Whenever we talk to customers, a few questions seem to come up all the time. This is the first in a new series where we’ll address the most frequent challenges corporate clients face in communicating with their customers.
First up: so you want to start a blog…
- Tailor your blog to your audience and goals. Is your goal to reach investors? Current customers? To support new customer sales? Or to get user input on your products? The content needs to fit your audience. Answer the question: what does this audience care about?
- Define who should be featured on your blog. Never publish anonymous, voice-of-the-company blogs; everything needs an author. Should the primary author of the blog be your CEO or other executive? Or someone from your development team? Do you want to make the blog a fairly open channel with posts from people from across the company, or more of a focused communication from one or a few senior voices?
- Provide useful content – not marketing. Companies that repackage their PR or marketing materials in blog form will not find an audience.
- Post consistently. Many blogs are started, few are maintained. Appoint an internal or external resource to manage the blog and to create a content calendar. Sometimes called an editorial calendar, this lays out key themes and blog topics by date.
- Set the right tone. The concept of voice or tone is critical. Too bland or “corporate” and you lose what is supposed to be a personal message, too edgy or playful and you lose credibility and risk alienating your customers. When in doubt, err towards showing more personality in your blog rather than less; no one will read or remember a boring blog.
- Manage legal risks. Particularly important for an executive blog. Work with your legal counsel to define some “fine print” to minimize risk. Never post on financial results or comment negatively on competitors. You will also need a content approval process for all blogs.
- Manage comments. You need to offer readers a chance to respond with comments – but plan on moderating them to keep off-topic and hostile comments off the blog.
- Work to create an audience. Many corporate sites do not get significant customer traffic. If your site is one of those, your blog will need both compelling content and a sustained demand generation effort to get the awareness, attention, and repeat visits of customers.
- Be patient. Don’t expect instant traffic or results… as any good communicator will tell you, it takes a while to build an audience. Maintain your commitment to corporate blogging and results will follow.
- Add video and audio. Did your company just have a user conference? Did you CEO give a major speech? Take any video or audio clips, extract out a few brief highlights, and post them on the blog with appropriate context. Your users will appreciate it.
Some good examples… The Nuts About Southwest blog is a long-running example of a loose, enthusiastic employee-driven blog. GM’s FastLane blog has been a great communications asset to the company during its recent turmoil. Google’s blog features posts from people at all levels across the company, and gives the company a good forum to discuss upcoming products and innovations.
Last tip: don’t be afraid to reach out for help. Creating and maintaining an effective, customer-focused blog is usually well worth the effort, but it does require substantial work and attention. While you should never outsource your communications completely, the right outside content experts can help you build an audience while still being true to your voice. When we work with clients, we build a process that gives them input and editorial control over all blog posts. For many companies, it’s a great way to get started in corporate blogging.
Happy blogging!
