THE PRACTITIONER

I recently contributed an article to 1to1 Media about how companies need blogs that engage audiences and start conversations. This, I know, is not earth shattering advice. However, the focus of the article was about how corporate blogs provide a unique opportunity to build credibility and a following for a company by maintaining content that is transparent and authentic.

One of the most interesting responses I received to this article was from the marketing team at a tech software, who asked me to take a look at their corporate blog and make some recommendations as to how they can improve their efforts. This particular company is a relatively unknown brand outside of its customer base so the counsel I provided was specific to their brand goals.  The great news is, they are doing a great job. The tone of the blog is right, the topics are relevant to their industry, and there are good annotations of sourced content. These are crucial components, and they nailed them. However, my employees will be the first to say that in my agency I believe there is always an opportunity to improve. The following is the advice I gave this company, and the advice I would like to share with you.

-       Focus the posts on the issues your customers face (i.e. what business issue does your product address), not the product’s features or functionality. The corporate blog should not be viewed as another marketing opportunity to tout your product’s latest functionality. In fact, I would advise to not mention product names at all in a post. If you want to get a point across about what your product can do for customers, discuss the real business value a product offers by focusing on the pain points it solves.  Then, use a sidebar or a section labeled Additional Information to link to the product page.

-       Make a conscious effort to develop posts that present the opportunity to extend your company’s credibility — especially if your brand is not yet established — by mentioning and linking to industry-specific, non-competitive references.  This will increase your brand awareness to interested parties who follow the non-competing brand. Do the same with influential 3rd party companies, which offers the additional benefit of making your company appear to be “plugged in” to recent, relevant industry reports, news and events. As it should be.

-       Identify opportunities to comment and add professional insight on non-competitive blogs, specifically those your target market and audience reads,  but don’t “sell.”  When signing the comment, make sure you include your company’s url.  It’s an excellent opportunity to leave a breadcrumb to your website or blog for prospects or potential business partners.

-       If you mention well-known name brands in a post, hyperlink to the urls.  Will it improve your SEO? No, but you might get noticed by someone at the company or who follows them on social networking sites, and all are potential prospects. If they like the content they read on your blog, they’ll come back for more or subscribe.

-       Assign more than one company author – not just anyone, of course – to add to the organization’s online voice and your company’s overall Thought Leadership program.  If your Marketing VP is the sole voice of the blog today, I recommend expanding that by one or two people. Each of these personalities will have their own following (or will build it) and it will bring you increased exposure and brand awareness. Strategically assign roles in the conversation so each author becomes the subject matter expert for a particular topic.

All of the above will help you market your blog to potential readers and prospects and improve your credibility. What blogging tactics have you employed that has led to success? What new tactics are you testing today and what is the desired outcome?

Steve is President of Wunderkind Public Relations. He regularly comments on public relations strategy, social media and trends impacting the communications industry. You can follow him on Twitter or connect with him on LinkedIn.