Corporate blogs can be an excellent way to establish thought leadership, build communities and drive additional traffic to an organization’s Web site. For example, since Communiqué PR started its blog in January 2008, we have seen a 200 percent increase in Web traffic and the blog has been a terrific way to give our clients additional exposure as well as educate potential clients about our work.
A blog also gives organizations the opportunity to engage directly with customers, partners and potential new employees. However, for a blog to be effective, the topics must be relevant, timely and continually updated to keep readers coming back for more. Potential blog topics ideally include corporate news, customer case studies, executive changes, commentary on industry trends, etc.
If your organization is considering creating a corporate blog, here are some steps to help you get started:
1. Identify two to three internal blog owners or champions. Ideally, these are individuals that can create blog posts and comment on other relevant blogs.
2. Develop a calendar of topics. This will help guide the direction of the blog and ensure the topics align with corporate communication objectives. As you develop this calendar make sure you think about how each post will add value to readers.
3. Establish a process for writing entries and updating the blog on an ongoing basis. This will ensure blog posts are written in a timely manner, well in advance of your publishing deadline.
4. Develop best practices for blogging and interacting with other blogs. This is an essential step in creating a corporate blog. For example, you may want to outline what company information can be shared, and what should remain confidential.
5. Be transparent. In the spirit of open communication, it is important to fully disclose your identity and intention when commenting on other people’s blogs.
6. Manage comments posted by readers. The blog owner should regularly monitor comments in response to his or her articles and respond appropriately.
7. Get others to link to your site. Finally, as you consider building relationships with other bloggers in your circle, you should consider asking them to link back to your corporate blog.
We hope you find these tips helpful as you prepare to create a blog. If you have a success story to share about your blog, please let us know. We would love to hear any additional steps that have worked well for you.