Tag Archives: corporate blog

Corporate Blogging Best Practices

Posted on October 3, 2012 by | 1 Comment

Action shot of our manager of blogger relations Tom Hynes, blogging.

Recently, we hosted a webinar with Jeff Corvin of KCSA on best practices for corporate blogging. Everyone wants to know how their company, how their brand can blog well. And while I may have the word “blogger” in my title, Jeff’s a CEO who blogs. In other words, we were lucky to have him on hand to provide a great example of how to blog well.

Jeff’s not only a great blogger, but he also gets it. By that, I mean he sees the benefit of a good corporate blog.  I thought I knew all the benefits of a solid blogging strategy, but even I learned a thing or two during our hour together.

“Our blog is a way to reinforce our brand,” said Corvin.  “The blog creates a real window into our corporate culture.”

It’s also worth noting that every employee of KCSA is encouraged to contribute to the company blog.  And, like most of KCSA’s blog strategy, this is smart for a few reasons. For one, have you ever tried to blog every day? It’s hard coming up with content. Best to have a stable of authors to help shoulder the load.

Secondly, blogging boosts morale. Writing a blog post can be a nice distraction to a static work routine. The blog then becomes everyone’s property. What’s more, when asking an employee to write a blog post, you’re essentially gaining the exposure of their individual social circles. Put another way, if someone writes a blog post, they’re probably going to want to promote it. They’re probably going to want to share it with the people they know. And that means more eyeballs on your company blog.

To that end, Corvin also encourages utilizing the occasional guest blogger. Not only do you get their outside perspective, but you also get the benefit of being exposed to their audiences.

Finally, consistent blogging helps SEO. And that makes sense. SEO is an algorithm controlled by logic. The more you publish, the more you link, the more you get shared, the higher up you’ll appear in search.

“Blogs must have a clear message, provide actionable advice, and reinforce position,” said Corvin. “Plus personality.”

And I think that last point is pretty important. Jeff Corvin and KCSA provide a great example of effective blogging. But, even on a more macro level personality, or tone, or voice, or whatever you want to call it is crucial to successful blogging. All too often, people lose their voice when they blog. It’s as though the written word is seen as this precious thing that must be treated delicately. And, hey, look, the written word is a really great thing! But bloggers shouldn’t be afraid to write how they speak. If you don’t speak in long-winded sentences that run on and on, then why would you write like that?

Furthermore, blogs should have an angle. When I think of the word “angle,” I think of a point of view or a perspective, sure. But I also think of the word’s literal meaning in geometry. I think of two lines meeting at one point. Great blogs have a perspective, but they’re also often an intersection of subjects.

Take for example Tight Laces in 50 Places. This is a blog about a guy who wants to run a half marathon in every state. It’s a running blog, but it’s also about travel. More often than not, people don’t actually want to read about food, fashion, home design, or whatever. They want to read about how all of those things play into people’s lives. They want to hear from human beings.

It’s no surprise Corvin stressed the importance of having a personality when blogging.

To hear the webinar in full, click here.

Author Tom Hynes is PR Newswire’s manager of blogger relations. And as you may have guessed, he has a twitter account.

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In the Company of Bloggers: Where Enthusiasm Lives.

Posted on May 30, 2012 by | 1 Comment

Earlier this year, Inc. magazine published the results of a survey of the social media strategies and planning of the Inc. 500.  Titled “The Inc. 500 Social Media Update: Blogging Declines as Newer Tools Rule” the study got a lot of attention, and decline in corporate blogging was put under the microscope.

The decline in blogging surprised me, given the increased interest in content marketing.  After all, blogging is a constant exercise in content creation.  So why have so many brands abandoned blogging? I had a bit of an epiphany a couple nights ago that offers an answer.

The personal side:

First, some context.  I really enjoy social media.  Updates from friends old and new pack my Facebook news feed.  Twitter and LinkedIn are invaluable professional networks.  Pinterest is full of inspiration and dazzling eye-candy, as are Tumblr, Instagram and (an admittedly old-school favorite of mine,) Flickr.  But for me, blogging is at the core of my social experience.

I have two personal blogs (one on mushroom hunting, and one on a specific horseback riding sport) and I obviously spend a lot of time writing for the Beyond PR blog, too.  As much as I enjoy social media, I like writing even more.  And even more than I like writing, I like reading.  For me, the blogosphere has been a gift.

I was thinking about this a few nights ago, as I raced home from a riding lesson, itching to blog. What a strange sentiment, right?  While I did kick off my dirty boots before firing up my laptop that was my only concession to creature comfort.  I wanted to record some thoughts from my lesson even more than I wanted to shower off layers of sunscreen, bug spray and general barn grime.   I tapped away furiously at my keyboard, and hit “publish.”

Was it time for that shower?  No.  It was time to read some other blogs.  It was time for my reward.

I love catching up with the favorites on my blogroll, learning from their experiences, commenting on their posts and responding to the comments they leave for me.  These are some really nice people, most know a lot more about the sport than me (and are more accomplished) and they are generous with their advice.

And finally, we’ve reached the point of my little aforementioned epiphany.  There’s more to this little cluster of bloggers than simply positive reinforcement.  Within this loose association of people is a community, and one that is highly, highly specific, focused on a particular type of horse (retired racehorses) and a specific riding discipline (dressage.)   In terms of subject matter and interest, this is the needle in the haystack.   And like most bloggers, we have a real connection from our shared common interest.   We pay attention to what each other says, we share links and product information, and we respect each others’ opinions.   This is where enthusiasm lives.

For me, this is where things get interesting from a marketing and communications standpoint.   When we talk about “targeting audiences” we’re really talking about finding nodes of connected people who care about a subject enough to write about it, obsess about it and build tribes of their peers.

The “tribes of peers” notion is very real.  This coterie of bloggers with a similar (and very narrow) interest is also active on Facebook and a variety of internet discussion forums.   In addition influencing each other, we influence others, too.   Collectively, we have an audience of thousands of fellow equestrians.

Taking the time to find people who share common ground with your brand – and are in fact passionate about related issues – is an invaluable piece of community building, and it’s necessary for your brand to build traction with an audience.

The business context:

I’ve developed similar relationships with fellow bloggers and thinkers in the PR community, who share my focus on the intersection of interest, intent and messaging.  I’ve met some of them in person, we’ve shared ideas and promoted each other’s blog posts and white papers, and we’ve given each other access to beta tests, speaking opportunities and un-published content.   As a vendor to the PR space, these interactions are invaluable to PR Newswire’s brand and business.  As a person who is really interested in this stuff, these interactions are rewarding, informative and help me build the network of socially connected, like-minded people who are also talking and writing about these topics.  Another word to describe these folks is influencers.

So I guess don’t have much patience for those who say corporate blogs don’t work.  Blogging is incredibly powerful if you do it right.  Like all other social media pursuits, it needs to be authentic and in tune with the audience.  Ghost-written, ego-driven missives espousing the brand’s POV, issued from the ivory tower, will not gain traction with readers.  Ultimately, the blogger has to care about the subject.  From caring comes credibility and passion, two qualities no successful blog lacks.  To win, you have to have some enthusiasm for the subject!

Author Sarah Skerik is PR Newswire’s vice president of social media.  She’s the author of the free eBook, Unlocking Social Media for PR.

PR Newswire loves bloggers as much as I do.  We recently launched PR Newswire for Bloggers, a site dedicated to serving the blogger community.  There, bloggers can access featured news releases, a free widget for adding relevant content to their sites and a host of other services designed to help blogs thrive.

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6 Tips For Improving Corporate Blog Content

Posted on February 8, 2012 by | 1 Comment

Photo via Voanews.com

A number of prognosticators have decreed that blogs are in varying degrees of death, fueled last year by Pew Research Center studies in 2010 and 2011, which suggested that young people are gravitating toward social networking; and by study from The Center for Marketing Research (UMass – Dartmouth) that suggested corporations are following suit.

When I look at the results our blog has garnered – more than 140,000 reads since inception, with lots of re-blogging and even media pick up of our posts, and growing visibility in search engines – I wonder at the larger corporate trend away from blogging.  Why would any sensible organization close such an invaluable communications channel?

Well, there are probably a few reasons.  Obviously, you have to publish good content people will read.  But anyone who runs a blog will tell you that content generation can be challenging, to say the very least.  And it can be tough for the organization to understand the need to put the audience first, and not try to stuff straight marketing messaging down the channel. I’ve rejected a host of blog posts penned by my colleagues that were little more than sales pitches – not exactly the kind of content we’ve come to purvey on Beyond PR.

Here are some tips on developing content your audience will value, derived from my experience running the Beyond PR blog.

  • Be authentic.  Say no to ghosts.  They’re creepy.
  • Be useful to your audience.  Say no to posts that aren’t useful to your readers.  Posts that aren’t germane to your blog’s mission dilute your overall message, and your value to readers, causing their attention to wane.
  • Notice which posts articles are read (and shared) more than others.   The simple act of paying attention to your own analytics will illustrate in no uncertain terms what content your audience likes, and which blog posts were duds.
  •  Mine referring search engine terms for story ideas. I notice that we get queries that are adjacent to some of the content we have published.  Often, the queries are looking for more specific details related to that content.  When I see queries recur, that (to me, at least) is an indicator of a real opportunity to fill a need.
  •  Trawl industry message boards, notice the questions that recur, and answer them in blog posts.   This is pretty obvious, too.  Discussions generating a lot of traction on message boards and in discussion groups are obviously of interest to the audience.  I have taken cues from several of these, even reaching out and quoting people from the original discussion in the ensuing blog post.
  • As much as possible, diversify the voices on the blog, while making sure the content still fits with the blog’s overall mission.  Ours is to inform, educate (and maybe entertain a bit.)  New features from one of ProfNet’s writers, Grace Lavigne (author of the Grammar Hammer and Dear Gracie) have proven popular, and have expanded our subject matter.

Here at PR Newswire, this little blog is more than a cog in our social media wheel – you could argue that it’s our hub.  We participate in a variety of networks, most notably Twitter, where our lively presence has garnered more than 50,000 followers.  Our Twitter team is active participants and curators, gathering and sharing information.  But it’s on the blog that we’re able to really do our thinking, to expand beyond the limits of 140 characters, and share with our audience more of our perspective.  And the original content we publish on the blog is more fodder for all of our other social networks.  Clearly, our friends/fans/followers and connections appreciate our sharing blog content, because about a third of our blog traffic comes from links we’ve shared on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

I believe that corporate blogs that exist to share information and showcase expertise have a healthy future as the lynchpin in content marketing and social media strategies.   What do you think? Has your organization backed away from blogging?

Sarah Skerik is PR Newswire’s vice president of social media, and is the author of the free ebook Unlocking Social Media for PR.

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