What Can Blogs Do For You?

Recently I?ve begun to champion a company blog in a major way. This includes paying a web guy to install the software (and configure it accordingly), along with the task of moving some existing content into this blog to show my boss (and boss?s boss) what I mean when I say that blogging can help this company.

But the real point of this is, and I?m trying my best to stay away from the hype here, is that blogs are a conversation medium that only get better with age. They are not press releases (and should never, ever be treated as such), nor are they meant to simply ?provide information? into a company.

What they are there for is to provide insight into the person or company, whomever the blog is for, and to take that information and present it in a personal way. The key to a good blog is to make sure that while you?re providing insight, you?re also providing personal insight that can be found nowhere else. This includes other people in the company that may be blogging.

Microsoft has really defined this for us, as we have Scoble at the top of the list while each employee and department (such as the IE blog) is included. All of these blogs provide insight, and each in their own, personal, way.

My task is to show the people who give me a paycheck why this will bring more exposure, and a more human face, to a company who needs one. Not all companies are desperate for blogging. I don?t see HP desperate to get their blogs going, but I do see Horsefeathers needing a blog, getting one, and seeing great results. Check out the Horsefeathers blog interview located here at The Red Couch.

Here is another important point I?d like to get across: Expressing personal political bias and leanings is not entirely a bad thing. As taken from Brian Bailey?s blog post:

?Scoble made a convincing case that this is still a good thing. First, perhaps the process will wake up the company to its lack of opinion diversity. Second, customers or users will discover this eventually anyway. Third, only a small percentage of people are going to avoid a product or service because of the religious or political views of the leadership. He gave the example of In-N-Out Burger, which includes Bible verses on its product, to no obvious negative effect.?

Again, this makes the case that the more transparent you can become, and by association, how personal of a voice you can give that company blog, the more you can connect to your audience, ie your customer.

These are the steps, the pieces of string, that when tied together create a cohesive proposal and business decision.

Now I just have to make this work for my company. I have no doubts it will be a success. Can you do the same for yours?

There is no political solution
To our troubled evolution

Tags: Blogs, Blogging, Microsoft, Scoble, IE Blog, Horsefeathers, In-N-Out Burger,