Corporate Blogs in a Social World
Corporate blogs are alive and thriving, yet require nurturing to avoid becoming irrelevant and obsolete. Care is needed to ensure they complement, rather than compete, with an organization's initiatives on Twitter, Facebook, and other social networks.
So what are best practices for corporate blogs?
These are the best practices according to Google, MintLife, and Adobe.
Be conversational. That means avoiding "corporate speak." For instance, Google's watch list includes words and phrases: innovative, exciting, unique, we're proud to announce, or here at Google…
Own up to errors. If there's an error in a post, correct it and let readers know what was updated.
Avoid removing posts. Remember, once on the Web, always on the Web. If you delete a controversial post after it's published, you may spend more time explaining why you killed it. Consider creating a system for reviewing posts before publication.
Shutter inactive blogs. Keep the content online, but note that the blog will no longer be updated. Consider referring website visitors to other relevant content.
Share analytics with bloggers. Let contributors know how many unique visitors saw their post or provide other metrics so they can gauge their performance. Wickre, for one, looks forward to when tools permit better analysis across social networks.
Support your corporate bloggers. Someone must be a champion for corporate bloggers. Whether that person has the title of editor-in-chief, corporate communications manager, or community manager, the position requires the chops of an old-fashioned newspaper or magazine editor and the intuition of a new-media guru.
To read more about corporate blogging, click here.
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