December 16th, 2008 by Christoph Maeurer
Original article by David Nelles (translated by Nils Maier)
A lot has been said about Do’s and Don’ts of corporate blogging. On his latest posting, Jeremiah Owyang enlists a quite meaningful set of rules for companies, in which each of these steps should in the end lead to the ultimate direct dialog with consumers. Basically there are eight main points, which should be taken seriously into account by communication executives.
1. Writing style:
How you write indicates how real you can truly be
Great: Blog is written in a human voice
Bad: Content looks vetted by corp comm.
Horrible: Rehashed press release
The written style of blog must be distinguishable from the art of the company’s communication. A blog is mostly about personal statements and evaluation. Hence, a blog should not be written like a press release, but instead it should reflect in overall the personal evaluation of the author. In a corporate blog, it should be about granting authors the possibility for personal touch.
2. Topics:
What does the blog talk about? does it matter to marketing –or customers?
Great: Discusses the lifestyle (or workstyle) of actual customers.
Good: Discusses the wider industry topics
Horrible: The corporate blog exclusively talks about the company
We think, one should consider corporate blog as a medium and it must provide customers with added values. Keeping this in mind, a good content is one, which relates to everyday work and life of consumers/target group. For examples, mobile phones provider should talk about trends and new offers concerning the mobile phones usage and respectively a travel agency’s blog should inform its reader about vaccination and travel trends.
3. Humility:
Perhaps one of the most important attributes, how human and real is this blog, or is it giving lip service?
Great: Admits when wrong and discusses in open the short comings of the company and product and demonstrates in public how it will be improved
Good: Admits shortcomings but combats and defends the criticism, also known as spin
Bad: Only discusses the company in the best possible light, and may link, but not take on critics
Horrible: Never discuss the short comings of the company on the blog
A corporate weblog should be the place for real and honest dialogs. To achieve honest conversations with readers, it’s pretty essential for communication executives to be able to deal with criticisms. Surely, it’s not easy for communication execs to admit mistakes about their products or services publicly, but in particular this ability to communicate openly belongs indeed to the area of communications. Thereby, only an authentic dialog with consumers – even if it means admitting own mistakes – could lead to a long lasting consumer relation. The danger of losing control – in the area of brand communications- increases immensely, if companies do not take criticisms seriously and react upon them accordingly.
4. Linking Behavior:
Links are the currency of the blogosphere, it indicates you respect someone else’s opinion so much that you’re willing to send them away from you.
Great: Links out to other sources, even competitors or critics as well as the next listed
Good: Links out to other sources, where other discussions are occurring
Bad: Primarily links to corporate created content 25% of the time
Horrible: Primarily links to corporate created content over 50% of the time
This point is in particular very important. The basic fundamental in social media is about sharing content. A good link to other weblogs enables users to form own opinions as well as to improve their knowledge in a fast and efficient way. The incessantly links to own articles give both readers and consumers no real added values. From economics point of view, one could call this kind of behavior as zero sum game. Thereby, links to other information sources are inevitable in order to realize a Win -Win situation for both corporate blog and readers.
5. Customer Inclusion:
Do corporate blogs allow their customers to partake? or are they only second class citizens
Good: Allows for customers to guest blog, or includes snippets of their experiences
Bad: Content is only published by employees
It could certainly be an interesting approach to involve consumers in the editorial creation of blog, but convincing marketers of this idea is yet another story. But that does not mean, one should not even try it. For me, this kind of approach is still new and speaking from experience, it’s really quite difficult for German companies to even recruit their own executives to blog for the companies. So, I think it will surely be more difficult to persuade consumers to write for a corporate blog. Still, there is nothing more authentic than the consumer’s testimonials written on the corporate blog.
6. Dialog:
Allowing for feedback can instill more trust
Great: Comments enabled and published instantly
Good: Comments enabled but reviewed causing time delay
Bad: Trackbacks only
Horrible: No comments allowed
Without questions, the best case scenario is for consumers to be able to use commentary section without any limitations. If company does want to enter into a real dialog with consumers, then this is a needed characteristic. I couldn’t agree more with Jeremiah: no comments policy is definitely the worst case ever. A weblog is a communication medium with feedback channel, if one doesn’t want to allow it then one should steer away from it.
7. Comment Moderation:
Blogs that allow for disagreeing comments are more real –and interesting.
Great: Comments (other than spam or off topic) are allowed, including direct disagreements
Bad: Negative comments are censored or altered
Horrible: No negative comments allowed
When company communicates, then be it on the right path. Deleting critical comments about companies or products is definitely not the best strategy for a corporate blog. As communication execs don’t actually delete the bad comments, but rather these comments are actually going into other channels, which probably harder to monitor or to control. In this kind of medium, one has to handle critics wisely and sees it as a chance. With open dialog company can try to placate the critics and foremost win them back as happy consumers. Company’s censorship would only achieve the opposite effect: long lasting dissatisfied consumers.
8. Frequency:
While more isn’t always better, having a steady rhythm of content is important
Good: A steady publication rate of posts appropriate to the speed of that market
Bad: Posts appear at a random rate, often starting off with apologies for not posting
Horrible: Posts appear to either promote the company during an announcement –or to combat a competitor
Authentic dialog as well as the regular feed of weblog with content is the key to success. This point is often underestimated by companies. The creation and physical appearance of weblog is by far not the whole concept and for certain it won’t keep potential avid readers interested. The success lies instead in the frequently production of weblog’s content – content in foreseen and manageable interval.
The corporate weblog can be a very important element in the field of communications. This applies to marketing as well as to internal and external company’s communication. Hence, companies must be brave enough to step up and be consciously aware of all the consequences. The rules of brand communications have changed through social media. If a company with a corporate weblog wants to engage in communications with user generated content channels, it must take the fundamentals rules in this area to heart: an eye to eye dialog with consumers – authentic, direct and open for criticisms.
