Why companies should not blog !
Why alot of companies having the idea of a blog shouldn’t.
I was asked what we should do in my company about a corporate blog ? I thought asking questions about it was by far the best way to make a clear answer, you might change your mind :
Do you think customers are seeking a closer relationship with your company ?
- What are the blogs your read ?
- Do any of them have any sort of connection with a company ?
- How much time is it going to take ?
- Who will take care of it ?
- Is it the best appropriate way to make your company heard ?
- Do you think customers are seeking a closer relationship with your company ?
- Is it made to counterbalance a corporate website badly designed or simply out of date ?
- Don’t you already know a website concerned about your products or activity, what makes this blog relevant ?
- Does your blog will improve what’s already done by others ?
- Is it a vector of information or promotion ?
- Will you be clear & transparent to your readers as any modern companies on internet should be ?
- Are you culturally aware of what it means ? (is your company open to criticism and able to deal with it ?!)
- Isn’t blogging a community tool ?!
- Is there someone who still hasn’t got a blog yet ?!
- What about Twitter ?!
They are many different ways to make you more visible on internet today, if you have no idea where you are heading and still willing to be on a blog, maybe you should let others do it for you.
This is what I would do first:
- Contact bloggers / blogs making authority in your activity.
- Try to deal something like a contest / giveaway in relation with your company and products.
- Offer some sort of partnership soothing part of expenses ( hosting, domain name, traveling, tickets to private shows)
- Be helpful, in return you might deal banner push, links or feedback driving internet readers to your site.
In fact, I would ask first what the Author(s) want(s) and see what we can do, instead of being too pushy on precise things. Successful blogs are driven by people seeking some form of integrity in their activity and passion and mostly free speech.The blog was there before you asked and fundamentally doesn’t need you, be smart and listen to what people tell you.
If you are a french speaking personn, I’m sure you will appreciate this example where the travel company Opodo is struggling with one of its unhappy customer trying to prove they are not as good as they claim it, even though they have just won a prize as “Site of the year, in the travel category”. Opodo-elu-Meilleur-site-Voyages-2007-par-vous
Honestly this is good news for a company, faded by a single comment and an inappropriate and formal answer.
If your company is web rooted and has “real” updating to do, on at least weekly basis, then I would give it a green light, even though a “press release” area on your website would be more appropriate.
The main reason I think “traditional companies” should avoid any sort of move on blog is basically because they have no, or at least a bad understanding of the media.
To conclude this thought, after all a blog is a website to start with and so tell me who needs 2 websites (corporate + blog) , one isn’t enough ?
How come ?
Comments (4)
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To blog or not to blog, is it the question ?
There are many companies who are trying to build a “community” (another buz therm?) around their products or offers. They gather the experts of the subject and force them to post (I saw even incentives letters !!), just to have some content on their blog. This is not what should be done, I agree with Seomanager when he says that is about passion!
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