It seems that more high-profile companies now maintain blogs. That’s a pretty big change from as recently as 10 years ago, when blogging seemed mainly like a self-indulgent exercise for random, self-styled Internet philosophers.
We’re marketing content writers, so of course we see this as a good thing. The more the business community embraces the use of the written word to present itself, the better. (And let’s be candid here. The better for us.)
But whenever something becomes widely accepted in the corporate world, it runs the risk of becoming corporatized. Those old-time blogs by those Internet randos might have been a bit out there, but they had personality and authenticity.
Corporations may have a hard time coming across like that consistently because they might be overly concerned about things like “messaging discipline” and so forth.
So how do you keep a corporate blog both relevant and authentic?
Aside from the obvious, which is that you have real people writing it, we think the corporate blogs should be the ongoing diary of your company’s mission. It really comes down to this: What does your company exist to accomplish? Whatever that is, your blog should be an ongoing diary of the pursuit of that objective.
We recently did extensive work with a company that produces software to help freight carriers make better decisions about when to take loads, how to deploy trucks and drivers, how to look ahead to the next phase of activity – all that sort of thing. They want the trucking industry to look more deeply into the data and use it to decide more wisely.
So every blog they publish should be about how that is going. It can be about someone using the technology to good effect. It can be about related challenges the industry is still trying to tackle. It can be about new trends that relate to the mission.
You can also use the blog to introduce members of your team and share their insight on the pursuit of the mission.
But everything should be about how that mission is going.
Think about it like this: If a beat writer (also known as a specialized reporter on a specific topic) is assigned to cover the Detroit Tigers, then everything that beat writer writes is about one thing: How the Tigers are coming in their pursuit of a world championship. The stories could be about the outcome of games, or injuries, or roster moves, or trades, or free agent signings, or maybe which opponents are coming up on the schedule. There is a lot to a baseball team’s pursuit of a championship, and all of it becomes part of this beat writer’s ongoing diary. His or her blog if you will.
There should be just as much to your company’s pursuit of its mission, and your blog should read like that.
And if you’re thinking right now, “That sounds great but I don’t have anyone here who can do that,” e-mail dan@northstarwriters.com.
Let’s have a great 2024 together!