December 29th, 2008 — audience, bloggers, brand awareness, content, public relations, writing style
For those thinking about starting a corporate blog, there are a few caveats that should be considered before you ever throw your hat in the arena. The blogosphere can be a scary place if you are not prepared and it is easy to have a disaster of epic proportions on your hands without even realizing it. There are numerous stories of corporate blogging disasters and while they can be amusing, the owners of the companies affected probably would not agree.
A corporate blog is a unique tool that allows you to reach out to the public, increase brand awareness and build up your customer base. It is also a tool that has the potential to cause irreparable damage. You don’t want your blog to go down in flames, and you certainly don’t want it to take your company with it. Here are some tips to help you avoid the most common blogging disasters.
1. Pick your bloggers well.
If you will not be doing your own blogging, this usually means that the task falls to an employee. You will need to make sure that they are well balanced, can handle criticism and can post in an articulate and friendly manner. Think of this blogger as a public speaker – would they present the right face for your company to the public?
You also need to make sure that the employee is a stable individual that is not prone to bursts of anger or being disgruntled. You don’t want your company’s dirty laundry aired to the world and it only takes one angry blogger to turn the tide against you. If you end up firing a blogger, make sure that you remove their posting capabilities BEFORE you do so that they don’t have a chance to post one last burning missive.
2. Be consistent.
If you decide to allow comments on your blog, great. Just don’t change your mind. This gives an incredibly bad image of your company and makes it seem as though you have something to hide. Likewise, refusing to allow comments on your blog can give the same impression. Find the balance by using comment moderation tools to weed out bad comments and let the good ones through.
3. Always remain professional.
Your corporate blog is not the place to get overly personal. You may be having a bad day, you may hate your job, you may want to stick it to your spouse/boyfriend/girlfriend but your corporate blog is not the place to air these subjects. Always keep your private thoughts private – they just don’t belong on your blog. Keep your posts friendly and open, but make sure that you never cross that line.
By utilizing these three simple rules, you can avoid becoming a blogging disaster for the history books. If you have never blogged before, or you prefer not to leave your company’s future in the hands of an employee, it is a good idea to get some help with your blog. There are blog management services that specialize in helping you present the right image and get your message across.
Photo Credit: 1
Originally posted 2008-07-15 05:25:42. Republished by Old Post Promoter
Related Articles
December 26th, 2008 — Buildify, bloggers, customer base, employees, goals, marketing, planning, public relations, publicity, reputation, web traffic
Corporate blogging is not the kind of thing that comes easily and generates immediate success. When it come to social media efforts like blogging, there are upsides and downsides and both must be addressed in order to adequately prepare for a new project like a corporate blog. Here are some of the challenges that corporate bloggers are facing.
- Many do not receive the traffic numbers they desire.
There are not massive increases in the number of viewers on the web, and there are only so many hours available in the day to read blogs. While there are millions of blogs out there, only a few are able to rise to the top and really stand out.
- Blogs often require more time than the bloggers initially realize.
Blogging’s biggest concern is not actually money, but rather is time. When it comes to executives, the cost per hour can radically increase. Blogging is costly when it comes to time, and managing a corporate blog can easily take up 1-2 hours a day if not more of an important executive’s time if there is no social media manager in place.
- Being conversational is not always natural.
Traditional marketing is not quite the same as having a conversation at the corner coffee shop, so many writers who work on corporate blogs have trouble being conversational because they are more used to “carpet bombing” marketing rather than social media marketing.
- Blogs are not marketing campaigns, per say, so there is no ending date.
Bad blogs can easily whimper along for a long time, without anyone knowing when to call it quits. The same can go just as easily for great blogs, however. At what point is a blog supposed to stop?
- Some corporate blogs have legal issues and other hang ups.
The legal facet of your business may have trouble with the two way dialogue that is created, allowing objective content and negative content to exist within your blog. How do we react when our dirty laundry is aired in our blog, or when our readers post content or questions that we are not ready to handle? How open and honest should we allow our blog to be?
- Employee blogs do not necessarily represent the brand.
Just because your employees are working for your company, it does not mean they have the best interest of the brand at heart. Good employees are not necessarily good bloggers. Who do you really want to represent your blog? Some employees may inadvertently cast your brand in the completely wrong light.
- Success is difficult to measure.
Marketers can measure the success of their campaigns through registrations and visits, but with blogs, success is much more difficult to measure. The problem with blogs is that the social success can have different forms, including trackbacks, comments and other forms of conversation. Without raw numbers, how does anyone know whether or not success has been reached?
Photo Credits: 1
Related Articles
December 20th, 2008 — bloggers, employees, planning, public relations
While it would be great if all companies had no internal problems and everything ran smoothly, this does not always happen. There will be times that your corporate blog can turn into a mess if you do not get control of internal fighting and issues that can get out of hand. If you are letting several employees run their own blogs, there is a big temptation out there for them to use this as a forum to vent their frustration. Here’s how to handle that if it happens.
First, you will need to find out which employees are actively discussing company issues with the public. Then, it is a good idea to take them aside and calmly remind them that a corporate blog is not an appropriate forum for their grievances. If they have an issue with the company itself, or the employees, handle it as well as you can. There is a bit of a fine line to walk here. You don’t want to give the employee the impression that you are muzzling them, but you do need them to stop.
The best possible way to handle this and to make sure it never happens is to have a manager, or yourself vet every blog before it goes live. This takes a little longer and may require a few more minutes of your day, but in the long run, it is a lot better than finding out ex post facto that your company’s dirty laundry has been hung up in public, for everyone to see.
Whenever you need to let a blogger go from your employment, it is also a good idea to be prepared for some backlash, especially if you do not revoke their blogging privileges before you let them know they will no longer be working for you. This is absolutely vital, even if you have known that employee for years and never expected that they would do anything to wrong your company.
Another big issue with corporate blogging is having employees that release company secrets, either intentionally or through ignorance. This has led to many people being fired in the past and has harmed some companies greatly. If you are a public company, the risks are even higher that your shareholders could be put at risk by a blogger on your staff.
Blogging is a great way to promote your company, and achieve a stronger brand, but there is a lot of responsibility that comes with that. You will need to be prepared to handle any employee issues – before they happen. Set up a strategy for dealing with the issues that we’ve mentioned above. An ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of cure in this case and you can avoid having your company put at risk if you go into this with the right mindset and the right information.
Your blog is the place to promote your company, and your employees need to understand and respect that.
Photo Credits: 1
Originally posted 2008-08-13 05:51:45. Republished by Old Post Promoter
Related Articles
October 22nd, 2008 — content, public relations
So many advice columns, tips and books focus on what you should talk about on your corporate blog, but few ever go into things that you should not talk about. While it is important to focus on the positive, you also need to be aware of some common mistakes that can derail your efforts. With the right approach, and saying the right things, your corporate blog can be successful. However, it only takes one bad post to sink all the work that you have done.
Let’s go over a few things that have no place on corporate blogs:
1. Company Rivalries –
If company X has stolen your customers/clients/ideas, your blog is not the place to air that dirty laundry. Company rivalries may be interesting, but at the end of the day, the participants just end up looking foolish, or downright nasty. It is best to take the high road when you are in the midst of a problem like this and keep the dirty laundry where it belongs. Your corporate blog should always present the best possible public face to the world, and that face should not look petty.
2. Bad News –
While there are some instances where full disclosure on a blog can benefit a company when there is bad news, if you are not versed in the art of communicating bad news and putting a good spin on it, it does not belong on your blog. Once again, we come to the public face of your company. Your blog is the place for positive news, not for “the sky is falling and we are all going to be homeless.” Keep the bad news out of your blog, unless there is absolutely no way that you can avoid addressing a problem.
3. Inappropriate Humor/Graphics/Videos/Sound Files –
Viral videos have exploded on to the scene and although many are truly funny and you may want to share them, they have no place on a corporate blog. Bottom line – if you wouldn’t tell a joke, show a video or graphic to your 98 year old grandmother, it doesn’t belong on your blog. You may think it’s funny, 99% of your readers may agree, but it’s that 1% that can tank your company. Always keep it clean, and avoid running the risk of tarnishing your company’s image through inappropriate content.
One thing that corporate bloggers need to be aware of before they write one word is that in the blogosphere, a post is forever. It’s not just about weathering the storm that a bad post can cause for a week. Thanks to search engines, caching, linking and copying, a bad blog post will live forever.
Before you write anything, think for a minute if you will be proud of that post in a month, a year, five years. Chances are, that’s how long that post will be around. If the answer is no, write something else. Always take the high road and your company will benefit.
Photo Credits: 1
Related Articles
