Is Your Company “Social?”
It is common knowledge that publishing a blog offers great opportunities for direct communication helping to inform people that might know nothing about the company and reaching current customers on a one-to-one basis.
A single blog can be beneficial to an organization, but did you know that Google has 150 blogs that is attracting a total of 10 million visitors each month? Whew! Google obviously is a great example of companies that are committed to corporate blogs and demonstrate effective ways to connect with their customers, promote the exchange of ideas as well as bring visibility to valued employees and their great work.
eMarketer recently reported that one in three companies in the United States has a corporate blog, with an estimate that proportion is due to increase to 43 percent by 2012.
Needless to say, there is not a one-size-fits-all to corporate blogs as their are various approaches to consider. Google has a team-driven approach so when someone wants to start a blog, more than one employee must agree to participate and the topic must be approved in advance.
Other companies assign freelance journalists to report and write articles that are published on the blog and then company appointed staff provide additional contributions. Or another approach can be a bit more flexible where a single employee can take ownership of a blog in order to bring a voice and personality to the posts.
There are obvious blogging guidelines that all companies should clarify before establishing a company blog – don’t violate non-disclosure agreements; don’t be rude or pick fights, etc. Additionally, it’s always best to stick with best practices such as ensure the communication is naturally conversational rather than corporate. Always be sure to correct any error that might have occurred in a post and be sure to have a system in place to review posts before publishing. It is also critical that someone in the company is the champion for corporate bloggers with a profile similiar to a newspaper or magazine editor that also has the understanding of a new-media guru. It’s definitely time to find this person and get your company in the ‘social’ environment!