Corporate Blogging Alphabet - What Is It?

I built this alphabet to showcase what I think are the benefits and best practices of corporate blogging. Not all of these entries will apply to every individual blogging scenario, but they all apply to corporate blogging in general. So here you have them, corporate blogging benefits and best practices … from A to Z.

Accountable

Accountability applies to corporate blogging in two primary ways. With single-author blogs (such as CEO blogs), the author can inspire trust among readers by “owning” his or her commentary. But companies also assume a certain level of accountability for all blogs under their umbrella, regardless of disclosures to to the contrary. So blogging accountability must be carefully considered at both the individual and corporate level.

Believable

Used properly, a corporate blog or CEO blog can make a company more believable. And in the low-trust, post-Enron world of corporate skepticism, a little believability goes a long way. Use your blog to tell an honest story in a passionate way.

Candid

A common mistake in corporate blogging is when organizations use the blog as “website, part two,” shoveling press releases and other corporate literature onto the blog. To achieve the believability mentioned above, a corporate blog must take on the candid, heartfelt voice of the author. Sure, it takes courage to do this (and probably a set of corporate blogging guidelines), but your readers will reward you by becoming advocates.

Direct

Corporate blogs are direct. You write your message, click the “Publish” button, and your words are directly viewable across the Internet. This removes intermediaries from the corporate communication chain. There are no journalists or editors to put their own spin on things. The message goes from the author directly to the audience. Never again will your message be diluted or mis-aligned (unless you do that yourself).

Enthusiastic

In my opinion, only enthusiastic bloggers should be allowed to represent the company. Half-hearted commentary stands out like a purple elephant in the corporate blogosphere. This kind of commentary does more harm than good, whether it comes from the CEO, the communications chief, or Joe Employee. Enthusiasm comes across in blog posts — and it’s contagious.

Flexible

One of the great things about blogs is the versatility with which they can be used. A corporate blog, for example, can be used internally or externally. It can be a news channel, a customer-feedback forum, an educational tool, or a combination of these things.

Google-friendly

And Yahoo-friendly, and MSN-friendly, etc. A corporate blog can help you increase your search engine visibility in a number of ways. For one thing, a blog gives you an easy way to expand your website with new content. If you blog daily for a year, you’ve got 365 new pages of topical content (and 365 new items for people to find through search engines). Blogs are also more “social” than websites, so in time a well-written blog will acquire links from other blogs. This kind of link popularity does wonders for your search engine ranking.

Happening

Nine times out of ten, a corporate blog is more “happening” than its website counterpart. Blogs are easier to update than a regular website. And when you update a blog often with quality content, it becomes an active resource that people are more inclined to revisit.

Informative

When you keep your customers well informed on new products, services or “behind the scenes” company happenings, you increase the likelihood of future business from those customers. Corporate blogging is a simple but effective way to keep people informed.

Jargon-free

Generally, corporate blogs are not the place for corporate speak. At least, not a customer-facing corporate blog. Save that language for your annual report. Business blogs evolved from online diaries, single-author sources of information and insight. Much of this plain-speak expectation carries over to corporate blogs, so the potential power of blogging for business purposes lies within the blog’s frankness, not its jargon.

Knowledgeable

Use your corporate blog to show readers how knowledgeable you are on your subject. When your readers see how much information you have to share on a subject, they’ll recommend your blog to others who are interested in the subject. These are the kinds of readers you want. Just remember, some of your readers will know as much about the subject as you do. So check your facts before posting.

Limitless

Corporate blogs can be configured in endless ways to serve endless roles. They can stand alone, be part of a website, or be part of a larger network of blogs. Because the technical aspects of a corporate blog are limitless, so too are the uses for the blog.

Manageable

Blogs reduce the technical side of web publishing to such a degree that anyone can blog, regardless of their web experience. Blogs are so manageable, in fact, that even a large web presence built on blogging technology can be managed by a single individual. In this way, blogs are only an initial burden on the IT department. Once a blog is setup, it can be managed by the author alone.

Non-invasive

Corporate blogs “pull” readers to the message, rather than “push” the message to the reader. People can sign up for a blog in total privacy, simply by pulling the blog’s RSS feed into their feed reader. In this way, corporate blogs are non-invasive for readers. The readers come to the blog — the blog is not thrust upon them, like other forms of corporate communication. As long as blogs adhere to this non-invasive, respectful approach, they will be held in higher esteem than other communication channels like email.

Operational

Corporate blogs are more than simple communications tools. With their versatility and ease of use, a corporate blog can server operational roles. This might include internal collaboration (like an intranet) or outward instruction (like an interactive Q&A forum). Blogs can be an active part of your organization’s daily operations.

Purposeful

The key to a good blogging experience is to have a purpose. Sure, you can plunge right into corporate blogging and figure out your purpose as you go. That’s part of the appeal. But your blog will be more effective (and easier to produce) if you have a blogging plan and purpose. Maybe your blogging purpose is to educate readers on what goes on behind the scenes at your company. Maybe you want to increase your visibility on the Web. Or maybe the CEO wants to share his ideas on the business to foster interaction. Fill in the blanks as needed, just be sure you have a purpose behind your blogging efforts.

Qualitative and Quantitative

When corporate blogging is done well, it has both a quantitative and qualitative affect. Because blogs are easy to publish, they help you increase the quantity of content on your website. This increases your blog’s value to readers, as well as its visibility to search engines. If the content is also useful and informative to your key audience, the blog adds quality. A well-managed corporate blog can enhance your web presence by adding both quantity and quality.

Reusable

Blog content can be reused for a variety of purposes. For example, if you expand on a blog post (or compile several blog posts), you can create articles that you can syndicate online. This will help you grow your web presence and even more. This is one of the strategies I teach through my blogging guide mentioned at the end of this article. Another example of reusing blog content — Seth Godin’s book Small Is the New Big is simply a compilation of his blog posts over the last few years.

Straightforward

Okay, so this is somewhat repetitive of ‘C’ for candid. But it’s worth repeating. The most popular of the corporate and CEO blogs reached their level of popularity by being straightforward. And here, I’m referring to both the design and the content of the corporate blog. Blogs that are “overly designed” don’t really look like blogs at all. They look like corporate websites, which (I believe) takes away some of their candidness and authenticity. The same is true of blog content. Blog postings that are straightforward and candid will generate more trust, interaction and “buzz” among the blog’s readers than thinly-veiled corporate speak.

Thoughtful

The best corporate blogs are thoughtful. I don’t mean thoughtful in the sense of “kind,” although kindness goes a long way on the Web. I mean thoughtful as in “full of thought.” Blogs with a lot of “fluff” don’t fare well in the corporate blogosphere. So be sure you put some thought into your blog’s content.

Usable

Your corporate blog should be easy to navigate and read. In fact, any blog should be easy to use, or any website for that matter. Web readers and researches are skilled at hopping from site to site. They don’t need much of a reason to bail out on you, and they’ll do just that if your blog is hard to navigate. Review a list of the most widely read blogs on the Internet, and you’ll find they have something in common — they all have simple designs with high levels of usability.

Voluntary

You should blog because you want to, not because you think you have to. If you start a corporate blog just because people say you should, it will lack the heartfelt enthusiasm that’s a hallmark of great blogs. (See ‘E’ for enthusiasm above.)

Wise

Your corporate blog is the ideal place to share your wisdom about your industry. This will help you position yourself as an authority in your field, and will also help foster the trust that’s mentioned under the letter ‘T’ above. Show people what you know about your industry, but do it in a conversational way. A “tip of the day” series is a prime example of this. It’s a great way to share your wisdom, and it’s the kind of thing others will link to if it’s full of useful content or advice.

Xstensible

Okay, so I cheated with this letter. But blogs are certainly extensible (and you try to come up with a good adjective starting with ‘X’). Corporate blogs, business blogs, CEO blogs — any blog — can grow as the company grows. You can add additional authors, additional sections, whatever you need. And it doesn’t require and act of the I.T. gods to get it done. By design, blogging programs are meant to be extensible.

Yours

If you ask me, anonymous blogs are not blogs at all … just plain old websites. A corporate blog can have one author or several authors, but it should be somebody’s blog. It should be yours, or his and hers, or all of yours. Somebody needs to own it. Otherwise, nobody will trust what it has to say.

Zippy

The definition of zippy is “lively and full of energy.” These are great traits for a corporate blogs. Some people equate the word “corporate” with “dull.” Show them otherwise. Inject your personality. Show them the passion you have for your industry. That’s the only thing that will keep them coming back.

* You may republish this article online if you retain the author’s byline and the active hyperlinks below.

About the Author
Brandon Cornett is the publisher of CEO Blog Watch and the author of a new blogging guide. Download your copy of the blogging guide by visiting http://www.ceoblogwatch.com

Corporate blogging makes it possible for people within an organization to communicate with one another by blogging and form communities around projects, products and other areas of common interest. Over the years, several best practices in corporate blogging have evolved.

Corporate blogs are primarily of two kinds internal and external. Internal blogs refer to blogs within the organization that operate behind a firewall. Some organizations have only a single blog to update employees about the latest news and changes implemented. This is far easier to manage, control and ensure that the content adheres to the corporate policies. Some enterprises allow employees to form blogs and share their ideas, though such practices are harder to control. Blogs improve communication, increase knowledge and clear doubts instantly and hence are necessary tools. External blogs are made available on the Internet and can be viewed by anyone. It allows company representatives to communicate with customers, allowing the company to make announcements, get reviews about its products etc.

Best Practices in Corporate Blogging:
1. Creating an open, transparent and honest blog: the blog should give specific details as to who started it, what his position in the company is. Make sure the content is credible and that no attempt is made to hoodwink bloggers as that can severally damage the reputation of the firm when found out.

2. The blog should be created carefully as it is primarily designed to retain existing customers as well as develop interest in the products and recruit new customers. It should develop a community of bloggers who actively participate in blogging, hence the content has to be written by some one experienced and knowledgeable, and they can include links of other blogs that relate to the product or subject of the blog by asking permission from the owners of those blogs.

3. The writing has to be consistent as also the blog policies that have to be enforced.

4. It is essential that corporate seek legal counsel to develop blogging policies such that information shared and posted in blogs can be informative without too much censor as well as comply and conform to the Sarbanes-Oxley rules and other regulations that govern information exchange.

5. Keep updating the blog and make sure to stay committed to the blog.

6. When mistakes occur, make sure that instead of covering up and destroying the corporate image further, the company can quickly acknowledge a mistake was made and make amends.

7. Have adequate tact to deal with negative posts that will dispel doubts about the company or its products, try conversing with such bloggers asking their opinion how your product or services can be improved.

8. The blog must be designed to conform to the usability guidelines.

9. Have a clear idea about the purpose of the blog and have periodic checks to see if it is serving the purpose and if there are benefits.

These are some of the best practices in corporate blogging.
There are firms that offer services as well as products to help run a successful business.

Alexander Gordon is a writer for http://www.smallbusinessconsulting.com - The Small Business Consulting Community. Sign-up for the free success steps newsletter and get our booklet valued at $24.95 for free as a special bonus. The newsletter provides daily strategies on starting and significantly growing a business.

Business Owners all across the country are joining “The Community of Small Business Owners” to receive and provide strategies, insight, tips, support and more on starting, managing, growing, and selling their businesses. As a member, you will have access to true Millionaire Business Owners who will provide strategies and tips from their real-life experiences.

By simply placing the right affiliate links on their high traffic blog, many online entrepreneurs are making some very serious money.

Actually it is a lot simpler than you think because all a blog affiliate has to focus on to start generating a good income from their affiliate program is traffic. The more targeted that traffic arriving at their blog is, the more money they’ll make from their affiliate programs. For instance targeted traffic will tend to click much more at the Adsense ads in search of more information and this will obviously put more money in the pockets of the blog affiliate.

The most effective way for a blog affiliate to generate targeted traffic is through articles marketing. By writing a couple of promotional articles, whose objective will be to direct traffic to the blog, a blog affiliate can end up with lots of highly targeted prospects at their blog. However it is important to note that articles marketing is a special skill that you will need to learn. The good news is that once you’ve acquired the relevant skills and knowledge, there will be no limit to the sort of income that you can earn from your blog.

It is also important that you realize that text affiliate links planted right in the middle of your content will work best to help you maximize on your blog affiliate income.

Learn more about the best home business opportunity from a blogger who rakes in thousands of dollars… and growing from their home business.Also get the bloggers’ amazing free report How I used only free articles marketing to get thousands of hits daily at my site.

You’ve got your blog set up and you’ve started posting pithy, useful information that your niche market would benefit from and enjoy. Days go by, you keep publishing, but no one comments and your traffic stats are barely registering. What do you do?

Like any website you own, you must do some blog promotion to start driving traffic to your site. Here are 16 steps, in no particular order of importance, that you can start doing now to get traffic moving to your blog.

1. Set up a Bloglet subscription form on your blog and invite everyone in your network to subscribe: family, friends, colleagues, clients, associates.

Http://www.bloglet.com

2. Set up a feed on MyYahoo.com so your site gets regularly spidered by the Yahoo search engine (see tutorial on http://www.biztipsblog.com)

http://www.my.yahoo.com

3. Read and comment on other blogs that are in your target niche. Don’t write things like “nice blog” or “great post.” Write intelligent, useful comments with a link to your blog.

4. Use Ping-0-matic to ping blog directories. Do this every time you publish.

http://www.pingomatic.com

5. Submit your blog to traditional search engines:
http://www.submitfire.com

6. Submit your blog to blog directories. The most comprehensive list of directories is on this site:

http://www.masternewmedia.org/rss/top55/

Tip: Create a form to track your submissions; this can take several hours when you first start so schedule an hour a day for submitting or hire a VA to do it for you.

7. Add a link to your blog in your email signature file.

8. Put a link to your blog on every page of your website.

9. If you publish a newsletter, make sure you have a link to your blog in every issue.

10. Include a link to your blog as a standard part of all outgoing correspondence such as autoresponder sequences, sales letters, reports, white papers, etc.

11. Print your blog URL on your business cards, brochures and flyers.

12. Make sure you have an RSS feed URL that people can subscribe to.
The acronym RSS means Rich Site Summary, or some may consider its meaning as Really Simple Syndication. It is a document type that lists updates of websites or blogs available for syndication. These RSS documents (also known as ‘feeds’) may be read using aggregators (news readers). RSS feeds may show headlines only or both headlines and summaries.

To learn how news aggregators/RSS readers work, see this site: http://www.rss-specifications.com/rss-readers.htm

13. Post often to keep attracting your subscribers to come back and refer you to others in their networks; include links to other blogs, articles and websites in your posts

14. Use Trackback links when you quote or refer to other blog posts. What is TrackBack? Essentially what this does is send a message from one server to another server letting it know you have posted a reference to their post. The beauty is that a link to your blog is now included on their site.

15. Write articles to post around the web in article directories. Include a link to your blog in the author info box (See example in our signature below).

16. Make a commitment to blog everyday. 10 minutes a day can help increase your traffic as new content attracts search engine spiders. Put it on your calendar as a task every day at the same time.

Tip: Use a hit counter to track your visitor stats: how many unique visitors, how many page views, average length of visit. You can get a free hit counter at http://www.sitemeter.com

Denise Wakeman of Next Level Partnership, and Patsi Krakoff of Customized Newsletter Services, have teamed up to create blogging classes and marketing services for independent professionals. You can read and subscribe to their blogs at http://www.biztipsblog.com, http://www.coachezines.com and http://www.bizbooknuggets.com

Every year, internet businesses around the world start up without a blog, causing them to fail within the first year or two. You can prevent this by learning how to combine blogging and social bookmarking to earn money.

One: You first need to find all of the relevant social bookmarking sites for your business. Join one or as many as you want to, just make sure that you find sites that are used by a lot of other people. The bigger the social site is the better for your business.

Some of these should include OnlyWire.com, Digg, Google and Yahoo. There really are thousands of sites you can bookmark your blog posts too.

Two: Once you have found the ones that you want to use you want to become active. The more active you are in each social bookmarking site, the more exposure you will get to your blog.

Explore all of the social activities that are available to you and use everyone you can. For example you can increase your traffic when you submit your site to all applicable bookmarks consistently. Not to mention the search engine bait benefits you will see.

Three: You want to make sure that you constantly update your blog and check in at the social bookmarking site a couple of times a week. What will keep people coming back is if you constantly update your content.

Plus adding fresh content will keep search engines spidering it more often as well. You can never get too many visits from a search engine.

Four: Invite your friends and family to use the social bookmarking site. This will help to increase your popularity in the social site, which will mean more traffic for you. And they may even be able to offer you a few content ideas!

Five: Target your niche market that would want your products or services the most. This will help you find other social bookmarking sites for your blog.

Six: Advertise your blog and make sure that the social bookmarking sites that you are a member of are listed on your blog. Encourage others to join and bookmark your site.

All the above are creative ways to handle the issue of social bookmarking, blogging, and earning money. If you can apply several of these to your internet business you too can earn more and grow your business quicker.

Tracey Merrells-Fort is the owner of her own money making website. She helps ordinary people start and run their own home business on the internet. If you really want to make money get the latest home business information at here: ===> http://www.moneymarketingsuccess.com