posted by Robin Tooms @ 8:22 PM
We started this blog a little over a year ago, and while it has provided an outlet to share what we see and find interesting, it’s also given us some real hands-on challenges that we’ve learned to address and can pass along as advice for you.
- Seek motivated bloggers.
It’s easier to teach a motivated blogger how to use the tools than convince someone to blog who isn’t committed to the task. Here, having a personal blog (on the side, not part of the company) helps develop the processes and behaviors needed to blog. - If you’re an employee and don’t feel quite up to the task of joining a company blog yet, start with your own personal Twitter or blog.
- If you’re a company looking for corporate bloggers, seek vocal employees who blog now, or those who frequently read and comment on other blogs.
- Integrate blogging as a behavior.
Often we hear companies say that they have nothing to blog about, but we are all experts in something (so share your knowledge)! The real issue is not content, but time. You can overcome the time challenge by sharing the load with more bloggers, or by better integrating blogging as part of what you do. Read an article? Tweet it! Had an interesting thought or attended a cool event? Blog it! There is so much knowledge that you may already be sharing with select contacts, so just think of blogging as sharing more broadly
- Get your voice out, directly.
Our list of bloggers has grown from when we started, some from necessity and some from wanting to bring more of our overall expertise onto the site. Remember, a good company blog shouldn’t just be seen as a function of the marketing department – you need to find the subject matter experts in your company and get them to participate (keeping the first lesson in mind).
As an interesting side note, I took some snapshots of how our blogging conversations changed over the year, depending on what’s topical.
This is just the first six months:
And this is the first year completely:
You will also want to read this article from Smashing Magazine 10 Harsh Truths About Corporate Blogging (or better yet, tape it up beside your monitor). It is a good companion to points mentioned here as look deeper into the reality behind blogging, and why only a few corporate blogs are succeeding now.
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8.18.2009
posted by Robin Tooms @ 7:41 PM
This summer, we were invited to participate in AMA Houston’s B2B Marketing SIG event titled “Discovering the Value of Green: What is green marketing and what does it mean for the B2B community?” The event touched on a wide range of topics affecting businesses, such as the the Clean Energy Bill, making a business case for green within your company, and how green marketing needs to be built on sustainable practices and principles within your company.
When “green” is part of your core brand and communicated well, it can help to drive innovation, reduce costs and differentiate your company. So how do you make room for “green” in your brand?
1) The first step is to look at where green fits into your overall strategy:
– Understand what your customers, employees, investors, suppliers care about
– Identify the impact and implications of your operations on the environment
2) Get commitment from top and throughout the organization
3) Provide honest, transparent communications
– Link the benefits to your actions
– Report on progress and areas of improvement
4) And of course you have to walk the talk. Live up to your green brand promise in everything you do.
Want to read more? View the full presentation below.
