Facebook Fan Page is the hottest trend today as almost everybody I know is looking at this medium to target their audience.
However, as much as Fan Pages are hot these days, I feel it works better as a channel rather than a content platform. A channel similar to Twitter but the difference is that you can add video, photos, audio and interaction with your fans.
But what about corporate blogging? Is it passé?
I wouldn’t say corporate blogging is passé but the problem lies in getting the authors to blog.
Some designated authors have a great start in putting up one post and the enthusiasm disappears after that one post. Talk about a one post wonder.
Usually most of the designated authors will respond saying they have no time to blog.
I don’t find this statement surprising. I don’t think time is the issue, it is the inertia to start that post is the biggest cause of the problem.
I have thought of these problems and have some suggested solutions for them, but I would like to touch on the importance of corporate blogging.
The corporate blog can be your anchor point to all your other social networking activities. This means that if you are looking at Facebook Fan Page or Twitter as part of your social media activities, what better but to link it back your blog than to link to third party sites.
The way a blog is structured also helps with getting visibility on Google search. This is because one of the variables of the Google equation looks at how often the site is updated. Hence, once you have a new post up on a blog, it becomes number one and to the Google engine, that is an updated site.
Furthermore, search spiders usually scan the page from top down left right. Hence, if you are smart enough to put the right keywords in the title or as early in the first two paragraphs of your blog, you will more likely achieve basic SEO.
Content is still king and it is what the Internet strives on. Hence, the more content you put on your corporate blog, the more visibility you get for the company.
Though the importance of blogging is laid out clearly, you would need to solve the problems that comes with it.
The biggest problem of corporate blogging is overcoming that inertia of posting.
Every experience writer will tell you that for every story starting is always the most difficult. Once you get started, the words start flowing.
For a corporate person who is responsible for numbers, sales and marketing, it won’t be surprising that his/her inertia is greater than that of a seasoned writer.
One solution I have is that the company hires an external blogger to blog from a third party point of view, something similar to a journalist interviewing a spokesperson from the company.
Of course, the blogger would have to put up the usual disclaimer. But this overcomes the cons of ghost blogging. I don’t believe in ghost blogging as I feel that an individual style of writing is as unique as fingerprints.
No two styles can be the same and once that ghost blogger is gone, it is hard to replicate the style.
Also, to regularly beef up content for the corporate blog, come up with a blogging editorial calendar.
If you already are engaging a third party to blog, get the third party blogger to work with your PR, Marketing and Sales team to come up with an editorial calendar which allows for each department to know when a subject will be blogged about.
This provide time for research which is vital for any article or post. Furthermore, once the post is up, the PR, Marketing and Sales team will be able to use that post to send it to their target audience. All you need is a link!
If you are interested to start a corporate blog and would like some advice, just drop a comment or send me a private mail at aaronkoh(at)gmail.com.
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