Sunday, February 22, 2009

Corporate Blogging: A new marketing communication tool for companies


Corporate blogs are giving established companies and obscure brands alike the ability to connect with their audiences on a more personal level, build trust, collect valuable feedback and foster strengthened business relationships. More importantly, these companies are enjoying tangible returns in their blogging investment in the form of increased sales, partnerships, business opportunities, press coverage and lead generation.

Corporate blog can be very useful for an organization. It can be divided to two types which are internal blog and external blog. An internal blog is normally accessed through the corporation's Intranet. It helps the employees communicate with each others and share their experiences. It also helps the communication between different layers of management. The employees of an organization can exchange their opinion and discuss their expertise which will help in their daily work.

An external blog is a blog that can be view by public. Public can leave their comment in the blog. It is useful for organizations to get the direct feedback from the customers. By using the external corporate blog, companies can communicate with clients, employees, the media, prospective employees or customers. Corporate organizations can even conduct their public relations activities through blogging by posting press releases and updates about new company products and services on the blog. The corporate blog become a platform for the most direct communication between the corporate organizations with outsiders. It will help in building better relationship with customers. Blogging is less formal and customers will fell more comfortable to communicate with the organizations.













Corporate Blogging Risks

1) Negative Comments. Companies are often very sensitive to criticism. Negative comments can be offset somewhat with a consistent and clear comment and moderation policy. Also, most readers tend to trust a site more that includes both positive and negative information.

2) Neglect- Companies need to spend time and incur costs to maintain and update their blogs regularly.

3) Misunderstanding the Audience-The blog audience is not the same as the company’s typical customer base, as blog readers are universally more tech-savvy, up-to-date on industry news, and more passionate about the company’s products and the organization, and also likely to be highly critical of dishonesty or insincerity.

Blogs are basically beneficial to the company if used well, and a menace if used poorly. Therefore, companies which participate in blogging should reduce its risks by managing effectively with the correct corporate blogging strategy to the benefit of their companies.

Five Tips to Succeed Corporate Blogging, which is available at http://blog.planetdomain.com
1.Plan Ahead and Post Regularly
2.Be Original and Fresh
3.Personality Counts
4.Social Media Means “Social”
5.Write Well, or Find Someone Who Can

Top 10 Corporate Blog Rankings

(you may click on the link to view the corporate blog)


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