Ilana, CEO
Bill, Evangelist
Gwyne, PR
2 years ago
Honest and engaging corporate blogs
Among other social media activities, executives at large corporations increasingly feel pressured to have a blog to communicate with customers and partners - but what does that mean? Blogs are informal journals of a sort, and have over the years become a popular way for people to engage in conversations with others in their industry or sphere of influence. But exactly how to have a conversation with your customers is more complex than it looks. Don’t take your blog lightly: it needs a strategy, and it needs to be on topic, credible, interactive, and valuable to readers — among other things. By conducting one-on-one interviews with people reacting to corporate blogs, we discovered some golden nuggets for success. This is the first of two articles about corporate blogging.
1. Negative is positive. It’s generally not a sapient tactic to use your blog as a mouthpiece to promote your wonderful company and its “leading” products and services. People want the real scoop: what are the issues customers are complaining about and what are you doing to solve them? What are the needs and desires of your customers that you are developing into valuable offerings? Where did your last product or service fall short? As well, don’t hide negative comments to your blog. All comments are a positive contribution to the discussion unless they are offensive or inappropriate in some manner. We have seen that blogs with only positive feedback are not only deemed suspicious by readers, but can do more damage than good. Be honest and forthright, and readers will come back.
