At Silverscape, we love blogs. One of the areas where we’ve been innovating and seeing success is in the world of corporate blogs, or business blogs – blogs that represent the views of an organization or key individual within that organization. 

There are so many practical benefits to including a blog in a corporate website that I question companies - regardless of size, manpower or vertical market - that hesitate when it comes to implementing and maintaining a corporate blog. Too often have I heard the excuse, "a blog sounds great, but we'll never be able to maintain it." Sorry, but I don't buy it. I know we're all busy, but maintaining a corporate blog may be much easier that you think... This two-part post will help shed some light on the benefits and various applications of a corporate blog, and then provide some tips for making managing a corporate blog easy and very - for lack of a better word - manageable!

A well-managed corporate blog can provide immense value to an organization by helping to drive qualified, organic traffic to the site, increasing the number of repeat visits and average time spent on the site and keeping the site high in Google’s mind (and rankings). While corporate blogs are, by their very nature, biased, they can offer a more sincere and direct view into an organization than traditional communications channels. In addition, a degree of informality in a corporate blog, coupled with regularly posted content, can add a level of credibility to an organization by helping to increase the organization’s transparency and accessibility. Our client, Taza Chocolate, for example, runs an engaging and frequently visited company blog.
 

As far as different types or applications of a corporate blog, we’ve seen it all. Corporate blogs can serve as everything from a venue for a single employee to share their insights to the central source of content on an entire site. Some Blogs focus on a specific theme, while others have multiple; some allow for commenting and two-way conversation, while others are used as a one-way channel for pushing out News Articles, New Project announcements, and educational content. There is no single format or architecture for a corporate blog that makes it successful or worthwhile. Each industry, company and audience merits a unique approach to implementing and maintaining a blog. In my next post, I will talk about how to establish what is and is not appropriate for your corporate blog, as well as how to streamline the management process and get your corporate blog – and site – on the fast-track to success, so be sure to check back soon and often!

UPDATE: Check out Part Two of this post!