want the public to see that face when it’s angry? Think about the consequences before you post, and remember that you are responsible for how others view you in many cases.
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November 17th, 2008 — bloggers, content, news, public relations, reputation, web traffic
In part one of this series we discussed a post made by Matt Cutts on corporate blogging. We went over the first point he made in his post, regarding leaving yourself wiggle room on deadlines. Now, let’s go over the second point, about how to handle yourself when dealing with or talking about a competitor. As Matt put it, never trash talk a competitor - but what does that really mean?
Most corporate bloggers are savvy enough to understand that trash talk has no place in a blog. Even if you are riding high on success and you have the world at your feet, there is no need to even mention your competitors. Trash talking them will actually end up hurting you more than them and once you leave a bad taste in your audience’s mouth, getting rid of it is nearly impossible. Let’s illustrate this point with a scenario.
Let’s say that Business Owner A has a corporate blog that gets a good deal of traffic and covers company news, as well as a few other topics. On Monday, Business Owner B decides to start an ad campaign that will directly effect the revenue of Business Owner A. The first reaction for many is to lash out and belittle the efforts of Business Owner B.
So, that’s exactly what Business Owner A does. They devote several posts of their blog to trashing B, and their product or service. Instead of getting the attention away from B’s ad campaign, all that A has managed to accomplish is giving them more traffic from readers that want to see what all of the fuss is about.
The second effect is that Business Owner A now seems a bit whiny and definitely unprofessional. Competing ad campaigns are common and their readers are savvy enough to figure out that the posts are being fueled largely by sour grapes. The overall image of Business Owner A has now been tarnished, and readers leave the blog as a result.
Now, instead of circumventing the ad campaign launched by Business Owner B, all that A has managed to do was to hand them new visitors on a platter. They managed to hurt their own business and will forever be remembered as poor sports. All of this could have been avoided by simply never mentioning Business Owner B in the first place.
No matter if a competitor is trashing you, dragging your company through the mud, or competing aggressively against you - never trash them in the public eye. The only one that will end up wearing egg on their faces is you. Remember to take the High Road, no matter what - and you’ll end up reaping the benefits. Readers are not stupid, and they do understand more about your business than you think they do.
Don’t give your readers the chance to see you in a bad light. Remember that professionalism is key if you want to establish yourself as an authority. Whining, complaining and trash talk have no place on your corporate blog.
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October 2nd, 2008 — advertisment, money, reputation, social bookmarking sites, web traffic
If you are not familiar with the site called StumbleUpon, it is a service that allows users to discover new sites. With the use of a toolbar (spyware free), users of StumbleUpon can find new sites that are related to their interests, or they can choose a random option. Millions of people are using StumbleUpon and it has caught the eye of many corporate bloggers as being a great new way to pick up readers.
This is a veritable minefield however in the blogging community. Many people swear by the service, others can’t stand it. While there are some flaw that are inherent with StumbleUpon, there are a few cases where it can actually be useful for your corporate blog. Let’s take a hard look at the pros and cons of StumbleUpon and whether or not it can help you.
First off, although advertising on StumbleUpon is incredibly cheap, and very targeted, few have found it to be effective. Basically, when you purchase a StumbleUpon ad, your blog will be automatically loaded for viewers that are interested in your niche. It sounds ideal, but this rarely works. In our testing we found that we did get the number of visitors promised, but none stayed for more than a few seconds.
Paying for targeted visitors that barely see your site is just not a good investment. There is a lot of controversy over StumbleUpon’s ads, and although they are economical, we have not found that they are effective for the majority of corporate blogs. If you are running a very special contest or offer you may have better results, but you really cannot rely on these ads to help build up a solid readership.
So, what about their organic services? These are the visitors that just happen upon your site and you don’t have to pay for them. This is a little hit or miss and again, it is really only effective for contests, special deals and controversial content that grabs a visitor immediately. While it is still important to get listed as a StumbleUpon site, you should not expect hordes of people to descend on your site as a result.
Overall, StumbleUpon is a great premise that should work, but it just doesn’t seem to for most corporate blogs. The review feature is also worrisome for many corporate blog owners. Get a bad review and that will stay up, in connection with your site, for any StumbleUpon user that happens to visit your site. If the reviews are good, this is great. If they are not, it is a whole other story.
While using StumbleUpon has some benefits, it is certainly not the most reliable means of attracting new readers to your corporate blog. With the right niche and targeting this can change, but for the average corporate blog owner, it is just not worth the trouble. This may change as StumbleUpon grows and evolves, but for now, your efforts are probably best spent elsewhere.
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September 15th, 2008 — audience, content, engaging ideas, goals, planning, reputation
If you’ve been considering starting a corporate blog, but you’re not quite sure that your company is ready yet, there is still a way that you can get your feet wet and start taking advantage of what a blog can do for promotion. Instead of closely defining a corporate blog as something that is used to talk about only your company or to relay company news, you can get involved in a niche topic that may actually be more popular.
A niche blog is usually a defined topic blog that covers something that interests you or can be related to what your company does. For example, let’s say that you run a company that specializes in search engine optimization. You could start a niche blog that would cover tips and tricks or new techniques that are available in this industry. By focusing on a single topic, you may be able to experience more success than you could with a regular company blog.
Here’s a great tip to get you started. Write down everything that your company does or sells, and get your inspiration for your niche blog from there. Find a way to tie in something that the public will find interesting or helpful and choose that to be the main focus of your niche blog. Using another example, let’s say that you have a sporting goods online store.
A great corporate niche blog for this type of company would be one that focuses on fitness tips. You can incorporate what you sell in a subtle way and provide a service to the public. That is the heart of a niche blog and the key to its success. By giving readers something they can really use or benefit from, you are ensuring that you will be able to quickly rise to the top ranks of corporate bloggers.
There are many different ways that a niche blog can be put to good use for your company. One of the most powerful is that you will be developing a reputation for yourself as an expert. Many first time bloggers make the mistake of trying to remain anonymous, or they don’t work on self promotion. We’re not saying that your corporate blog should be the “me show” but you will still need to find a way to inject a little bit of your own personality into your blog.
A niche blog offers a great way to do that, especially if you are covering tips that can be used or helpful information. Look at your blog as a way to develop yourself as an expert in what you do, and let company promotion occur as a side effect. Chances are, your blog will be more interesting and you’ll be getting solid traffic to your corporate site as a result. When you look at a corporate blog as a way of reaching out to the public and providing a service, it will give you the solid foundation you need for success.
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August 20th, 2008 — advertisment, content, marketing, public relations, reputation
Corporate blogging became so popular so quickly that many companies made the mistake of thinking that they could get away with thinly veiled advertorial blogs that served no real purpose for their readers. Some companies out and out lied about their blogs and the results permanently harmed their reputation. If you are thinking about using a corporate blog to increase your sales, there is a way to go about it and keep your blog real.
1. Always publish content that your readers can use.
Blogs that read like an informercial are not interesting and chances are, you will lose readership in a very short time. There is a way to sell a product with your blog without making it sound like an advertorial. For example:
The Wrong Way: Buy our sports shoes, they are on sale today!
The Right Way: Recent studies have shown that a lack of proper foot support can contribute to sport’s injuries. Experts recommend using a (insert link here) certain type of shoe that can limit the amount of stress put on your joints.
The first one is a blatant attempt at advertising that serves no real purpose, other than to attempt to sell shoes.
The second is an interesting post that focuses on news and subtly brings in a product mention without being blatant. You’re leaving it up to the reader to discover what type of shoe they need to have to prevent injury, increasing the likelihood that their curiosity will induce them to click the link, and you are providing them with something that they actually need, ie: something that will prevent injury.
That is the perfect way to sell something on a blog.
2. Never attempt to fool the public.
There have been classic cases of “personal” blogs that were in fact thinly veiled sales pitches from a corporate entity. You may think that you’ve done such a good job that no one will figure it out, but the internet is a very small place. It is full of people who love to bring down companies and gain the prestige of being the person that “outed them.”
Deception is a very bad business practice no matter what industry you’re in, and it can only backfire. If you need to sell products with your blog, be honest about it. Never attempt to pass of a blog as something that it is not. The blogs that provide useful information, such as the one detailed above, are far more interesting than a fake blog that can only serve to harm your company’s reputation. Bottom line, if you are lying, someone will find out and the results will not be pretty.
Corporate blogs are powerful tools, but like anything that is powerful, they must be managed correctly. Honesty is always the best policy and although it is tempting to try to cash in on a blog, you’ve got to do it the right way. They can and will increase your sales, but only if you do it properly.
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August 19th, 2008 — Buildify, comments, public relations, reputation
If you have decided to allow comments on your corporate blog, it is a good idea to start mapping out how you will handle certain situations now, before they actually happen. Sooner or later, something will come up with your readers and it is very helpful to have a planned response all ready to go. Let’s look at how you can steer any comments into the right direction.
First, let’s cover what would happen if you are dealing with an event in the media that is not particularly flattering to your company. It’s a good idea to craft an official response to any comments that may come up on this issue. You may also want to do the same in a blog post, addressing the issue and finding a way to spin it in a positive direction. There is always a way to turn something bad into something good, and your honest efforts will be appreciated by your readers. In fact, you may even find that they are behind you instead of against you.
It is also a good idea to work on responding to incendiary comments with a level head. This is a trap that can ruin many a corporate reputation. There are people out there that live to leave nasty comments on blogs and some will just keep going back. Instead of ignoring those comments, or engaging the person in a heated discussion, craft one simple response that addresses the main points and leave it at that.
At times, it can be difficult to deal with comments and often, many people wonder why they allowed them in the first place. However, it is never a good idea to suddenly remove the ability to leave a comment on your corporate blog, especially if you are going through a public issue. This gives a very bad impression of your company and makes it look as though you have something to hide.
It may not be the easiest thing in the world, but if you are allowing comments, you’re going to have to stick with it and weather the storms. You do have some options when it comes to handling those who consistently leave negative comments or those that bring absolutely nothing to the discussion but flamewars.
Most blogging applications have a feature that will allow you to block certain IP’s from being able to leave a comment. This can be a real lifesaver when you are trying to steer comments in a positive direction. Find out which person is responsible for the nasty comments, ban their IP and go about your business.
Alternatively, you can require registration on your site before someone can leave a comment. Most people who live to start flamewars and irritate others will not go to the trouble of setting up an account. If they do, you’ll have their email address and more information about them, which is very useful in this situation.
When handled professionally, comments can add a lot to your blog, but always remember to be positive and cool under pressure.
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August 18th, 2008 — advertisment, customer trust, goals, public relations, reputation
In today’s current business world, the media is more savvy than ever and so are consumers. This has led many companies to adopt a full disclosure policy on their corporate blogs. Is this policy right for you? Let’s look at a few of the upsides and downsides of full disclosure.
Upsides
1. Public perceives your company as honest.
Everyone loves it when a company owns up to mistakes, takes the high road and is brutally honest about their business deals. It is always refreshing to see a company that is willing to take that risk to be more open with the public and share what is really going on inside.
2. All press is good press.
Blogs that deal with full disclosure typically get lots of traffic and they are able to quickly generate a lot of buzz. This is really only useful if there is a way to turn what they are talking about into a positive light, but overall, when it comes to getting attention, full disclosure usually gets the job done.
Downsides
1. Is brutal honesty always the best policy?
If your company just took a major financial hit, does the public really need to know about it? One of the main problems with adopting a full disclosure stance is that it can really hurt you when things get tough. It’s one thing to say that the company is going through a rough patch, it’s quite another to get into details. This hurts your bottom line, and if you have investors, they may not appreciate your honesty with the public, especially if it affects your stock prices.
2. Bad reputations take only a few seconds to make.
It can take years to build up an image of corporate responsibility, but trashing your company’s image can only take a few seconds. Full disclosure often means talking about things that put your company into a decidedly unflattering light. If you feel your company can rise above that, terrific, but some companies never recover after a blogging disaster.
Weighing All the Options
Now that we’ve gone over the good and bad side of full disclosure, it’s time to get really serious and think about how it could affect your company. Do you have investors? If you do, this is probably not the best policy for your corporate blog. The risks far outweigh any benefits.
Is your company fairly new and so far scandal proof? In this case, then a full disclosure policy can help build a solid reputation around your company and present it in a good light. You may change your mind however the instant the first bad piece of news hits the press.
Lastly, what do you want people to think of when your company name comes up? If you don’t want the latest blogging fiasco to be at the tip of everyone’s tongue, a little mystique is probably a good thing. Blogging is a balance, and it’s up to you to decide how much information you want to reveal.
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August 14th, 2008 — audience, content, goals, public relations, reputation, writing style
Few people realize how powerful a blog can be when it comes to projecting an image to the public. Words have a power all their own and the wrong ones may sink your company’s reputation. Before you even start your own corporate blog it is very important to first come up with the image you would like the public to have of your company. Then, figure out how you want to get that image to come across. Here are some hints to help get you started.
1. Honesty is always the best policy.
While full disclosure of a company meltdown may not be the best idea, it is always important to be honest in your blogs. Never try to stretch the facts, pad your accomplishments or make your company look like something it is not. The blogosphere as it is called is an incredibly small little micro-universe and news, both good and bad, travels fast. It only takes one small slip up to tank your company’s image.
2. Be engaging and never dull.
Most people think of companies as being grey, lifeless and without any character. You can dramatically change that perception by having a blog that is engaging, fun to read and exciting. However, you have to walk that fine line between getting people interested in your company and becoming unprofessional. If necessary, try to take a few courses in creative and persuasive writing. It will definitely pay off.
3. Avoid the sales pitch.
There is a way to move products on your blog without having it sound like an informercial. Today’s blog readers don’t want to read a commercial – they want news and they want it now. Instead of blatant sales pitches, find a way to integrate your products with what you are talking about, or what is in the news right now. This way, you’re actually providing your readers with help instead of hawking your latest product in their face.
4. Be friendly and cultivate blogging relationships.
The whole point of blogging is that it is very social in nature. The whole point of corporate blogging is to bring that element into your business to help increase your customer base and build a stronger brand. By inviting popular guest bloggers in your niche, or just developing some great friendships with other bloggers, you can build a strong network between each other, and everyone wins.
It is also important to remember to be very friendly, but professional, when dealing with your readers. Never get dragged into a flame war on your blog or stoop to picking fights with readers that leave comments on your blog. In the end, you’re going to be the one that looks bad, and that is not the image you want to project for your company.
These are just a few hints to get you started on the path to presenting the right image of your company. Sometimes it helps to have a professional walk you through these initial phases and we highly recommend hiring a blog management service to do just that.
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