“The best corporate bloggers are probably going to be grown organically from inside of the organization and are going to need little to no need for outside help because they’ll come to it the way we have all come to it: they read blogs, they get curious, a friend shows them the basics or they just figure it out, they fall in love with it and they’re off and running. The whole point of blogging is it’s dead easy.
On the other hand, there will be outsourced bloggers — actually hiring someone else to maintain your blog. That will be something of a business for some people, but unless those people get hired (like the woman writing for Stonyfield Farm, who was hired explicitly for that purpose) it will probably ring a bit hollow or forced to have someone outside of your organization blogging on your behalf. Much better that the organization organically internalizes it.” –Rick Bruner commenting on the need for business blog consultants
Rick is a smart guy and way ahead of the curve when it comes to business blogs. Yet, I beg to differ with a couple of the points he makes above. The mechanics of blogging are indeed easy, but blogging for corporate purposes is not. In fact, I’d say this gray area is quite daunting to most corporations.
A business that wants to blog needs to have a clear direction and purpose before setting out in these sometimes turbulent waters. Will the blog be part of the larger marketing strategy, and if so, how? Will the company allow comments, and if so, will they allow negative comments? Will firms enlist help from their ad agencies to develop and maintain their blogs? These questions represent the tip of the iceberg. There are many more questions that need to be asked, and answered, if businesses are to adopt blogging as a daily practice.
