Social Media Marketing

Is blogging right for your company?

     Blogging has become an integral part of a successful social media campaign. Any company, from a mom and pop business to a billion dollar corporation can benefit from blogging. Maintaining a blog can be a lot of work, and and investment in time and resources, but the pay off can be huge. A good blog can build loyalty and attract new customers.

     From an organizational structure, there are pros and cons to blogging. Will you have one person handle your blog? Or several people? If one person does the blogging, it will probably be more uniform, but that will be more work for them. And what happens if they leave the company? If several people work on the blog, you could receive more blog entries, but they could be conflicting in style or substance. Also, if several people work on the blog, there's the issue of people working together coherently. And some companies are hiring someone outside the company to handle their blog. This comes with it's own challenges, such as the cost and the fact that they may not have the product knowledge or passion that someone within the company has.

     Whichever direction a company takes, it's important to have skilled, knowledgeable people manage and cultivate the companies presence on social media. Maintaining a blog for your company will take a commitment in time, and therefore money. However, never before has a company had the possibility of reaching so many people, for relatively so little. The technology available today makes it easy to start a blog. The tricky part is maintaining a creative, interesting blog that will be a positive reflection of your company. Keep in mind, whatever you put out there, good or bad, will stay out there. As with anything your company does, if you're going to maintain a website, invest, research, commit and do it well.

Tips for marketers in developing and maintaining corporate blogs

     For marketers interested in developing and maintaining corporate blogs, I would suggest several things. It's important to start with a plan, figure out exactly who you're trying to target, and write for them. It's great to want to dive in and get started, but be sure the powers that be are agreed on a set of goals and you're all on the same page.

     The look and feel of the website has to be interesting, aesthetically pleasing and original. People aren't going to stick around if your blog is just a boring cookie cutter of every other blog. It's important to have relevant information, and to update your blog regularly. If customers know you always update on regularly, on a certain day of the week they're more likely to check back. Better yet, build as rss feed to remind them of your blog. The more interesting, informative blog posts you have, the more likely you are to build a following.

     Also, ask for comments, suggestions and ideas, and respond in a timely manner when you do receive feedback. Building trust and a relationship with your readers is smart business. If people take the time to comment on your blog, be sure to acknowledge it.

     And of course, integrate and link to Twitter, Facebook, and other social media sites as well.

Here are some corporate blogs that I think are really well done and effective:

The Anne Taintor blog. http://annetaintor.com/ati/ It combines a great look, easy to navigate site, humor, and also asks for interaction. People submit ideas and they choose the finalist, and then the public can vote on a winner. This keeps people coming back over and over, to see who won, and for a chance to win prizes. They also link to their products, information about their products, as well as their writers. They actually reply to posts, and add to their blog regularly. A good blog, along with being interesting, builds a relationship with readers.

The lulu blog is all about self publishing. http://www.lulu.com/blog/ Their blog is interesting, fun, easy to use and informative. What more could you ask for? I liked it right away. This is just really pretty, lots of eye candy.

The Apple website - always updating with new, interesting content, and looks great.

Better Homes and Gardens has an incredible amount of information.

Pepsi has great brand identity, and a surprising amount of interesting content, including videos and contests.

Madison Magazine has a lot of content, is updated regularly, is visually appealing and easy to navigate.

Any great corporate blogs that blow you away? We'd love to check them out, feel free to post the link in the comments section below.