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.

Photo Credits: 1

Originally posted 2008-08-14 05:00:10. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

• Quick and Dirty Tips for Effective Corporate Blogging, pt 3 This is part three in a series about tips for good corporate blogging. We touched on three tips in both the first part and the second part of this series - Now here are another handful of tips for your consideration. - 7 - Write clearly and concisely when it......
• Quick and Dirty Tips for Effective Corporate Blogging, pt 1 Depending on what type of content you are writing, and who you intend to reach out to with said content, there are different rules and tips that will apply to how you construct your content. Most of the rules that apply to writing a newsletter or an eZine are going......
• How to Pick a Name for Your Corporate Blog One of the things that many corporate blog owners do not consider is a name for their blog. Many make the mistake of simply using the format of “Company Name’s Blog.” This is great to a point, but you’ll be missing out on some great ways to promote your blog.......
• Professional Blogging Roundup: All Saints Day Edition Happy All Saints Day, one day late, from Buildify. We hope your weekend has been productive and if it hasn't been yet, well we have another list of links for you to read through for some blogging ideas to help you get started. Corporate Blog Medium Shifting in Large Way......
• Corporate Blogs to Model Yourself After Forrester Research recently compiled a review of ninety different Fortune 500 blogs, and found most to be lacking the proper amount of stimulation. Sadly, two things of these corporate blogs barely ever received any comments, 70 % of them stuck completely to topics of their business without ever straying, and......

• Understanding How Comment Can Drive You More Traffic One thing you need to pay attention when you create your own blog is your traffic. Traffic is important no matter what your purpose of blogging, especially when it involved with advertising.  Without a good traffic, your blog will never make any income for you. Understanding the way to build......
• Image of God Why is science now a religion? And why is psychology the "rational" definition of soul? In many peoples minds, if I say "I believe I am the image of god", people will call me crazy. But if I accept the psychological terms and describe myself that way, then that is......
• 5 Elements for Successfully Writing a Blog When you finally make the decision to begin writing a blog, it is likely that you are going to want people to actually come and visit. If you want to begin writing a blog that is actually going to have a solid chance of being successful, then the following five......
• Get Into Bed With Jacquie D'Alessandro (Author Interview) Today readers at Review Romance Novel have are truly gifted with a great opportunity. I recently got in contact with Jacquie D'Alessandro and she was kind enough to grant me an interview. I got to ask her a bunch of questions and the following transcript is in her own......
• Top 10 Tips for Writing a Blog Most of the rules and tips that are associated with writing for eZines and newsletters also apply to writing blog entries, though there are some truly important differences as well. If you keep these top ten tips for writing a blog entry in mind, you will be creating excellent blog......

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

Originally posted 2008-10-22 05:29:19. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

• How to Avoid Corporate Blogging Disasters 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......
• Developing Your Blog’s Style Why do some blog instantly become hits, while others languish without a reader to be found? Although the subject matter can play a big role in popularity, a lack of readership can be attributed to a lack of style in the blog. Since there is so much competition out there,......
• What Makes a Corporate Blog Stand Out? Right now, thousands of companies are using corporate blogging as a means of reaching out to new customers. This means that the field is incredibly crowded and getting more so every day. How do you get your blog to stand out from the crowd? It can be complicated at times,......
• Getting Smart About Corporate Blogging - Part Three 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......
• Executive Blogging - Good Idea or Bad? It is obvious that the concept of executive blogging is becoming more popular, as businesses small and large are suddenly turning to blogging as a way to convey news and information to their customers and clients. Still, many companies are wondering if executive blogging is a worthwhile endeavor for them......

• Here Are 10 Tips To Increase Page Views On Your Blog There are basically two groups of bloggers - one who truly believes in tracking unique visitors rather than page views since a single visitor can increase your page view statistics by just reading many other pages on your blog or website. The second group of people believes pages views are......
• Related Websites Welcome to the power of relevant chaos. The Related Websites plugin is the latest to come from the labs of the Blog Traffic Exchange. The Related plugin has been built by a blogger for the benefit of fellow bloggers everywhere. There is no advertising present on member blogs - only......
• Ways to Improve Blog Traffic There are actually an endless number of different ways that you can improve blog traffic if you know what to do and how to do it. Here are some tips to improve blog traffic by making improvements to your blog. Improve Blog Tip #1 – Improve your content quality and......
• Top 10 Tips for Writing a Blog Most of the rules and tips that are associated with writing for eZines and newsletters also apply to writing blog entries, though there are some truly important differences as well. If you keep these top ten tips for writing a blog entry in mind, you will be creating excellent blog......
• How to Use Credit Cards Wisely /caption] Credit card (and other) debts can grow like weeds. Try to tame the it before debt gets out of control. Fixing one habit at a time works, trust me. I wish I could say I was responsible with credit cards when I first had them. I've many of these......

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.

Photo Credits: 1

Originally posted 2008-08-18 05:09:40. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

• Executive Blogging - Good Idea or Bad? It is obvious that the concept of executive blogging is becoming more popular, as businesses small and large are suddenly turning to blogging as a way to convey news and information to their customers and clients. Still, many companies are wondering if executive blogging is a worthwhile endeavor for them......
• 3 Topics to Not to Write About on a Corporate Blog 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......
• How to Start a Stellar Corporate Blog If you’re ready to get into corporate blogging, you need to make sure that you are going in with the right attitude. There is a big difference between starting an okay blog and starting a stellar blog. You are in this to succeed, so you need to make sure that......
• Getting Smart About Corporate Blogging - Part Two 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......
• Three Must-Read Books for Corporate Bloggers Bloggers certainly love to read other blogs, but they also may be able to generate powerful resources from books on the subject of blogging. Here are three must read books for anyone who is serious about corporate blogging on a successful level. 1 - "The Corporate Blogging Book: Absolutely Everything......

• 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......
• Apple CEO Steve Jobs' Health Sparks Fascinating Debates For Investors Most of you probably know who Steve Jobs is. There may be some that do not so I'll talk about him for a moment. Steve Jobs is to Apple, what Bill Gates is to Microsoft. Not only is he a founder and leader in the company, he is attributed for......
• Credit Score Industry Infighting: Greed Exposed Full disclosure:  I detest the credit score industry. If you are like most U.S. consumers, you have been brought up (or forced to participate) in a consumer credit system in which we are taught to worship at the altar of the almighty credit score.  This causes many of us to......
• Obama - Show me the Money Every single day I have a friend, family member or co-worker talking to me about politics/economics.  While, I don't see myself as above intelligent, I think am able to formulate and communicate an argument (maybe that does make me smarter lol JOKING!).  Well today, I had a very close friend......
• A Comprehensive Guide to VoIP That You Can Understand! Part Three At this point, hopefully you have read my previous articles, "Voice over IP Is Here!" - parts One and Two. In this article we are going to get a little more in depth about different voice over IP technologies, what their advantages and strengths are, and how to apply......