Maybe you are thinking, why should I have a blog? Why should I care? Well you should care. With almost 50 million blogs, and equally as many conversations going on, it is impossible to ignore. Most likely there is already a conversation going on which is relevant to your company. And if you have any doubts then try to type in your company name at http://technorati.com/ and see what comes up, or better yet type in your competitor’s name.
University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Center for Marketing Research have made a report called “Behind the Scenes in the Blogosphere”. Take their advice on the best way to promote a blog. The report, like the blogosphere itself, is based on conversation with some of the biggest and most successful bloggers.*

1. Blogs take time and commitment
When making a blog you have to be aware of the fact that it takes time. More than you will probably think. 31% spend 1-3 hours a day on their blog. Two-thirds of the bloggers spend less than an hour. A good blog is a blog that is often updated with new and interesting posts. Remember to add additional time if the corporate communication team needs to review the posts as well.

2. Blogs must be part of a plan
According to one of the bloggers from the survey “a blog requires a plan. Without a plan, the blog is going to fail within three months.” You need to have a focus on your blog. “Have a purpose in mind and method for measuring success. Don’t just use it because everyone else does.” To maximize the potential of the blog, it must be viewed as part of the overall package and voice of the organization. 85% of the bloggers reported that they had a public policy regulating conversation on their blog.

3. A blog is a conversation
“Don’t start a blog unless you have people in your organization ready to post on it daily in an open, friendly, and excited tone. A blog is a conversation. Don’t open the line unless you are ready to really talk. The popularity of your blog is directly related to frequent posting, open and honest dialogues” explains one of the bloggers. The difference between a website and a blog is that on the blog you can have a twoway conversation. A website is a one-way communication. With the blog you can start a dialogue with your customers, test new ideas, discuss product lines among other things.

4. Transparency, authenticity, and focus are good. Bland is bad.
“Be transparent and authentic. Make it genuine, make it interesting, have guest authors talking about all aspects of your business. Make it real and have the right people talking about product innovation, not the PR people.” When the consumers see that the postings are transparent and authentic they will start contributing to the blog. This will create rich new data sources and create great relationships with the consumers.

Check out the blogosphere
If you are still uncertain about creating a corporate blog you can just start out by surveying the blogosphere. In this way you can follow what’s going on and find out if people are saying positive, negative or incorrect things about the company. Maybe you can learn from it. And then if you feel ready and up for it you can create your first blog, and start the conversation with the consumers.







* To see list of participating bloggers go to www.umassd.edu/cmr. Among the interviewed bloggers are Henry Copeland of BlogAds, Janet Johnson from Marqui, and Theresa Valdez from Business. Those are some of the highest rated business blogs.

Sources: www.umassd.edu/cmr, www.marqui.com/blog, Nora Ganim Barnes-Ph.D