A few months ago, a former colleague posted about the “Death of Corporate Blogging” and posed some interesting thoughts about what is preventing organizations from having success with one of the primary social media tools.
The reality is, marketers have put too much pressure on individual resources to generate results and create the highly desired “relationship” with the organizations target audience. They’ve been led to believe that a handful of internal bloggers can drive traffic, conversions and leads at a significant rate. The result of this has had a disappointing impact:
- Loss of personality
- Increase in promotional posts
- Decrease in frequency
- Consolidation of human resources
Several organizations are banking on internal experts alone to develop lasting relationships with key influencers online through blogs. To the credit of these internal resources, they give it a valiant effort and are typically excited to represent the organization publicly. However, stakeholders typically have false expectations on the impact these individuals can have on the greater digital dialogue.
Anyone blogging on behalf of an organization recognizes that to develop lasting relationships with key influencers they need to cut through the noise. They need to rise above the deluge of others fighting for the same attention. Yet they rarely receive the information, content or support they need to truly get noticed.
Years ago, we stressed that personality and commitment was paramount to successful blogging. Trying to turn someone with a certain expertise into a blogger, etc. and have them operate within guidelines that are not natural to them is essentially a waste of time. Some companies took that advice and brought in people to do the job (Ford, etc.). Others, failed too frequently and turned their attention to Facebook and Twitter thinking it was easier and that a branded presence would meet their social media ROI.
The reality is, a corporate blog still offers a value to the brand that Facebook and Twitter will never match. You just need to be smart in how you use it, integrate it into your other activities and what you ask of those individuals who will represent your brand in the digital world.
Here are some things to remember before you put too much pressure on valued resources:
- Corporate bloggers should not be responsible for ROI
- Avoid adding input or advising every post
- Do not force them to manufacture relationships
- Do not expect them to develop valuable relationships through the digital space only
- Include them in conversations about product/business direction – Let them break news
- They don’t have to be an expert in all aspects of the company, but make sure they are connected to everyone who is (I doubt Scott Monty can clean a Fuel Injection system, but he can probably connect you to someone who can)
- Don’t expect them to do it alone!
One blog with one author buried somewhere in cyberspace suggests to readers that your chosen blogger doesn’t really have the authority they are looking for. Additionally, who is helping that one blogger share links, connect with others and make introductions?
If you want a leg up on succeeding with a corporate blog, work on developing relationships internally, before expecting “Jim” from Product Development to do it on his own. A blog that is widely read internally is frequently distributed externally.
