Need more creativity in finding a niche for your corporate blog

tish — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 13:20:04 -0500

Corporate blogs can be much more creative than a CEO or the techie folks publishing a blog. A corporate blog ought to render some value to the company and to its customers -- otherwise, who are the corporate bloggers speaking to and what is the value? And if the blog is pure marketing/advertising focused -- as some truly are, it just becomes another Web page. Take a look at my new corporate blog for Midwest Airlines. Serves the customers -- and potential customers, while it serves the company in a very non-commercial format.
tish

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This is not a fad: Corporate Blogging

Elana Centor — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 09:02:39 -0500

Saying she wanted to write the "uncool" blogging book, blogging consultant Debbie Weil set out to write a "how-to" book for corporations who have heard about the power of blogs but not sure how it fits into their business model. Released in August 2006, Weil says her books is targeted to corporate-minded people.

While she is a obvious proponent of corporate blogging, Weil says that there are some pitfalls--particularly if a company promotes customer service on their blog and then customer's actual experiences don't match up.

Weil recently chatted about the book, blogging and where she thinks corporate blogging is headed.You can re

You can read more about Weil's blog on her blog:BlogWrite for CEOS

Corporate Blogging does have its detractors. Amy Gahran, on her blog The Right Conversation links to a post called Why Jonathan Schwartz should not be blogging by Dave Taylor and then shares her thoughts on why most CEOs should not blog.

"As anyone who's worked in or with corporations for more than five minutes can attest, often CEOs are the last
people who can speak to the public in a relaxed, human voice. This is
especially true for text blogs where you're dealing with the written
word.

In my experience, most top-level executives are horrible
writers. Worse, they loathe writing and they aren't emotionally
prepared to handle open comments. They're more comfortable giving
speeches and interviews -- which might make them better candidates for
a podcast."

As for Taylor's rationale for CEOs keeping being nonbloggers:

The most important issue, however, is that the CEO is not the person in a company responsible for communicating with customers and the marketplace. Indeed, the traditional role of a Chief Executive Officer is to raise money. That's it. They're responsible for contributing to the strategic direction of the company, but most typically not the tactics.

Look at this another way: quick, how many CEOs can you name? How many from companies with more than $10 million in sales or more than 500 employees? I thought so.

This is cross-posted at FunnyBusiness, Elana's blog on business culture.

BlogHer - This is not a fad: Corporate Blogging - Comments

Need more creativity in finding a niche for your corporate blog

This is not a fad: Corporate Blogging