Creating a corporate blog
I help a number of organisations with corporate blogs and I have run several seminars and workshops for marketing and PR folk about blogging. This experience has made me realise that blogging is high on their agenda but often misunderstood.
- It’s an education sale. Even when people have heard about the concept of blogging, they are often unclear about what it actually involves, what works and what doesn’t. The most common misconception is that only one person can write a blog. Another is that it will involve unbridled reader criticism in comments. There are some good examples of corporate team blogs and corporate marketing sites that work well: Southwest Airlines and the Boeing marketing blog).
- You have to allay their fears before you can appeal to their ambition. People in big companies rely on agencies like PR companies and marcomms (and, yes, copywriters like me). Writing makes them nervous. Similarly, they don’t have much free time. (Who does?) Also, they are very nervous about going public with something new that might get them fired. Addressing these concerns is critical. Running the blog like a magazine with contributions, interviews and proper editing with tone of voice guidelines helps because it is familiar territory to most marketing departments.
- Marketing matters. In big companies, marketing departments care a lot about whether the blog will conform to company design and style guides. Prototypes are helpful in addressing their concerns.
- Oh no! It’s the IT department. Sometimes you have to use a blogging platform that is safe but not as feature rich as, say, WordPress. Big company IT departments are often, understandably reluctant to let you deviate from company standards.
- It takes longer. With my own blog, I decided to do it on a Monday and I had built it by the Wednesday. All the corporate blogs I have been involved with took months to get started.
- More people are involved. Getting things done is a meeting-heavy and consensus-driven process that, as an entrepreneur and also as a blogger, I find alien. However, it’s how big companies work.
Technorati Tags: GTD, corporate blogs, blogs, blogging, marketing
James Brown wrote:
Thank you for your insight. We are considering something similar for our company but haven’t taken the large leap yet. One point I would love to see you expand on is, as you put it, “unbridled reader criticism in comments”. Obviously, in a large company you can’t please 100% of your customers 100% of the time. How do you deal with a customer that posts something derogatory (whether it is true or not) on your corporate blog? Do you delete it and contact them directly? Address them in the comment? Moderate the comments before they are posted? Thank you for any direction you can provide.
Posted on 25-Jun-07 at 3:45 pm | Permalink
10,000 Marshmallows Daily Links 2007-06-25 - 10,000 Marshmallows - Marketing Accountability: How to eat 10,000 Marshmallows wrote:
[...] Bad Language: Creating a corporate blog “People in big companies rely on agencies like PR companies and marcomms (and, yes, copywriters like me). Writing makes them nervous. Similarly, they don’t have much free time. (Who does?) Also, they are very nervous about going public with something new that might get them fired. Addressing these concerns is critical.” [...]
Posted on 25-Jun-07 at 6:52 pm | Permalink
Matthew Stibbe wrote:
In the case of HP, they developed a corporate policy for blogging and dealing with comments: http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/blogs/codeofconduct.html. However, interpretation of these guidelines really depends on the nature and context of the problem. I suspect that common sense is the best guide but since we only just launched it is perhaps too early to say.
Posted on 25-Jun-07 at 7:32 pm | Permalink