Should your company blog?

There are a lot of blog posts out there about whether companies should create blogs of their own. Blogging seems to be an entry point that most marketing people can easily wrap their heads around. For me it's always come down to five questions and the answer to all five has to be yes. Those five questions are:

1. Are you listening to your online community? - Are you spending a minimum of two hours a day searching, reading Google alerts or using a monitoring tool like Radian6?
2. Do you have something unique to say? - How will you differetntiate yourself from other blogs and other companies? This could be your people, the information you publish or other forms of thought leadership.
3. Are you willing and able to say it? - Can you talk about your industry and are you willing to put it out there?
4. Are you willing to be challenged and criticized? - This goes with the turf. You have to be able to facilitate conversation in a respectful manner to grow a community.
5. Are you willing and able to dedicate the resources to succeed? - People always underestimate this one. A good rule for this to succeed is to have one person dedicated to the success of your strategy for a minimum of 4 hours per day (2 hours of which is listening and commenting). That is one half of a full time person's week. Have staffing plans in place as you grow and start realizing your success.

Here is a visual decision tree that I use to see if clients/readers/individuals should create a blog. I'm a visual person and these help me think things through.

So, should my company blog?

My caveats:

• Identifying a voice is a next step once you're past this point
• I know not everyone should create a blog, but it's what companies "get"
• A blog is not always the ideal entry point with every audience, audience analysis will tell you more

What are your thoughts on this? Would you add any other questions? Do you think any of these are not necessary? Let me know what you think.

Technorati Tags:
blogging, conversations, marketing, Matt Dickman, research, social media, strategy, Techno//Marketer, listening

Comments

[Dan Harris]

Matt,

As someone in the trenches within an organization that is considering corporate blogging I can add to your outstanding decision tree and list. As a business it's not just about saying something that is unique.

The prospects, customers, and influencers need to gain some form of value from your content. If a reader can walk away and feel they have achieved at least one of the four forms of value, which are: Will this blog and it's entries and links save me money? Will it help advance my cause at work or in my personal life? Will the information presented help me protect what I own? or will this post help me make money or improve my financial position?
If the answers to one or more of these questions is yes, and your company can create a blog that has a unique message and is delivering value-driven posts and commentary on a regular basis, I believe it would be a good investment and enable the company to communicate the corporate message, socialize and cultivate the brand in the markets the company competes.

Another modification or perhaps a completely different post. Should Your Company Blog Internally, External, or Both?

When cultivating a brand, inspiring employees, positioning strategy, I strongly believe a two-way interaction is healthy and beneficial for organizations. So, maybe, your company isn't ready to blog to the external world, but it could be a good thing to test the waters internally.

Intranets that many companies deploy are focused on one-way communications. Blogs on intranets would open up a whole new opportunity to share, teach, inform and open communications with employees.

The point you make about being challenged and criticized brings up another question a company would have to answer. What is your policy on moderating your blog? Is it completely open, semi-open, or highly moderated. If it is perceived as a highly moderated, good news only offering you will more than likly fail to attract and retain readers. Blogs are one way companies can become more transparent. If your company is not open to that then I would say a blog is probably not going to be effective.

Thank you for contining to deliver value-driven content and resources.

Dan Harris
Twitter: @8101Harris
www.danonit.com

[Marcel LeBrun]

Hi Matt,
This is very very sound advice, in my opinion. I see too many advising companies to jump into blogging without answering these questions and I think you have captured the key questions very well.

As I read this I thought of two more steps/questions, depending on the company, that I might ask right after your listening step.

1. Based on your listening, are you regularly commenting on relevant blogs/posts that mention your brand, particularly if it is your customers blogging and they are raising issues, suggesting ideas, or advocating for your brand?

2. Have you broadened your listening beyond your brand and and do you participate in conversations that your brand relates to online (i.e. through commenting on blogs that discuss things in your industry, etc.)?

The reason I might ask these questions is this. If a company decides they want to start blogging but they are not yet responding to their customers questions in blogs, then their effort might not seem genuine (i.e. will people believe that the company truly wants to engage or will they feel that it just wants to send more one way messages?). Also, if you are not comfortable commenting on blogs, it will be a lot harder to be effective at regularly maintaining your own blog and dealing with the comments that come your way.

I love your last question, "Are you willing and able to dedicate the resources needed? No? Listen harder.". Well said.

Great post - if you are ok with it, I may use these questions in presentations (with credit, of course)?

Marcel

[Marcel LeBrun]

Hi Matt,
This is very very sound advice, in my opinion. I see too many advising companies to jump into blogging without answering these questions and I think you have captured the key questions very well.

As I read this I thought of two more steps/questions, depending on the company, that I might ask right after your listening step.

1. Based on your listening, are you regularly commenting on relevant blogs/posts that mention your brand, particularly if it is your customers blogging and they are raising issues, suggesting ideas, or advocating for your brand?

2. Have you broadened your listening beyond your brand and and do you participate in conversations that your brand relates to online (i.e. through commenting on blogs that discuss things in your industry, etc.)?

The reason I might ask these questions is this. If a company decides they want to start blogging but they are not yet responding to their customers questions in blogs, then their effort might not seem genuine (i.e. will people believe that the company truly wants to engage or will they feel that it just wants to send more one way messages?). Also, if you are not comfortable commenting on blogs, it will be a lot harder to be effective at regularly maintaining your own blog and dealing with the comments that come your way.

I love your last question, "Are you willing and able to dedicate the resources needed? No? Listen harder.". Well said.

Great post - if you are ok with it, I may use these questions in presentations (with credit, of course)?

Marcel

[Todd And]

Wow, I felt like I was reading David Armano for a second when I saw that visual decision tree. Nice job and great graphic!

[Doug Meacham]

Hey Matt; Great post! I would add a subpoint to the "do you have something unique to say" which is "don't use you blog as just another advertising channel". I've seen many company blogs that simply inform people about products and services.

[Cari]

Hi Matt,

I totally agree with you. Companies need to be listening to online conversations that are relevant to their company and industry. And if they have something interesting to say, they should be getting involved in those conversations.

We are starting a buzz marketing company that is similar to Radian6. So for those companies that know they need to be involved in the conversation and don't have the time or knowledge to do it, we buzz for them.

We will also be releasing a consumer version of our software in the next couple months that allows companies to self serve.

Cari
Buzz.io

[Valeria Maltoni]

Looks like I should have been sending people here instead of posting about corporate blogging ;-)

I'm with Dan on the value. A lot of the content we post may not be "original" in that it's been said before, but the POV and exposition provide value - like your graphic, for example - in addition to what we feel we may already know. The content is also an excuse of sorts to get to know each other, to develop a relationship, stay connected.

[Ryan G]

Challenge and criticism should be used as a tool to improve.

[Patrick Byers]

Nice job, Matt.

I'm asked the "should my company blog?" question all of the time.

Fact is, it's not always a good idea.

You created a nice initial framework to think it through, and I've drafted a blog post that will go live on 10/10 and link back here on the Responsible Marketing Blog.

Keep up the good work.

Patrick Byers
http://responsiblemarketing.com

[Jon D. Wilke]

Perfect Matt.

This post helped my decision to be "YES."

Now, I need to line up the contributors and
get the programmers buzzing.

Jon

[solarismania]

I will try your suggestion, because i'm new in blogging. thanks Matt

[Jon Keefe]

Hi Matt
Picked up on this a bit late. You are right with all that you say. You use the words "willing and able" in your flow chart. I agree an organisation has to be social media ready before it dives in and that means a number of boxes being ticked.
http://bit.ly/drSRX
Personally I don't think many comapnies understand what that means.
Jon Keefe

[muhammad yaqoob]

i love it.
Every organization should see this post must. there is enough material to convince.