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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In a lot of different instances when it comes to blogging, making use of a free blogging platform can really come in handy. If you are writing a personal blog or a blog that is only meant to be read by friends, family members and casual colleagues, then making use of a free blogging platform like Movable Type or Blogger is actually a good idea. These blogs allow you to blog as part of a giant network where you can gain exposure and readership just by posting, which makes them an excellent place for you to start out when you are just beginning to get the hang of blogging. Unfortunately, these are not a long term solution by any means because as a blogger with a free blogging network platform, you are actually subject not only to someone else’s rules relating to blogging, but also a loss of apparent professionalism by not having that individuality or uniqueness that you would have if blogging privately on your own website.

Because you are subject to the rules of the blogging platform that your blog is based off of, you may find your blog posts being deleted for no apparent reason and absolutely no warning, which can force you to deal with a difficult blow. How would you like to write a really nice, really detailed post that will attract readers, only to find out sometime later that it was deleted from the server because a moderator for the blogging platform did not agree with it? No warning is given, nor is any real chance to save your work before it is gone. While most moderators on blogging platform sites like Blogger and WordPress are working hard to be fair, this does not mean that you are protected.

In addition to the risk that your blog posts may be deleted without any real warning or rhyme or reason, another threat that you face is losing your look of professionalism because you are blogging on someone else’s website. This is similar to the difference between having your own domain name, or parking your website at http://www.geocities.com.

Which is more professional, in your eyes, http://www.mycorporateblog.com or http://www.geocities.com/~mycorporateblog?

The same thing goes when it comes to your blog. You want your blog to be a representation of your professionalism as an employee with the company and a blogger on the internet, and what this means is having your own unique blog website using an open source blogging software. WordPress may have a network where bloggers can create their own blogs on site, but their software is also downloadable, allowing you to create your own customized blog off site as well. This gives you an opportunity to create a professional blog that will do everything in its power to uphold your image of professionalism, which is a good part of why you are blogging in the first place.

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What is the blogosphere?

It is a term that was coined to describe the intertwining of blog sites, the general atmosphere of the community and the fact that bloggers are really in their own little world. You can become a member of the blogosphere just by becoming a coporate blogger, but you’ll need to know a few things before you get started. Otherwise, your best efforts may just be shooting yourself in the foot.

The first place to start is understanding RSS feeds, and social networking sites. If you don’t have the basics down for these two very important items, everything else may be more complicated than necessary. Take some time to go through places like Digg.com, Technorati, and Twitter to see what is going on. Chances are, you’ll be able to come up with some great ideas for your own blog during this process.

Next, you’ll want to start thinking about setting up some great relationships with other bloggers. This has many added benefits, such as being able to write a guest post for another blog (or having someone do the same for you) and you’ll be building up some strong contacts that will help you increase your traffic and your exposure. Take the time to hunt down other blogs in your niche and start by leaving thoughtful comments in their blog section, making sure to leave your URL.

This is quiet marketing, but it can be very successful. Once you have your own little network built up through your contacts, you should find that your traffic increases as a natural result. This is particularly true if you are utilizing social networking sites to promote your blog.

Remember, you don’t necessarily have to promote just your blog. You can develop a reputation as a valued contributor by sharing good links with your network and involving them in your blog. Try to keep your promotion efforts as quiet as possible, to avoid being labeled as a spammer. People in the blogosphere have a very low tolerance for behavior like this and you can quickly develop a reputation that is very hard to shake.

Taking the time to become a valued member of the blogosphere is time well spent. This is your opportunity to develop yourself as an authority on your subject of choice, and to build up real relationships with your readers and with other bloggers. By reaching out to them and becoming an active participant in social networks, comment sections and forums, you can start to grow your corporate blog very quickly and with little extra effort.

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1 - Do your research!

Why? Because every single successful marketing strategy is based on solid research. You cannot go blindly onto a social media site and expect to get immediate success by submitting your content. Find social media sites that work well in conjunction with your niche.

2 - Interact with the community as much as possible.

Do not completely ignore the community as many social media marketers do , but instead get involved because this is what social media is really all about. Take advantage of the social nature of the platform and interact for better success in your corporate blogging and social media endeavors.

3 - Write FOR your audience.

If you want your content to be hot, and even viral, then you need to write for your audience on these social media sites. Interact with the community and get to know its members, learning about their likes and dislikes for example. Learn what gets the most attention and cater to it the best you can.

4 - Shoot for relevancy at all times.

Relevance is the true key to effective social media marketing. Look at Digg, StumbleUpon and other social networking and social media sites for proof of this fact.

5 - Keep your writing short.

Internet users do not tend to enjoy reading long text passages, preferring instead to scan anything that they are interested in. Be accommodating by keeping your content short.

6 - Good design.

When users come to your page, are they greeted with a design that is clean and welcoming in nature? If not, they may leave! To combat this, simply focus on presenting a good design and you will go far.

7 - Stop trying to make sales.

Another rookie mistake that is commonly made in social media marketing is to try ands ell your products. Promoting your brand is a good thing, but if all you are doing is pimping your products then you are never going to get any respect in the social networking world.

8 - Create Outstanding Headlines.

Your story may be excellent, but your headline is what sells. If you want attention when it comes to social media, you need to have an absolutely killer headline otherwise users will not notice what you are posting.

9 - Help Others Out.

If you want to become a top user or a popular user, you have to help others out rather than simply submitting and promoting the content that you write.

10 - Convert the hottest content.

Capitalize on hot content as often as you can. Make the attention that you garner last for as long as you possibly can by creating more posts to follow the hot ones so visits can read not only your popular post, but also your newer content as well.

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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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Corporate

• Daily Breeze writes Tech Talk: Business blogs are a good start.
• The Economist says blogging is no longer what it was, because it has entered the mainstream.
• Give your blog a press release. See how this works in Company Announces ‘Next’ Nexicon’s Corporate Blog over at Market Watch.
• Read The Importance of Security in Corporate Blogging by Compendium Blogware.

General Tips

• Do you know of 5 Tips for Creating Blog Revenue? Check out Blogger Breath for more details.
• Busby SEO Test says Take your Blog to the Next Level
• Honest to blog! - Making the most of your blog writes Michigan Times.
• New York Times asks So You Want to Be a Blogging Star?
• Adweek posts Save Your Career, Start a Blog.

Google Page Rank

• Blink Source compares Google PR to Alexa Rank Correlation.
• ProMedia Blog explains the Importance of Google Page Rank - 10 Mistakes that Bring Page Rank Down.

SEO | Traffic

• Club Blogger posts Successfully Marketing Your Blog with Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Techniques.
• Official Google Webmaster Blog publishes Google’s Official SEO Starter Guide.
• Small Business Search Marketing on Planning an SEO Campaign

Microblogging

• Blog Finds says Twingr.com Offers Micro Blogging Communities.
• Flack’s Revenge on What the Microblogging Explosion Means and Why Twitter is Addictive

Social Bookmarking/Networking

• Personal Branding Blog asks Are Personal Brands Protected on Social Networks?
• How Social Networking is Like Nerds, Not Skittles by AriWriter.

Writing Tools and Tips

• Kenetic Blogs posts Content for Your Business Blog
• Rubiqube offers these 8 Common Sense Tips For Writing Clean Wordpress Blog Posts
• Tutorial Blog writes 10 Web Writing Tips and 7 Sources Where You Can Learn More

Buildify hosts a weekly carnival. Blog owners with professional blogging posts should consider sending a submission into the Carnival of Corporate Blogging.

1. What is the value of your post?

One of the easiest ways to determine whether or not you have a compelling post is by estimating just how valuable your post really is. Has the topic already been covered in thousands of different venues? Does the post contain information that will somehow help the reader accomplish something? Is your post thinly veiled promotion? Once you know the answer to these questions, you’ll be able to start working on developing content that is truly compelling.

2. How do your readers react to your posts?

If the answer is “I have readers???” you may have a problem here. If you are basically shouting in the wind and you’ve never had a single comment on your blog despite your best efforts to market it, chances are the problem may be a lack of compelling content. This is the type of post that gets people talking, sharing and will help you make the most of viral traffic.

3. Does your post somehow make an emotional connection with the reader?

This isn’t an easy task in many cases. Let’s say that the niche for your corporate blog is washing machines. It can be tough to find a way to make an emotional connection over an appliance. However, it can be accomplished. What do people really care about when it comes to washing machines? Overall price, functionality and whether or not it eats clothes are great stepping stones that can be used to emotionally manipulate your readers (in a good way.)

4. Does the post make your readers want to know more about you personally?

When you create compelling content, you create a relationship with your readers. Once they start writing you personally, you can be assured that you are developing a good audience that is engaged by what you talk about. You may not be writing hard promotional copy with your corporate blog, but what you are doing is building that friendship – the easy way.

Compelling content can be subjective, but generally, it involves an emotional response that is evoked in the reader, and that someone can benefit from, even in a small way. Whether it’s through laughter, tears, or a feeling of “I’ve been there too” compelling content is the secret to success with corporate blogging, especially when you are first starting out.

You’ll be building a reputation as a corporate blogger that can be incredibly useful in the future, no matter what industry you may be working or writing in.

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1. AutoCopy

You can skip the manual copying and pasting by using AutoCopy. If you want to quote passages you find on the web, or reference other snippets, forget using Control/Command +C and Control/Command +V once you’re at the right place in the markup language. Instead, install the AutoCopy tool, a free FireFox extension found at https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/383. It will allow you to select text to automatically add it to the clipboard, then will allow you to paste it by middle clicking anywhere while in FireFox.

2. CoLT

This will allow you to copy both links and their titles, making it easier than ever for you to use the links you want in your blogs. CoLT is the Copy Link Text Firefox Extension, available at http://www.borngeek.com/firefox/colt/download.html.

3. Reusable Post and Image Templates

If you tend to post in ways that are similar in structure, you might as well create reusable templates for images and posting. Wired has a guide for automating actions in Photoshop. You can also grab free templates for Blogger and Wordpress or use a variety of different CSS templates that automate the posting process significantly.

4. Blog Live using Jott

Jott is a neat voicemail to text service that can allow you to post the things you need even when you are on the go. Jott, available through http://www.jott.com is compatible with Blogger, Typepad, Tumblr, WordPress and Livejournal.

5. Text Replacement

Use text replacement to automate repetitive code in your blog postings. This is a lot easier than embedding a flickr photo manually, or creating a custom signature template or custom headline, then add a text replacement app to your arsenal. Some examples are Tester from Windows, Snippits for Linux and TextExpander for Mac.

6. Google Alerts

Google Alerts will allow you to get topic based post ideas sent your email inbox every day. This will allow you to laser focus in on the particular websites, blog posts, news stories and group posts that you are intending to find.

7. Spend Less Time Resizing

Blogs need imagines, but finding the perfect image in the perfect size can be time consuming. Use Photoshop or GIMP, or choose Picnik available at http://www.picnik.com to make this process a great deal easier and hassle free.

8. Foxmarks

You can keep your post ideas synchronized with Foxmarks, because posting fodder can be found all the time but you need a way to store it if you are not yet ready to post about it. Foxmarks can be found at http://www.foxmarks.com.

9. Tumblr

A tumblelog is a quick post blog that is powered using the Tumblr web application which makes posting anything you want a lot less intimidating than if you were to blog in the wide-open HTML space like Movable Type or Wordpress. Learn more about Tumblr at http://www.tumblr.com.

The first point that Matt covered was about leaving yourself enough wiggle room when it comes to product launches, updates or other big events. Whenever you set a date that is hard and fast, you are opening yourself up to a lot of potential problems. Let’s look at a common scenario and how this type of issue could have a negative effect on your business.

Let’s say that you use your blog to announce that on Date X you will be releasing Product Y. You start the buzz, everyone gets excited and your readers can’t wait. The countdown to Date X begins and as the big day gets closer, you realize that you’re not going to be able to make that deadline.

So, you post that Date X is now Date Z and explain that there is a good reason for the delay. Your audience is disappointed, and they may start to wonder about how professional your company is. While everyone understands that product launches are a delicate matter, setting a hard and fast date does raise expectations. If you can’t meet them, your audience may start to wonder what’s going wrong.

Date Z rolls by and you’re still not ready. You have another post about the new Date A, and once again, your audience is disappointed. By now, things look pretty bad, and you’ve already delayed the launch of Product Y twice. More problems occur, and before you know it your actual launch date is now Date D.

By this point, the majority of people that were really interested in Product Y will have moved on. You’ve failed to deliver, you’ve shown that you can’t keep a project on schedule and your launch will fizzle out. While some delays can be strategic and may increase demand, waiting too long and having too many delays will spell disaster for any product launch.

What can you learn from this scenario? First and foremost, while you do need to give your audience a date for a launch, it does not need to be hard and fast. Give yourself more than enough wiggle room so that if something does go wrong, your company is not going to be cast in a bad light.

This same principle can also apply to other promises you make on your blog. Bottom line, if you are not 150% sure you can keep a promise - don’t make it. It’s just that simple. If you don’t put yourself in a corner, you won’t have to worry about getting out of one. By leaving yourself that wiggle room, you’ll be able to present a strong front to the public and keep them interested in your launch or event.

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In order to make your corporate blog more viral, you need to have a firm understanding of what people find to be viral on the internet. What are the hot subjects within your niche or the industry that your company operates within? Let us say that you are operating within an industry that has to do with working from home, working at a desk, or otherwise working in an office setting. Posting blog entries about productivity in the workplace, a subject that everyone concerns themselves with is something that will get the attention of your readers. Articles regarding being productive while working from home, stretches to do in the office to stay awake, and how to prepare a good cup of coffee using your department’s bland blend are all excellent topics that could become viral in the minds of the right readers.

If you know what it takes to bring your content to a more viral level, then readers will pick up on this excellent copy and want to pass it around. Making something viral is all about turning your blog content into something that is going to inspire feelings like, “My boss would love to read this.” And “I think my sister-in-law will benefit from some of the suggestions here.” And if the first recipients enjoy what they read and see merit in sending it elsewhere, that is when it will continue to be passed around, taking on a truly viral nature as people continue to find reasons to pass it on to someone else in their circle. Imagine if each of your readers send your blog link to a friend, a family member and a colleague every time you posted something noteworthy. Can you imagine the burst in traffic that you would be experiencing on a fairly regular basis at that point? This concept is completely attainable, as long as you learn how to produce noteworthy content that is going to become viral as your readers find it and find reasons to pass it on to people all over the globe. This is the true way to create viral media, and it really is not as difficult as you might imagine as long as you have something to say.

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