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Lionel Menchaca, Chief Blogger
Corporate Blogging the Right Way
MarketingProfs University—February 20, 2012
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New Marketing—You have to earn your way in
• One-way push marketing doesn’t cut it
• Numerous studies show that customers trust their friends and community peers (think Amazon.com reviews) way more than corporations
• It’s more than selling: we have to provide tangible value to customers before we can expect to engage with them
© Hugh McLeod
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1. Allows for real-time information sharing
2. Enables two-way conversations with a global customer base
3. Provides a robust media platform: text, images, audio and hyperlinks
4. Empowers employees to be the voice of the company
5. Provides visibility to issues that matter to your customers
6. Gives your company a chance to join ongoing conversations
The Opportunity of a Corporate Blog (2006)
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Direct2Dell Blog, July 2006
Source: Direct2Dell, July 11, 2006
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Connect the Dots
Phase I: Acknowledge what we heard, let customers
know we are looking into it (several options)
Phase II: Acknowledge issue,
provide some level of nature and scope
(company blog post/ forum post/ official
tweet)
Phase III: Communicate action
plan via company blog post or company forum
update (or both)
Social Media Response Cycle
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1. A broadcast tool
2. A dumping ground for material that don’t make the cut as a press release
3. Ghostwritten content disguised as thought leadership from executives
4. A place to parrot information that already lives in press releases or elsewhere on your company’s website
A Corporate Blog is NOT
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1. Listening comes first – it’s the only way to ensure you’re talking about topics that matter to your customers.
2. Determine the scope of your company’s blog – Do more than echo press releases.
3. Identify bloggers and subject matter experts (SMEs) – Don’t get hung up on titles… it’s expertise and passion that really matters.
4. Define an editorial process – Once you start a blog, you need a regular flow of content.
5. Find the right balance of topics and work to maintain that balance – The topics that customers want to hear about have to be a priority.
Getting Started
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Listening can be easy (and free)
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1. Don’t ghostwrite… customers want to hear from the real experts inside the company
2. Arm them with relevant links about their topic of choice
3. Encourage them start with a framework if they have trouble kicking things off
4. Provide feedback on drafts
5. Help them with writing if they ask
6. Encourage them to keep blogging and engaging around the web on a regular basis
Nurture Subject Matter Experts
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What Goes Through Legal
• Any issue that is safety-related (all posts related to the battery recall)
• Any post that makes a direct comparison to a competitive product
• Any post about a Legal issue (Ex. A Tale of Two Processors in China)
• Any post that explains how we will support many customers based on systemic issue (Ex. the Intel Chipset Issue)
• When in doubt, apply some common sense
If still in doubt, contact Corporate Communications
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1. Write about topics that matter to your customers, especially the tough ones
2. Provide context for a range of customers
3. Write to educate and serve
4. Be authentic, be human
5. Let your passion and personality show through
6. Provide an inside look
7. Don’t be afraid to disagree… if you can back it up
How to Blog the Right Way
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• No shortage of other places for companies to publish online….
Do Blogs Still Matter?
• But blogs still offer the best way to aggregate and centralize conversations from around the web…
• Blogs tend to be more flexible (hyperlinks, ability to embed multiple videos, other objects like audio, SlideShare decks, etc.)
• Official corporate presence in other social networks can help extend the reach of important blog posts, and they also provide more link opportunities.
Questions?
Thank You
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How to reach me
• http://direct2dell.com
• @LionelatDell
• https://profiles.google.com/lionel.menchaca
