MediaVision Blog : Search Engine Marketing

A corporate blog can be a potent business tool for many companies, as long as effort is made to keep it up to date and relevant. A corporate blog can act as that vital connection between the organisation and the public (especially if it is an international org.), as well as a portal of views and advice on the particular industry or services offered.

With blogs being rather easy to setup, many companies have invested their time, knowledge and commitment to corporate blogs. But a major concern is how long they will last in today’s demanding working world? For most people, the working day is already pretty full, crammed with new assignments, meeting after meeting, and business travel etc. Without being specifically assigned to the blog (sometimes even when they are), many corporate members move it to the bottom of their to-do list, and the task often gets forgotten.

Keeping the company’s blog regularly updated is not an easy task, it is often too much for one person to handle, unless that is their only function, but even then it can become tedious. Many experts say that it is better to have numerous members of the company contribute towards the blog on a regular basis, so that fresh content is submitted on a regular basis, and it remains appealing for industry peers and consumers.

According to Lee Odden of Toprankblog.com, there are five reasons why corporate blogs fail:
• Not planning key objectives for your blog

• Having unrealistic expectations and failing to allocate resources effectively

• Not sourcing enough content for the long term can hinder your blog’s versatility

• Having only one person contribute restricts the free flow of ideas and limits the number of newsworthy topics that you can cover.

• Not having any feedback mechanisms (for example, analytics), which would allow you to access vital information that could contribute to effectively intertwining the blog with other components of the marketing plan, and ultimately reinforce the corporate message and brand.

The final point that Odden makes is that companies often think that they can setup and manage the blog successfully on their own. This misconception is often unmasked a few months into the blog, when things start to die down and new ideas begin to run low. Soon enough the last post appears to have been made over a month ago. It is never a bad move to call in an experienced consultant to provide strategic and tactical insight into what is necessary to make your blog a success.

Blogging is not an easy job to master, to some it may come naturally, but to most it is a challenge to have to churn out worthy news every day/week/month. However, the benefits of having a blog are often well worth the effort. It is a way of developing relationships with customers, and reaching a larger potential market than you would with only a corporate website. But to ensure it produces benefits for the company, proper and consistent management of the blog needs to be firmly established.