Introduction to Corporate Blogging - WATConsult.com

Introduction to Corporate Blogging & Blog Marketing Strategies by Rajiv Dingra Chief Blogger - WATblog.com Lead WATconsultant – WATconsult.com

Should Your Company Blog?
Ten years ago, people used to ask : "Should we get email?" Then eventually everybody got email. Next they asked, "Do we really need a website?" Eventually, once search got good and their customers started to go online, the answer became "yes" and many businesses (but not all of them) went online. Nowadays, whenever I give a talk on blogs, wikis and Web 2.0, I get this question: "Should OUR company blog?"
The answer to that is absolutely, unequivocally, "YES".

What’s the value of blogging in business?
Corporate blogs can impact almost every part of your business - internal and external, all departments, all functions. Instead of simply being JUST a corporate communications channel, they can also be used to impact almost every aspect of your business. Let's look at some of those areas by exploring what companies have done in the real world.

Branding
Sun's CEO Jonathan Schwartz says : "The perception of Sun as a faithful and authentic tech company is now very strong. What blogs have done has autheticated the Sun brand better than a billion dollar ad campaign could have done."
Benefits/Objectives of Corporate Blogging

Google Rank
Blogging gives the writer good "Google rank", more than almost all other search engine optimization tricks combined. This is a result of the way blogs work mechanically - they ping the engines and ask to be re-indexed when you post something. This results in higher ranking on the search page. This one reason alone should be enough to encourage any company to blog.
You could be on the front page of Google or Yahoo! when prospects search for your services and you could save money on Search Engine Marketing

Finding, Hiring, and Training Great People
By having your smart and creative people out there blogging, they will attract more smart and creative people. Almost every Microsoft blogger interviewed has pointed to blogging's advantages as a recruiting tool.
There are two HR blogs at Microsoft giving advice on applying to Microsoft and demystiying the process.

Market Research
Watch and learn. There are a lot of people who have a lot of opinions about every corporation, and they're having conversations. That's free market research. A corporation that is afraid of the participation that comes with conversation has larger problems. And rather than just viewing the blogs, you can have your people note them, debate them, discuss them, and extract lessons from them.
This is cheap qualitative research! Take advantage of it!

Innovation
Blogs can act as a part of a system that sees your company engaging its customers, partners, suppliers, and employees in the discovery, ranking, and application of new product innovations throughout the business.
IBM has taken this to the extreme and created their Innovation Jam process which allowed IBMers, their clients, business partners, and family members to brainstorm online. Then they will fund up to $100M worth of follow-through on those ideas.

Have new markets find YOU
In a case documented by Robert Scoble a world famous blogger, DL Byron had blogged about his invention that allows people to seal anything they want between two sheets of plastic. He marketed it for biking and hiking, but other users soon found him including hazardous waste and nuclear labs, Scuba, aerospace, dairy farms, body bags, and organ donor deliveries, commercial coffee bean packaging, and a great deal more!!!

Marketing
Blogs can be used to establish thought leadership. There are a lot of blogs out there it's true. But we're still at a stage where a blogger can quickly become one of the leading voices simply by being very focused on their niche.
Even in the business space, there are still relatively few top bloggers in every business category so if your content is compelling and you can market yourself to the other bloggers in your space, it is possible to become well-known in your niche relatively quickly

Building community
Community isn't a technical infrastructure. Community is a group of people with a shared interest, context, language, and history. But blogs are means to building a community of people. There are communities that emerge around certain subjects.
And a community of readers who read your blog and love it could be great positive influencers for your business!

Transparency and Authenticity
Blogs allow your company to move from opacity to transparency, from generic corporate speak to authentic humans talking about their work.
In an age of corporate mistrust, this is not to be underestimated!!

Direct access to your customer
Blogs are a direct (public) channel of communication from you and your people to your customers/partners/vendors. They are the only channel of this kind that is this cost-effective.
This alone is reason enough to blog!

Concerns
There are also some concerns that you might have before you start a corporate blog! I shall address them now..
Concerns of Corporate Blogging

Losing control
"Losing control" of what people are saying about you!
You never HAD control of the what people say about you. People have been talking about your company for years. And now they're blogging. You can't control the message. Get over it. But you CAN join the conversation and make sure your side of the story is heard!

Somebody will say something bad about me/us/our product
If what people say its true its an opportunity for you to learn and improve!
And if people do say something about your product that is untrue, you have an opportunity to correct it by responding appropriately!

What can WATConsult do for You?
Corporate Blogging and Marketing Blogs are fast becoming a powerful way to draw traffic and convince your audience that you have the strongest ideas and products in your marketplace. WATConsult has recognized the growing importance of blogs for search engine optimization, thought leadership and product development.
WATConsult can help your company develop a successful corporate blogging presence on the web by consulting on the following points.
How can WATConsult Help You?

Blogging Content Strategy
Blogging Content Strategy to identify your company's primary marketing objectives and to estimate/calculate how business blogging can help support those objectives.
We develop a blogging content strategy by researching your business, competitors and customers .

Blog Marketing Strategy
Blog Marketing Strategy is tied into the development of a blogging strategy.
We use experience to develop the blog in away that will get your blog highly ranked on search engines!

Blogging Platform Choice
Blogging Platform Choice is important if you are going to build a blog that allows comments, trackbacks, and really builds a successful audience through RSS, e-mail and by demonstrating the authority of your blog.
WATConsult will help you to pick the best platform for your company or help you develop the right one.

Blogging Outreach Strategy
Blogging Outreach Strategy is important, if you are going to build a successful blog in terms of links and standing in your industry.
Through assessment of your industry’s online media landscape we will research blogs, websites and forums where you should post and blog about on your own corporate blog.

Negative Blogs Management
Negative Blogs Management is very important! Your customers, competitors, suppliers, vendors may be blogging about negative experiences with your brand! This needs to be responded to and addressed in the appropriate manner
Through assessment of the blogosphere and we will research blogs, websites and forums where you are being talked about and shall devise an action plan to respond to those negative comments, blogs, posts in an appropriate manner that not only protects your brand image but enhances your corporate identity.

Communications Planning
Communications Planning for your company involves planning for quick response to negative and positive PR situations.
Working directly with you we can advise you on how to respond to online crisis situations.

Blog Writing
Blog Writing requires knowledge and discipline, if your staff cannot write due to time or resources, we can help find you the best writer for your blog. .

Measurable Results
We bring measurability to your corporate blogging efforts. We help you achieve goals set for your blog and also measure numbers that would reflect the performance of your corporate blog.

Thank you
Rajiv Dingra
Chief Blogger - WATblog.com
Lead WATconsultant – WATconsult.com
(M) - +91-9820761167
Email – [email_address]

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Introduction to Corporate Blogging - WATConsult.com

by rajivdingra on Feb 18, 2007

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Introduction to Corporate Blogging - WATConsult.com — Presentation Transcript