Central PA corporate bloggers–do it right or don’t do it at all

I’ve felt compelled to write this post for some time, and I’m writing to Central PA openly because I’ve seen a lot of embarrassing trends in my hometown’s Web industry (not the local individual-driven blogging community, which I like to keep up with as well). In particular, I’ve seen the use of corporate blogs as sales tools executed by Harrisburg, Lancaster, and even Reading interactive and advertising agencies.

My message to them: Please, do it right or don’t do it at all.

Why do I make this recommendation (aside from hometown pride)? Well, assuming the traffic stats from Google Analytics aren’t already telling you, let me come out and say that it’s compromising your company’s image as a local tech leader–a leader that truly understands how a tool is used and doesn’t corruptly wield that tool. It might not be immediately apparent now–your clients may applaud your blog’s launch–but unless they’re actively commenting on your posts, chances are they’re either being polite or don’t really subscribe to blogs. Also, keep in mind that the tech-saavy clients you want to service and the talent you may want to hire–or already have–may negatively react to how you use a blog.

Without going into names (since my intention isn’t some witch hunt) here are some of the troublesome characteristics I’ve seen of Central PA’s “Corporate” blogs.

1. Lack of posts. Simply put, this will kill any blog. Make sure you and your team have something meaningful to say. If you’re considering a blog, definitely draw from the advice/experience of an employee that runs their own–even (especially!) if they don’t think it’s a good idea.
2. Welcome to WordPress! syndrome. I’ve come across some un-promoted blog installations that clearly designate the company it was set up by/for, yet have no posts (aside from the “Welcome to WordPress” default post). While I’m sure I wasn’t supposed to find these sites, they’re out in the open, available to be found, and have been in their current state for MONTHS. Bottom line, don’t leave projects like this in the public space as it inadvertently represents your company.
3. Lack of commenting functionality. If you’re not allowing comments, you’re losing a great opportunity to share and learn from your audience. If you’ve disabled comments because of spam, you’re exposing your technical inability to handle the problem. If you’re filtering comments you don’t want, you may want to take a step back and ask what you’re doing wrong.
4. Criticism of national advertising campaigns by (smaller) ad agencies. Granted, there are a lot of poorly executed advertising campaigns out there, but making open criticisms without positive recommendations comes off as, well, whining. Such posts neglect to consider all the unknown factors involved (client, deadlines, budget) in the job.
5. Posting for search engine rankings (SEO). Umm, this is just wrong.
6. Blatant advertising of your firm. If you have an editor that’s moderates your topics or counts your search engine keywords, you’re not using a blog, you’re assembling a sequential advertisement. There are plenty of other places people could read ads if they wanted to.
7. No real opinions posted. If you’re not allowing your authors to freely submit their opinions for fear of having them tarnish your company’s brand, you might want to keep your corporate blog limited to your intranet. Hopefully, your employees are responsible enough to recognize the differences on what to publish and not publish, and an honest post will likely invoke more audience response.
8. Selling blogs to clients. First off, do they want a blog, or do they really want a news section to their site? Do they know the difference, or are they exercising their buzzword vocabulary? If a client hasn’t been motivated enough to set up their own account (which is so easy to do these days, even for those not technically-oriented), they might not realize the effort entailed and could fall victim to #1.
9. Employee embarrassment. Are your employees proud of your blog? Do they read it, or see it as a silly marketing ploy with no real content? Keep in mind that this can really affect your employee morale.

So what makes a successful corporate blog?

1. Start with your employees. If you can’t find an audience with your authors–the very people involved in the industry you’re blogging about, then you probably shouldn’t run a corporate blog.
2. Create a dialogue with your customers, not a sales pitch. Depending on your industry, a corporate blog should make announcements of new product releases from the insider’s perspective–with the goal of getting customer feedback to provide the best product possible.
3. Building an audience shouldn’t be your goal, but rather a welcome side effect. I’ve had the opportunity to work with a number of different firms and seen a lot of successful (as well as failed) blogs. The ones I still subscribe to aren’t out to prove their technical skill or their innovative process, but rather to create a dialogue internally. It’s these blogs–the ones that aren’t out to show off or sell–that end up exposing the company’s talent and selling the company more effectively.

Obviously, I can’t say that I have the definitive answer on how to use a corporate blog successfully, but I do hope this post gets to the right audience and we see less of the current trends in Central PA. If you agree, disagree, or think I missed something, please comment.