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.

2. Stay on topic. I cannot emphasize this tip enough. Readers don’t want to be surprised: if your business sells industrial products but your blogs discuss alternative health and organic foods, no one’s going to come back. Don’t be afraid to talk about what you sell and to demonstrate your knowledge, even if you think it’s somehow not worthy of discussion in the blogosphere. Case in point: Shell Energy has a fabulous blog featuring an automotive industry expert who calls himself Dr. FuelGood. He talks about vehicle performance and delivers tips such as how to winterize your car and select the right fuels. The information is perfectly on target for a company in the fuel industry yet doesn’t directly sell Shell products. Plus, it’s fun to read.

On the flipside, AT&T sponsors a blog called Calm, Cool and Connected. It features “AT&T moms and dads” who write about teenagers and texting, new shopping apps, family vacations, and posts disguised as product advertisements for mobile phones. The people we interviewed who read the blog couldn’t figure out why AT&T had a blog for parents. They also were turned off by the ads. Remember: blogs are not a form of online advertising - they are a way to give people insight into the company, its values, and its processes, and blogs should not even remotely resemble an ad!

3. The best blogs have a real and engaging person behind them. You don’t have to be a comedian, but if you can write in a way that connects with others, using copy that is clean, easy to read, and delivers thought-provoking analyses, you have the makings of a blog with lots of followers. For example, the CEO of JetBlue blogged about his travel hassles, such as getting delayed, and he also has apologized for his airline’s customer snafus. Ideally, the blogger (or bloggers, if you have more than one person contributing) should be a high-level executive or an expert in the company’s industry. Personality is paramount to a corporate blog’s longevity.

You may have noticed that I just wrote that the JetBlue CEO “blogged”. That’s right. He had a good run for a few years but the last post was more than two years ago. This leads me to another tip which we will discuss more in the next post: consistency. There’s no strict rule of thumb, but certainly if you can’t keep up some form of regular blogging, take down the page! Consistency and high-quality content leads to critical mass, which leads to more readers which leads to more comments which leads to viral marketing success. And then of course there’s the need to promote your blog…more on that later. What are your thoughts on how to manage a corporate blog that creates conversations and community?