Nine Corporate Blogging Considerations

    All talk about corporate blogs, including from self-proclaimed “gurus” (to which I can be attributed, in principle), sin exactly one - the lack of specificity.
    Well, that is, to the customer’s specific question “why do I need blogs” everyone answers something unintelligible that everything depends on the situation, on the business and finally. It is clear that everyone is trying to seem smart and knowledgeable, while not trying to be responsible for their words. Consulting is what there!
    Actually, the discussion suffered in the same way, in which I took part in a conference on public relations and reputation . Already tired, indeed. So let's try to reduce the main points of this discussion, as well as my other thoughts on corporate blogging, to the most specific list of points.

    So, nine sound and as far as possible specific considerations for corporate blogs:
    1. A blog is always a living person . In addition to generating smart thoughts, he also eats, walks, gets sick, and even - horror! - pissing and pooping. And of course, he never speaks in emasculated phrases from press releases. Post humanly on your corporate blog.
    2. A blog is always an opinion. Subjectivism is our everything, but the most important thing is the presence of a position . Further, the blogger is also required to be able to clearly convey this position, so he must be able to write. But in itself the ability to write a second time - without an opinion, without ideas, without knowledge, it costs nothing. Therefore, you cannot hire a copywriter for bloggers. It is necessary to entrust this work to a functional specialist.
    3. The logical continuation is that the specialist should be instructed in a rather specific and narrow topic . It may be technology at the core of your business, your product, your market. But it may not be your company. Nobody is interested in the thoughts of a specialist in your company (read - pi * arshchika). Moreover, nobody is interested in your company as such. Her mission, values, brand are all bullshit, which does not bother anyone at all. Write about the case. Good examples are Optimus Keyboard Keyboard Design Product Blog , the expert blog of Misha Elashkin’s office .
    4. When instructing to write to a line specialist, keep in mind that most likely it will not be very interesting for him to work on the company's expert image. He is much more interested in trading his own face. Therefore, either he quietly sabotages this matter, or confines himself to a purely formal approach. And at this time he will simultaneously conduct his own blog. Both that and another are absolutely not necessary for the company. The consequence - or give the specialist the opportunity in the corporate blog to work on their image, too, or entrust the maintenance of the blog to the top manager or owner . They are much more interested in working for a company image that is directly related to their own publicity. By the way, the most interesting personal business blogs belong to either entrepreneurs or top managers.
    5. Returning to the topic of blogs. Russian companies most often do not need the same informational openness that corporate blogging apologists declare. Too much confidential. To turn the tide is a noble task, but not relevant. Therefore, do not write about the internal life of the company - all the same, it comes down to a description of corporate drinking parties and other cultural events . If you are not in the know, they are interesting only to direct participants, to no one else. Therefore, write better about what your business and your employees have competence in.
    6. Blogs are not only another broadcast channel, but also a good tool for getting feedback. Create a thematic community in LiveJournal, as Beeline did, and gather the audience you need there . Firstly, you will receive first-hand information. Secondly, you will seriously increase the loyalty of this audience. Of course, not out of the blue, of course, you have to work hard: write, engage in discussions. Therefore, be prepared to pay your time or salaries of specialist moderators.
    7. Reasonable continuation of the idea of ​​the community - gather users around interesting content and bright personalities . Make them your fans, a support group. Their loyalty will be very useful to you if your competitors decide to use blogs to throw negative about you. A well-coordinated fan group with a hoot and hoot will trample all the negativity - there are no examples of this in the Russian language. At the conference, a good case was announced about the deputy Lebedev and his run over the allegedly existing crack in the foundation of the Federation tower. Can you imagine what kind of jazz could be done there ?
    8. Use your community’s potential to the fullest. Encourage the formation of local authorities - these will be your voluntary evangelical assistants. Allow users generit their content , to express itself Satisfactory approved. They will answer you with thanks and free promotion wherever possible. In the end, take a look at the Apple Computer Owners Community - millions of evangelists around the world. This is the ideal that it makes sense to strive for.
    9. Do not prohibit your employees from blogging.. Do not write bad “corporate policies”; nobody needs them. God forbid you get employees to write a “weekly blog post plan”. In short, there is no need to formalize the process. Adequate people will understand everything themselves. But you do not need inadequate, right? The general words that “on blogs employees should be loyal to the employer and colleagues” - they really do not change anything. In the end, if someone wants to put a pig in your company and merge something, he will do it anyway. But to demotivate the rest, having driven them into the framework of these instructions and policies, you can easily. The same effect will have an attempt to draw up a scheme of “approval” of texts in the blog. Return to the first and second points: a blog is a specific person with his own opinion, and not a consolidated position of the pi * ar department,


    Well, the last tip - just write. At least sometimes. At least somehow. The main thing is to write.

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