Blogging as Part of a Business
Corporations and businesses, both small and large, have had to go through major changes over the past ten years or so as the Internet became an even more powerful medium than television and print. The transition to the digital age was a difficult process for many of the largest corporations, especially with the “Web 2.0″ craze that nearly forced them to become more personal and transparent in order to maintain an edge over competitors.
While many of the world’s largest businesses do not currently have what you and I would define as a blog, more and more companies are allowing their employees to blog on a subdomain or folder apart of the main site, where they help share ideas and help, in a sense, promote the products for the company they are working at.
The decision to start a blog at your business’s website is an important decision that, in today’s time can’t be avoided–it is necessary to build relationships with potential clients and bring communication to a whole new level.
There are several main reasons that it is important to start a blog as a separate branch of your business. For one, if you are not seeing the results that you believe you should be pulling in from your visitors/customers, it may be time to rethink your core business model. A blog created as a central part of your business, not simply something that is put on hold like other activities will help you strengthen your business.
A blog can be defined as a place where content is placed, in a reverse-chronological order, with the ability for visitors to add comments on articles.
Anyone will tell you that starting a blog isn’t a hard feat to accomplish. It simply has to be done correctly, with the right skills and background knowledge before you begin.
Where to Begin
Every day, upstart companies try to discover what is missing from their company. Likely, but not always, it is a blog. Before you can even approach on step one, you’ll need to redefine what your business is about–what products and services do you provide, and what do you want to get out of this blog that you are about to embark upon? For example, if you run a commerce-type business, with both online and offline ordering, it would be best to feature products, reviews, and testimonials from your employees on the blog; it fills every void that had been created when you didn’t have a blog. However, we’ll get on to additional positives later on.
Secondly, you must choose who will be writing on the blog. Ideally, it should be someone that “everybody should know,” such as the CEO, founder, or other important figure of the company. This way, people who visit the blog will know that they are able to contact the owner directly, rather than through another executive that may not have as much “control” over the company. A second aspect of choosing the people or group of people that write on your blog should be determined by their availability and a set of other factors, typically unique to the situation that you are in. Starting a group or collaboration blog, allowing a chosen set of people at your company to blog will alleviate some of the stress if only one person is writing all the content.
Remember that the blog must be kept updated. Readership levels depend on the frequency of posts on your blog, if you fail to meet a reader’s expectations, they are that much more likely to not purchase a product that you are trying to sell to them. Don’t hesitate to post the smallest of updates on the blog, as it shows there is still forward-progress at your company, and that the company is still looking to expand its product line.
Choose a content management system, blog platform, or service that suits your needs for managing posts, comments, and multiple authors (even if you aren’t planning on having multiple authors at the start). It should be flexible, scalable, and have a track record in being able to provide the correct balance between a “content management” and “blog system,” otherwise it will simply be a website.
I can presume that you likely already have servers set up for hosting your website, so we’ll skip that step in this case.
Schedule, prepare, then do. Every blog is different. Your individual case may require you to post multiple times per day, depending on the development at your company, while most corporate blogs can get away with a single post every week, or one per month, although it isn’t recommended. A general level of posting should be at about two to three new posts per week, give or take a few depending on developments.
Presentation, format, and more. The design, organization, and writing style that you develop for your blog can also be considered one of the most important steps in developing a successful blog. Create a blog that resembles, to some extent, your main site, then work form there to develop a writing style that is both formal, yet attracts individuals to read what you have to say. Organization is also important, as you are now dealing with archives, hundreds of posts, categories, tags, and pages. Format your sidebars, headers, and footers, in order to attract visitors to continue reading “archived” or previous content.
Benefits of Starting a Blog for Your Business or as a Business
Because blogs have become such a powerful medium over the past several years, you can eliminate the prospect of failure. The only path that your blog will take you is higher, unless of course you make a complete mockery of its intended purpose. LIterally, there are thousands of ways, lead by profiles of other large companies, of how blogging can benefit your business in more ways than one.
First, we’ll get back to the definition of blogging - an online journal, or organized method of posting content (ideas, news, and other information), with the newest content displaying first on the page. By no means do you have to conform to the traditional definition of the term. You can create your own definition and expand upon it to create a portal on your website for others to share feedback on every part of your business.
- First of all, blogs offer an easy, highly customizable way to present information. Modern weblog systems, as well as content management systems, many being free, offer a wide-range of free templates, plugins, and add-ons that allow you to bring your blog in-line with your main website and accomplish more than you could ever have dreamed. In fact, you don’t even need any technical skills to install the software. The back-end of each system has also been setup to maximize the time you spend posting rather than trying to figure out how to begin the blog.
- Communication is essential when trying to persuade people that your product is best. There is no better way to communicate than through blogs. A large percentage of people are now connected to the Internet, allowing nearly anyone to visit your blog, compared to the number of people that would hear about a small announcement in a newspaper, other print source, or through alternative digital means including television. Through online advertising to this blog, you can target an audience that may not have been tapped yet, leading to a stronger demand for your product(s).
- Blogs can add a personal touch to a rather bleak, and money-hungry company with little desire to inform customers what is happening, instead shoving products at them in hopes that they purchase them. Don’t hesitate to add photos, videos, and content that describes what your company is all about. Customers want to feel connected to the object that they have spent their money on.
- Blogs can be used for feedback and insight into what customers want and are looking for in the products or solutions that you provide. It is necessary to create an open-mind approach to the blog, or very few people will leave comment, or email the blog authors.
- You can utilize a membership (RSS feeds) to directly contact customers and loyal readers. Stay ahead of the competition by providing a way for visitors to stay up-to-date on content that is published on your blog.
photo credit: Matthias Rosenkranz
Now What? - Topics to Include
A corporate blog should be fairly open-ended, keeping in mind that it must appeal both to customers, clients, investors, and everyone else in-between. It becomes quite difficult generating content for the blog, especially if there is no news to report on. This blog should represent more than simply what your large clients want to hear. Individuals that buy your product should also be thought of and informed.
- News and Announcements - Small announcements are likely to unfold on a daily basis. Choose a select number of these to report to the general public, possibly compiling a weekly round-up of events, or post a short, daily update.
- Plans and Goals - In this topic, keep investors and capitalists up-to-date on where your company is headed, and progress that has been made since the last quarter or year. Incorporate industry developments and predictions, letting everyone know the standing of your industry.
- Product Reviews, Features, and Benefits - Running an e-commerce site, you want to promote your products you sell as much as possible. Have your employees review products, adding a personal touch through their thoughts onto the blog. It is important to keep the reviews as professional as possible, adding close-up screenshots, videos, and an unbiased review (not overly mentioning competitors’ products).
- Involve Customers - Create surveys and involve your most loyal customers, drawing feedback that will help grow your company. By doing this, customers will also be able to interact with each other through the comments area of the post, if you allow them.
- Company Milestones and “Moments” - Include “personal” moments from your employees’ history at the company, and showcase them on posts in your blog. They don’t necessarily have to be of people, rather than milestones and accomplishments that your company has seen through the years, such as growth.
- Information on Problems - Personally, one of the main things that should be addressed by large companies right now is quality control on the products they produce. It doesn’t necessarily mean that the products should be flawless, but a formal apology should be provided directly on the blog of the website, instead of simply to other media organizations that were “told” to inform the public.
Essentially, you are free to do what you think is best on your blog. It may not even be related to your blog, it could be as far-fetched as personal anecdotes that inspire other people at your company to create better products, provide better assistance, etc., based on what you see happening in relation to your business.
Conclusion
After all the beneficial factors of starting a blog for your small or large business have been set aside, there are only a few downsides, including the fact that you might allow too much transparency and openness from your employees. We’ve seen time and time again that when this happens, the company becomes too lenient on issues that should be addressed. You can’t make the mistakes of not forming a policy on what you should be/allowed to blog about as either an employee or in your own privacy.
An additional factor of business blogging is that you need to keep the blog updated, make the content relevant and not in-your-face, taking a soft-selling approach, and provide something that is creative, encouraging readers to keep coming back. Following these few main principles, you’ll be able to gain a large following after some time and dedication on this sub-project of your main business. To accomplish this could be one of the biggest leaps in consumer-following in your company’s history!
