Cool Marketing Thoughts

CorporateBlogging has a free pdf paper on the what, where and how of … corporate blogging. Be sure to check out the 14 steps to a good business blog, it contains a lot of relevant information. I’ve selected some important paragraphs to catch the essence, but you should read the entire primer to be completely up to date.

“From a business perspective there are several potential reasons to blog. But, as always, it depends on what you want.”

Blogs are no different from channels like video, print, audio, presentations and so on. They all deliver results – but of varying kind. The kind you can expect from blogs is mainly about
stronger relations with important target groups.

Become the Expert

Position yourself and your company as the thought leader of
your business.

Customer Relationships

In a forum where your main objective is not to sell, you’ll have a more personal relationship between you and your customers. Blogs are a fast way to join the customers’ discussions, provide tips and insights or receive feedback.

Media Relations

It’s every PR consultant’s dream to create a channel where media regularly check what you have to say, instead of media just being passive – sometimes indifferent – recipients of press
releases.

Internal Collaboration

Use blogs as a workspace where project members keep each other updated without wasting time writing reports or searching the Outlook inbox.

Knowledge Management

Blogs works in two ways. First of all, they’re an easy way for the readers to find information and resources they want or need. That’s obvious and could be used internally in many
organizations. Second, blogs are a kind of “university light” for the blogger. Blogging is on-the-job learning.

Recruitment

If you establish your company as a thought leader, people in your business will pay attention. They’ll read and discuss what you have to say. Chances are good they will see you as an
attractive employer.

Test ideas or products

A blog is informal. It’s part of a conversation where people (often) can comment, and the blog can provide you with a measure of value. Publish an idea and see if it generates interest. Does anyone link to you? What do they say?

Rank high in search engines

Well, this has nothing to do with relations. But Google and other search engines reward sites that are updated often, that link to other sites and most importantly, that have many inbound
links. Start a blog at your regular site and your ranking will boost.”

Further in this pdf, Fredrik Wacka also determines six types of blogs.

 

Every type is explained by describing the purpose of the blog, the target group and the blogger (person or organization).

Download the free corporate primer [here] (414kb)
Online : [14 steps to your business blog]
Related : StartUpJournal’s article Three Myths on Boosting Search Engine Rankings from Sarah E. Needleman