Corporate Blogging

As the competition among corporations becomes more intense, not only do the companies need to survive, they also need to look for opportunities to be conspicuous.

Even though traditional media has been a solid medium that communicates the company messaging to the world for a long time, the trends of information consumption are evolving.

After some initial doubtfulness, companies are starting to realise the importance of blogging.

According to a research, 61 companies out of the Fortune 500 companies or 12.2% of the Fortune 500 are blogging as of 17 April 2009.


Corporate blog refers to blog that is published and used by organisation to attain its organisational goals.

The main advantage of blogs is that readers can reach and follow the posts and comments easily since the hosting is centralised and conversation threads are generally structured.

At present, all major browsers such as Firefox, Opera, Safari and Internet Explorer 8 support RSS technology, which allows readers to read new posts easily without having to visit the blog. This is particularly useful for small-volume blogs.

Generally, there are six types of corporate blogs, which are sales blog, relationship blogs, branding blogs, knowledge blogs, collaboration blogs and culture blogs. These blogs can then be classified into either external or internal.


Internal blogs

Internal blogs are blogs that can be viewed by any employee and are usually accessed through the corporation’s Intranet. Internal blogs include knowledge blogs, collaboration blogs and culture blogs.

External blogs
External blogs refers to blogs that are made public where company employees, teams and spokespersons share their views. Sales blogs, relationship blogs and branding blogs fall under this category.

For more information about these six types of blogs, please visit http://www.corporateblogging.info/2004/08/six-types-of-business-blogs.asp.

Benefits of corporate blogging

I) Build rapport with customers

II) Provide two-way conversation

III) Increase website traffic from higher search engine rankings

IV) Position business as thought leader

V) Lead generation

For more information, please visit http://buzzmedia.com.my/blog/corporate-blogging-breakdown-what-is-it-and-why-does-my-organisation-need-it

Tips for corporate blogger

1) Know yourself

2) Know your audience

3) Engage your audience

4) Stay current

5) Cover your rear

For more details on tips for corporate blogger, please click here.

Followings are some of the more popular corporate blogs:

Google Blog

Adobe

Direct2Dell

GM Fast Lane

The number of corporate bloggers is increasing and it is expected that it will continue to increase in the future.

In order to compete with other corporations and keep up with the trends, corporations should start blogging if they have not done so.

In conclusion, corporate blog is a new, powerful marketing communication tool for every organisation.

Regardless of whether the organisation is small or large, small medium enterprises or corporations, for-profit or non profit organisations, as long as it is done correctly, corporate blogging can yield a huge Return on Blog.

References:

Corporate blog - Wikipedia

Do's and don'ts of corporate blogging

Top 15 corporate blogs