There is still a reticence for people to start to use blogging in a corporate environment. Often, this comes from the feeling that they would be tackling something that they do not totally understand and that they are concerned about the long-term commitment that they are taking on.

However, there are ways to alleviate these concerns by taking steps which can ease you into the Corporate Blogging process and help you to feel more comfortable as you get started. The following tips appeared from the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) and attributed to Debbie Weil who has just launched her book on corporate blogging called The Corporate Blogging Book.

(The headings are from the original post, the commentary is my own)

Tip #1. Think about blogging strategically
Business blogs can positively impact many different areas of an organisation: marketing, product development, customer service, human resources to name but a few. These are all areas which have a strategic impact on the organisation at a number of levels. If you treat your Corporate Blog as the strategic tool that it is, then you will find that this focuses the mind wonderfully on what you want to say, how you express and to whom. The strategic as well as tactical benefits from a Corporate Blog are often key when organisations decide they must incorporate a blog into their business activities.

Tip #2. Consider starting an event-specific blog
Blogs are an ideal tool on which to build the marketing and organisation of a Conference, Seminar or Exhibition as I outlined in Business Blogs for great Event Publicity. They have the added advantage that the work in terms of writing and posting is finite - even if the marketing benefit lives on afterwards! Therefore if the worry about the ongoing nature of a Corporate Blog is stopping you from even starting, then use it for a Conference or Exhibition - the results will soon convince you to extend its use further!

Tip #3. Get familiar with the convention of blogging
There are two key ways of getting more familiar with the idea of blogging: watching and practising. So, firstly take the time to read what other people are writing and how they are writing about it – there is a huge range available so you should find many examples of ones which you particularly like. Then plan your own and start to write it – until you publicise it, a blog will remain private which will allow you to practise until you feel comfortable. Alternatively, consider the approach suggested in a recent post on Blogging For Business called Throw Away Blogs - a Trial Blog where you write a blog on a subject which you can abandon as required. Finally, and particularly useful if you are evaluating who might write a corporate blog from within your company, start an internal blog aimed at your own staff and develop it from there - you’ll get great input.

Tip #4. Don’t worry about running out of things to say
You are knowledgeable in your area of expertise and you are in an industry which is constantly developing in one way or another. Therefore there are always going to be areas that you can write about. In fact, once you start to write a Corporate Blog, you will find that the issue is not that you run out of things to say but that you have to carefully select which items you wish to focus on because you will not have the time to cover everything.

Tip #5. Just do it
Ultimately, you need to launch the blog and start to write - you have had some practice, you have seen what others are doing and you have set up your sources of information (including RSS). Now, plan out your first few “Foundation” posts and start to write. If you feel that you need to change things and react to the feedback you get, then you can do so - even the largest companies take feedback and adapt accordingly when launching a Corporate Blog, so don’t worry if you feel you want to as well.

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