One of the best ways to raise morale is through an internal newspaper that keeps employees appraised on what is going on with the company. They foster a sense of belonging, especially if you cover employee birthdays, events and special happenings within the office. However, if your resources are a bit strapped, you may not have the time to put together a special publication. Print costs are not cheap, and it can be quite time intensive to publish a newspaper each month.

In order to get the benefits that a company newspaper can bring, without the downsides, you can begin to use your corporate blog to fill this position. By including your employees in your blog’s news, they will feel more a part of the company and they will want to share the posts with their friends. Everyone likes feeling like a star, and a blog is a great way to share news, promote friendly competition among employees and keep everyone updated.

Before you jump in and start making your corporate blog into an internal newspaper, there are a few things that you should remember:

1. Ask before using last names.

A lot of people prefer not to have their full names splashed all over the internet. You may not realize it, but if other sites are including your RSS feed, your posts are appearing all over the internet. Always ask permission to use an employee’s last name, or err on the side of caution and use first names only, or their first name and last initial. They will know who you are talking about, but your readers won’t. In today’s environment of identity theft and cyber stalking, last names should be avoided.

2. Always remain professional.

Sure, it’s a fun company newspaper, but the general public will have access to it. Unless you are going to password protect the posts for your internal news, you will need to keep that veneer of professionalism up at all times. It’s one thing to be lighthearted and fun, it’s quite another to veer towards being unprofessional. If something has the potential to be spun in a way that is negative towards your company, don’t publish it.

3. Be wary of posting photographs.

A lot of companies like to use photographs on their blogs to let the public know that there are real people working for the company. This is terrific, but you should always remember point one above. Never use last names to identify people in a photo. The public doesn’t really need full disclosure, they’ll be able to see the real people – they don’t need their names. Again, with the threats to people’s safety, it is best to err on the side of caution.

These are just a few things to remember before adding this option to your corporate blog. Remember, if you don’t want the public to know something about your company – don’t write it! Always keep the fact that news can be twisted in front of you while you are writing your blog.

Photo Credits: 1

Originally posted 2008-08-26 05:40:18. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

• 5 Tips on Corporate Blogging for Companies Right now, one of the best ways to reach out to your customer base and increase brand recognition is through the use of a corporate blog. However, many companies aren't sure where they should start and how they can take advantage of this trend. Here are some tips that make......
• Blog Posting Ideas (Pt. 2) Be a news source – New things are always happening in the world, regardless of the topic. Advancements in technology, new ideas, or even new markets come up all of the time. Thanks to this, you really should have no problem finding things to write about. You could use RSS......
• Talking To Not At Your Readers Many corporate blogs fail simply because they strike a wrong chord with readers. If you want to use your blog to increase traffic and sales and improve your relations with the public, it is vital to develop a technique that will allow you to talk to your readers, not at......
• Marketing the Smart Way with Corporate Blogging Corporate blogging is a great way to market your products to the public, but you’ll need to walk that fine line between over commercialization and a total lack of promotion. The main reason that many companies set up their own blog is to find ways to attract new customers and......
• 5 More Tips for Corporate Blogging A lot of the most common tips for corporate blogging are obvious now, and are becoming stale for that reason. But does that mean that we know everything that we need to know about getting a good corporate blog started? Here are five new tips for corporate blogging that have......

• Good Blog Traffic And How To Get It Most people who are into blogging share the same goal and that is to express their thoughts or share their views, opinions, feelings, and everyday experiences to others. You can only do this if you have readers who will keep on following your updates and posts. It would be better......
• Turning Blog Visitors into Blog Readers One of the most important things that you can understand when it comes to your blog and attracting readers is that there is a difference between people who are blog visitors and people who are blog readers. Blog visitors are people that are attracted to your blog for one reason......
• Why Big Companies Are Blogging? There are still some old school business people out there that consider the whole idea of blogging for their business rather ridiculous. Unfortunately for these people, they will never understand that the world is changing and blogging is a whole lot more than just a bunch of people in their......
• Marketing More Powerful Than SEO There is a vicious rumor circulating among website owners that search engine optimization (SEO) is the single most powerful förm of marketing on the web. I have my suspicions that this rumor was started by professional search engine optimizers, but I have not yet received my mail-in Nancy Drew kit......
• Buying More Private Stock I got wrapped up in writing a few other articles; I should have written about this large investment earlier. For the second time in twelve months, I made a very risky investment buying stock options. (You can read about my first risky investment here.) I have invested over $5,000 this......