Jennifer Slegg - Search Engine Marketing Consultant

Why your company or corporate blog is failing

Apr 22, 2008 Blogging

It seems lately that every company and corporation out there is jumping on the blog bandwagon, and while some are doing quite well, others are failing dismally. So what makes some company blogs so great, while others are languishing? Let’s look at some of the reasons why company blogs are doing so poorly, and how to correct them.

Me, Myself & I
Is your corporate blog to “Me me me” oriented? Sure, you want to use your blog to promote your products and/or services, but even the most devoted customer will tire rather quickly if every blog entry is about a product you sell or a service you offer. While a blog can definitely be used as a selling vehicle, you don’t just want to copycat what a reader can find on your site already. Give a fresh perspective on your products by telling a story. If you sell fishing lures, tell the story of a customer who won a fishing derby using one of your company’s lures. Do you sell yarn? Instead of blogging about a specific yarn, blog about a sweater that a customer knit using that yarn, with bonus points if an original pattern to knit that garment is included. Think outside the box, especially if you can place the product in the reader’s hands, as opposed to just reading a promo copy of the product itself. Let’s face it, what is more interesting, reading about a ball of wool, or reading about what someone created with that ball of wool? Both could end in potential sales of the same product, but one way does it much more effectively than the other.

Not enough diversity
Why not include industry news? If there is some big news in the fishing derby world, blog about it. Is there another romance novel coming out or a movie being filmed based at a yarn shop? Well then blog about it. Being diverse in the content you offer can keep it interesting for your readers, and will make them less likely to feel like they are reading “same old, same old”. Maybe interview someone famous who uses your products or who is a noted designer or celebrity in the market area. These can be great to bring in traffic, especially first-time visitors.

Engagement
Make it easy for those readers to make a comment… yes, this means that you have to allow comments, or it really isn’t a true blog. Not only can you showcase reader’s comments, but it also shows the popularity of the blog and the company interaction on it… and yes, that means you do have to respond to comments too. Let’s look at the yarn example. After the blog entry about what someone made with a specific yarn, ask readers to share what they have made with the same yarn. Not only are you getting responses, but you could easily find yourself with a future blog entry about the yarn and a completely different type of garment to showcase. You might not want a second sweater pattern for that yarn posted within the next month, but a blanket, hat or purse made out of that same yarn could easily be posted in the blog within that same time period.

Blogging frequency
Too many company blogs tend to space their blog entries months apart. If you are going to have a blog, make a commitment to blog at least once a week, or more if it warrants it. Many people unsubscribe from blogs if there have been no entries in the previous couple of months, assuming they are dormant. When it is especially hard to get new blog subscribers for a new blog, you don’t want a lack of new entries to be the reason why you lose some. Not enough time yourself? Ask other people from within the company to send you blog posts for consideration. Sometimes it is that variety that can really stimulate readers and get them engaging. Or make it a practice to spend one day every couple of weeks to do multiple blog posts you can then schedule to publish every few days. Even though you didn’t write them on the day you published them, your readers won’t know that.

Heavy handed moderation
Part of having a blog means people can end up posting comments that are negative. So have a comment policy in place so you don’t get a reputation for deleting all but the most positive comments. And look at those “negative” comments in a non-knee-jerk way. Some comments you think are negative at first glace (”I knit a scarf out of this same yarn and found it quite itchy,” are not really the negative you think they are… instead, approve it and then post a follow up of something like “Because this yarn has 50% wool, some people might find it itchy if it is directly against the skin as a scarf is. So be sure to wear a shirt under the sweater if it bothers you. Or maybe try Yarn B, which is quite similar in weight but without any wool”). A negative can easily be turned into a learning experience and a positive, and could result in a product sale to that commenter who was looking for something to fix what she saw as her problem.

Where’s your brand?
Your blog should match your site and match your brand, because it is representing your company. So why let it languish with a free template or worse, the default template? It is relatively inexpensive to get a matching Wordpress theme done, if you do not have anyone in house to do it. But even though it may reside on the coprorate URL, the trust factor will significantly increase when the brand is clearly visible. Not only that, you want the continuity so that if someone clicks to your blog from another page on the site, they will still know they are on your site, and haven’t just been shipped off elsewhere.

Keep it simple
Don’t install eighteen different plugins to clutter your corporate blog. Pick maybe 3 or 4 plugins you think will be most useful on the front end, such as Socialize or threaded comments, and leave it at that. Of course, this obviously doesn’t apply to plugins you add to make your blogging life easier, such as a comment replying plugin or something for blog spam. But keep the number of plugins on the front end to a small number, and only the most relevant. Does someone really need to know it is 87 degrees with a 10% chance of rain at your corporate headquarters today? Not really, so remove it and use that web real estate or something more relevant or to leave more white space.

Too much advertising
If it is a company or corporate blog, Google AdSense, affiliate ads or any other kind of advertising should be kept far, far away. A simple 125×125 promoting your own services or products is fine, but why would you want to send your readers off to competitor’s products or services, because especially if it is AdSense you have chosen, it will happen. All corporate blogs should be ad-free.

Not enough promotion
Is your blog linked to from the company homepage? It should be. Do you mention it in email newsletters or customer emails you send? You should be. If you start a blog, don’t expect people to just find it somehow if you don’t let them know it’s there. So make sure you link to it and promote it so that your target readership can find it and subscribe.

Just getting started on a corporate or company blog? A good starting point is to read 20 Best Practices for Launching a Corporate Blog, or hire a consultant who can start you off blogging in the right direction, so you don’t run into any problems later.

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