This article appears in the July 2009 issue of Saathee Magazine
Many companies today are hiring corporate bloggers. Some are simply hiring them to talk about what it is they do with their product, others are hiring them to actually promote their products and services. This morning, I attended a breakfast for "Social Media Charlotte," and our guest speaker, touched on the topic, but not enough in my opinion. See, I write blogs for a few companies. I am a corporate blogger. Some people might think it's disingenuous to have professional writer blog for a company, and others think it's a great way to stay in touch with your core audience. In fact, in California, they passed a law saying that items containing a certain cancer causing ingredient had to have a sticker on it. Recently, someone wrote on a local community's blog that they couldn't believe a particular scissor company would make a cancer-causing scissors for children. One of the corporate bloggers on the East Coast caught the comment at 5AM West Coast time, explained the reason behind the sticker, and that the scissors did not cause cancer. Before the open of business on the West Coast, the person who wrote the original comment retracted her statement and the whole issue never blew up beyond that one exchange. What could have turned into an ugly, sales plunging catastrophe was averted, thanks to corporate blogging.
Some of you may be wondering what is corporate blogging and what does corporate blogging do? What can it do for your company? Corporate blogging is when a company hires someone to blog either daily or a few times a week. That's the most simple explanation. If you hire a blogger, they don't necessarily blog strictly about your product or services, but whatever their passion is that is performed with the product or from the service.
For instance, you're a restaurant owner, who hires a blogger. You wouldn't necessarily need the blogger to talk only about your type of food and your place of dining, instead, they would blog about their whole passion of eating and what food means to them. They would write about the sensations the aromas bring to them, the experiences they have with their family, what happens when they wash the dishes after dinner with their daughter, the bonding time they spend teaching her how to cook, memories of learning to cook when they were little….it's the genuine, human qualities of blogging that bring people back to reading over and over again.
Let's look at another example: an auto repair shop owner hires an older gentleman copywriter to blog. The man blogs about the road trips he took as a young man on the turnpikes and freeways when he was a kid, the roadside picnicking he and his family did, as the only restaurants back then were a few Howard Johnson's scattered throughout North America. He might blog about teaching his son to drive and the melancholy ache of watching him drive away to college. The blogger could share how it felt to lose his sharp vision as he aged, and what it was like to get his first traffic ticket because he was driving too slowly. If a corporate blogger is a genuine person and not a fake product pusher, their audience will grow. They have to be real.
Corporate blogging is about relating to people on their level and giving them a slice of another person's life. It's voyeuristic in a way that is allowed, legal and acceptable. Now, how does it benefit your company? Here and there throughout the blog, you would place hyperlinks that direct traffic to your webpage. Or at the bottom of the blog, there can be a statement or short paragraph about your shop or services, and how something like what they've written is made possible due to services like yours. This increases the traffic to your website, thus increasing your brand name's exposure. One of my blogs is for a huge satellite TV company. I usually end up blogging about European Football, Manchester United is my team, I'm obsessed. I have a following of people who want to know what is happening with the players, transfer speculations, who is injured, and what my general opinion is. Instead of trying to force a plug for the satellite TV company in my writing where it won't fit, I'll simply say at the end of the blog that maybe I had to DVR the game and watch it on my (name brand) HD digital, crystal clear picture satellite TV…I'll say how I get so many channels of sports and movies, and I'll put hyperlinks on certain words that pertain to the satellite TV.
As a corporate blogger, the benefits I offer are that the traffic to the company's website escalates at a rapid rate, there is constant exposure of their product, and an increase in their brand's recognition. The fact that I have a loyal readership, means that their name brand is always exposed to a growing number of people who read my blogs. Some of my articles are passed around via emails, Twitter and links that get posted throughout the sports world; which includes the UK, after all, Manchester United is from England. The team also has a huge fan base in the U.S., so their exposure is circulated in North America where they want to generate sales, thus increasing their revenue. That's what matters most, the bottom line – money. Whether or not these people are buying satellite TVs within the next 60 days or 12 months, the brand awareness is consistently increasing as the audience of my blog continue to become engaged in what I write. When the time comes that my readers want to buy a satellite TV, because I've been genuine, I'm their friend…they feel like they know me, so they trust me, and the satellite TV company I recommend is brand X. Bottom line: corporate blogging increases revenue.
Wendy D. Wells is President of WD Wells Writing and Editing, LLC
She is a Charlotte, NC based, Telecommuting Copywriter, Professional Blogger and Editor.
wwells@wendywellswrites.com
Twitter handle: @WendyWells
