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Trylon has
been writing about blogs and possible PR opportunities
for a couple of years now, and many marketers are
beginning to catch on. Companies such as Microsoft have
started using blogs as communication tools. If you have
been thinking about starting a company blog, here are a
couple of ideas and cautions.
First, many
programs are available out of the box for your blog
infrastructure. There’s no need to try to reinvent the
wheel; just pick one of the available blogging tools and
learn to use it effectively.
Be sure to
keep your content fresh. Unless you plan on updating
your blog often and regularly, you may not want to start
one. Stale blogs turn people off, and the last thing you
want to create is another reputation liability.
Make it easy
for people to learn about new blog postings and offer an
opportunity for them to sign up for RSS feeds (see
story.) That will keep people coming back to your blog,
building the kind of repeat traffic and communication
that a blog can do best.
Monitor your
links on a regular basis. There’s nothing worse than
someone clicking a link on your blog and getting an
error message – users will blame your company for it.
Have a
search function within your blog directory so that
people can easily find the posts that apply to their
interests. This exhibits concern and care for your
readers and makes it easy for them to consider using
your blog as a reference tool.
Decide how
“open” you want your blog to be. Should everyone be
allowed to post messages? Negative posts can become very
troublesome. Many blogs allow anyone to post, but won’t
publish postings until they have been reviewed by the
blogmaster.. This approach allows honest feedback and
keeps negative posts off the site.
Finally,
make a true commitment. Have a team dedicated to
updating the blog and taking responsibility. While a
well-kept and fresh blog can enhance your company’s
messaging, a poorly kept one can do quite a bit of
damage.
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