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Blogging for Business posted on Monday, 15 December 2008

Blogging is by no means a new phenomenon, but in the business sector marketers are still grappling with how to effectively incorporate this trend into their branding strategy.

For most, creating a blog is unnerving. With a blog, corporations lose a certain amount of control over their brand and how it is perceived online. This apprehension is not unfounded, but in most instances, companies have a great deal to gain from engaging with their online users. The two-way dialogue that blogs encourage is an extremely valuable tool for companies to gauge the predilections and opinions of their consumer base, and blogs also afford organizations the ability to correct any misinformation or counteract negative publicity.

Bringing the conversation into a business-sponsored forum is one way to maintain management over the content of a blog. By administering one’s own blog, a company has the power to monitor and deny any postings; this is crucial to keeping SPAM off of a blog and maintaining a consistent tone of voice. Businesses with blogs do, however, need to be careful that their ability to monitor a blog does not evolve into stifling negative feedback or censorship. Users will not return to the blog if they know their comments will fall on deaf ears or never be posted - and what’s the use of a blog that no one visits?

If negative comments are posted, the best way to handle them is to respond. Of course it will never be possible to respond to each and every post, but if a user cares enough to provide feedback, the least a company can do is acknowledge it. This is after all the core benefit of having a blog (or responding to comments on another third-party blog); it opens the lines of communications with consumers—which will ultimately allow companies to fine-tune marketing messages, value propositions, and maybe even their product/service.

After a business decides to create a blog and gathers the necessary resources to manage and contribute to it, there are some guidelines that must be thought about.

One consideration is who will be given access to it. Recently there have been issues with employees spreading brand tarnishing information on a company-sponsored forum. It is extremely important for companies to set boundaries for what can and cannot be posted on their blog without oppressing contributors’ need to express themselves. It is a fine line, but if businesses can set expectations, they will be better off in the long run. I also suggest establishing a schedule for contributors, so people know when they are expected to post. This will help keep content fresh, and give users a reason to return.

As I alluded to above, managing a blog is paramount to creating a successful online community. Resources are needed to answer questions, respond to user posts and to generally keep an eye on the place. There are countless companies that decided to embark on a blog, and then essentially let it die because it is neglected.

Engaging with users on a blog should not be a scary proposition, but it is not a decision that should be made casually either. To do well, blogs take work and continual management, but the payouts can be significant if companies take note of what their users are saying. If not on their own blog, I still urge businesses to engage with consumers online in anyway that makes sense for their particular organization. The conversation is already underway, the decisions just lies in how to join in.

Posted by Holly Matson