Corporate BIog: A Definition
Blogs - an abbreviation of ‘weblogs’ - are published Qn the web, typically as microsites standing by themselves but today also as parts of traditional web sites.
They reflect the interests, thoughts and opinions of the person, sometimes persons, publishing the blog. Blogs are characterized by frequent updates, an informal tone and many links to other blogs and web sites.
A corporate blog is a blog published by or with the support of an organization to reach that organization’s goals.
In external communications the potential benefits include strengthened relationships with important target groups and the positioning of the publishing organization (or individuals within it) as industry experts.
Internally blogs are generally referred to as tools for collaboration and knowledge management.

The Nature of Blogs
To understand blogging as a corporate communications tool, we must understand the nature of blogs (See page 3 for a basic definition).
You can find as many definitions and explanations as you lilce. In our opinion, these are the relevant distinctive features of blogs.
• The Personality
• The Voice
• The Links
• The Conversations
• The Frequency
• TheFeed
The Personality
Blogs are not objective. They give you biased opinions, and you know it. In a way, they’re much like reading letters from someone. After a while you can sense that person’s values and interests, and you can’t remove the person - the personality - from the equation. That would make both writing and reading pointless, or at least transform it to something else than blogging. People write blogs, not the Corporate Communication Department (but people working there can).
The Voice
Closely related to the aboye, a blog has a voice of its own. An author’s voice. There’s no template to use. A blogger must dare to be a person instead of an official and a voice will be heard. Most probably it will be an everyday voice; natural, direct and informal, maybe even funny or irritating. Blogging shouldn’t be compared to j ournalism, but you’ll find a similarity between Personality/Voice and the ingredients of really good newspaper columns.
The Links
Blogging has been called the Art of Linking and links are a major part of most blogs. As blog readers we want it. With the Web growing absurdly by the minute, we have no chance of keeping up. The blogs do that for us, in often very small niches. But it’s notjust the links - people have been putting together lists with links since the birth of the Web. With blogs we like, we

The Nature of Blogs
get the rnost interesting links with at least sorne degree of
context.
The Conversations
You’re not alone out there. There’s always other blogs sharing your interests. You becorne a part of the conversation by linking to those blogs frorn posts of your own, stating your opinions, publishing related inforrnation or thoughts. Ifyou do it well they link to you, and a kind of conversation between blogs has started. It’s of course not necessary to actively try to converse, but rnost bloggers would argue that this is an irnportant part of blogging.
The Frequency
Blogs are irnrnediate, alrnost instantaneous. Blogs are at their best when you get the feeling that the blogger publishes as soon as he or she has sornething to say. As a result it’s not frequent enough to publish once a rnonth, even once a week. You rnight get sorne subscribers/readers, but you’ll never becorne a voice they listen to, 100k forward to hearing frorn.
The Feed
This is tech stuff, and a blog can be defined by the contentrelated characteristics alone. But rnost blogs are published both on web sites and as so called feeds. You’ll find rnore about this in the “Read blogs”-section.
That’s what blogs are. What, then, are corporate blogs? A corporate blog is a blog published by, or with the support of, an organization to reach that organization’s goals. Sorne would say this contradicts the original idea - that of the independent voice giving its views on the world, in a conversation with other independent voices. Probably it does. You rnust decide for yourself if that’s developrnent or degeneration.
Related ]inks: http://www.corporateblogging.info/basics/what/

Reasons for Corporate Blogging
From a business perspective there are several potential reasons to blog. But, as always, it depends on what you want.
Blogs are no different from channeis like video, print, audio, presentations and so on. They ah deliver results - but of varying kind. The kind you can expect from blogs is mainly about stronger relations with important target groups.
• Become the Expert
• Customer Relationships
• Media Relations
• Internal Collaboration
• Knowledge Management
• Recruitment
• Test ideas or products
• Rank high in Search Engines
Become the Expert
Position yourself and your company as the thought leader of
your business.
Customer Relationships
In a forum where your main objective is not to sehi, you’hl have a more personal relationship between you and your customers. Blogs are a fast way to join the customers’ discussions, provide tips and insights or receive feedback.
Media Relations
It’s every PR consultant’s dream to create a channel where media regularly check what you have to say, instead of media just being passive - sometimes indifferent - recipients of press releas es.
Internal Collaboration
Use bhogs as a workspace where project members keep each other updated without wasting time writing reports or searching the Outhook inbox.
Knowledge Management
Bhogs works in two ways. First of ahh, they’re an easy way for the
readers to find information and resources they want or need.
That’s obvious and couhd be used internahhy in many

Reasons for Corporate Blogging
organizations. Second, blogs are a kind of “university light” for the blogger. Blogging is on-the-job learning.
Recruitment
Ifyou establish your company as a thought leader, people in your business will pay attention. They’ll read and discuss what you have to say. Chances are good they will see you as an attractive employer.
Test ideas or products
A blog is informal. It’s part of a conversation where people (often) can comment, and the blog can provide you with a measure of value. Publish an idea and see if it generates interest. Does anyone link to you? What do they say?
Rank high iii search engines
Well, this has nothing to do with relations. But Google and other search engines reward sites that are updated often, that link to other sites and most importantly, that have many inbound links. Start a blog at your regular site and your ranking will boost.
Related ]inks: http://www.corporateblogging.info/basics/why/

Six Types of Corporate Blogs
Corporate (or Business, Organizational) blogs can be classified into six different categories. Each category shares common characteristics and the blog content can be expected to differ between the categories.
Furthermore, there are differences in terms of target groups and purposes. Even ifwe also see hybrid forms where blogs are examples of more than one category, an organization that professionally incorporates blogging into its communications strategy will likely prioritize one purpose (for each blog).
Sales blogs - external
• Purpose: To market or seli products/services, make citizens aware of public services, get donations for charities or political parties etc.
• Blogger: The organization itself, or more specifically individuals within it writing on behalf of the organization.
• Target groups: (Potential) clients/customers and citizens, that is persons and/or other organizations that are directly involved with the publishing organization, or those it wants to reach with the purpose aboye.
Relationship blogs - external
• Purpose: To create, uphold or strengthen relationships.
• Blogger: The organization itself, or more specifically individuals within it writing on behalf of the organization.
• Target groups: Often smaller and more specified than with sales blogs. Examples are support blogs aimed at customers of a certain product, finance blogs for IR purposes, PR blogs for media, blogs trying to reach students, future employees, politicians/officials etc.
CORPORATE (OR ORGANIZATIONAL) BLOGS
External blogs Internal blogs
- Sales blogs - Knowledge blogs
- Relationship blogs - Collaboration blogs
- Branding blogs - Culture blogs

Six Types of Corporate Blogs
Branding blogs - external
• Purpose: To strengthen the brand, the profile, of the publishing organization or individuals within it.
• Blogger: Not necessarily the organization itself. Individual employees’ or executives’ blogging (“insider blogs”), if supported by the organization, can be viewed as a branding blog. The same goes for adverblogs and blogs that are not apparently connected to the organization.
• Target groups: See Relationship and Sales blogs.
Knowledge blogs - internal
• Purpose: To give employees information and insights relating to their work assignments; news, business intelligence, reports about ongoing projects etc.
• Blogger: The organization itselfthrough one or more designated bloggers, or potentially ah employees through a entirely open blog publishing model.
• Target groups: A1l employees with a certaJn interest.
Collaboration blogs - internal
• Purpose: To provide a working team with a tool for research, collaboration and discussion.
• Blogger: The team.
• Target group: The team.
(There’s only a fine hine - if any - between this blog category and business wiki’s. You could also see for example Relationship Blogs change into more wiki-hike
pubhications.)
Culture blogs - internal
• Purpose: To strengthen organizational culture. Typicahhy through informal content of social or non-work related character.
• Blogger: The organization itselfthrough one or more designated bloggers, or potentially all employees through a entirely open blog pubhishing model.
• Target groups: A1l employees as employees, and not as professionals (developers, managers, assistants and so on).

Read Blogs
There are basically three ways to read a blog: Visit the web page, use an onhine news aggregator or downhoad a reader.
Ordinary browsing doesn’t need any explanation. Ifyou can use a browser, you can read blogs.
Soon you’ll discover more and more blogs you want to read. That’s where the so called feeds will help you. Most blogs are published both on web sites and as feeds. To put it simply, the feed means that you don’t have to visit the site to read its content. You can subscribe to updates and have them delivered
to you. _______ __________________
The fastest way to start is _______________ __________________
with onhne news -
aggregators. They’re really
easy to use and you of ___
course have the advantage
of being able to reach them
from any computer. 1 use -
and recommend - _____
Bloglines. Create an
account and start
subscribing to feeds.
Another option is to use ___________________ news aggregators that you
download and instali in your computer. Search Google for “news aggregator” or “rss reader” and you will find many alternatives. Personally 1 like NewsGator that runs in Microsoft Outlook. Make sure that your aggregator reads both RSS- and Atomfeeds, ifnot many blogs will be out of your reach.
It’s as easy as that.
Related ]inks: http://www.corporateblogging.info/basics/read/
)
Publish Blogs
You dont have to buy anything to start blogging. You dont need to know coding.
At least not to start with. The rnost well-known free blog publishing systern is Blogger — www.blogger.com — and they also offer free blog hosting. It works fine and is fully custornizable to fit your needs and design (but then you’ll have to do sorne coding). You can integrate it with any site.
No doubt, free services pose a problern. You never know how long they will be free, or even available at ah. What will happen to your data ifthey shut down?
Considering that our focus is corporate cornrnunications it’s generahly not a good idea to rely on free services, no rnatter if we’re tahking about blogging or other services.
That leaves you with two rnore options:
• Paying for a service hike Blogger, e.g. TypePad.
• Buy a bhog pubhishing systern. An exarnphe of this is MovableType.
Just don’t overdo it. W]iihe ordinary web projects ahways are technicah to sorne degree, bhog projects don’t have to be. They shouhdn’t be frorn the start. Ifyou’ve never bhogged it’s rnuch rnore irnportant to get to know the forrnat. How does it work? How can you use it for business?
Related links: .bttp://www. corporateblogging.info/basics/publlsh/

14 Steps to your Business BIog
You do it anyway you want to. But here’s a list if you want to make sure that you think about all aspects of blogging before you start.
1 could add a #O, though: Just do it. Never mmd risks, lack of resources, communications strategies. Never mmd what you are supposed to do in the blogosphere. It is a new world, a new communication era. And it seems quite easy to get a new job these days...
I’m not sure that would be totally wrong. A lot of good blogs have started that way. But here’s the more traditional approach.
1. Start using RSS for news, jobs or press releases
Well, this you should do even if blogging isn’t for you. But if you are going to blog you need to feel comfortable with this form of publishing
- get used to the fact that you will have, hopefully, a lot of readers that never actually visit your site. Por many with a background in traditional publishing (e.g. many communications dtrectors...) this could be worrying.
2. Thoroughly study what a blog is
You have to know blogs to be able to decide on whether or not to start one. And notjust ‘know’ them as a reader of 5 or 10 different blogs. You should do rather extensive reseaa’ch. What are the distinctive features of blogs? What blogs are there in your business? What do you think the audience likes or dislikes about them?
With all this done you will still need to find your own tone and niche, and this will depend heavily on who the bloggers are. But you will know what it is like out there.
3. Be specific with purpose
Absolutely no one will be happy ifyou start a blog because you can. You need, as you would with all other communication channels, be very clear on the purpose.
‘We will start a blog because..
Just remember that a blog may fill other purposes than you are used to. A purpose like ‘some of our sales people want a less formal and sales focused forum to share their knowledge’ is a brilliant start.
4. Ask yourself, do you reaUy need a blog?
Why on earth would you want a blog? Por the purpose aboye maybe a series of seminars would workjust fine. Ifyou have done your res earch and now know your goal, it is time to ask yourself if it’s worth it. Do you have the culture of openness and honesty that

14 Steps to your Business BIog
blogging will demand from you? Are there any business risks, and are you prepaa’ed to take them?
5. Ask yourself, do we have the resources?
Just one word: Time.
6. Co-ordinate with other communication channeis
Nothing strange here, you would never start a new channel without discussing and outlining its relationship with ah the other things you do. Ifyou are going to blog maybe the e-mail newsletter should reference the blog? Or be replaced by it?
7. Who’s the blogger?
The Department of Corp orate Communications does not blog. No organizational unit does. People working there do. You of course have to find people that want to, that wish nothing else but to, blog. In most real hife cases 1 have seen this has actually been the starting point, and those people have been the advocates for the blog in the process we’re talking about here.
8. Make a decision on aU aspects, features of blogs
Will you allow comments? Will they be moderated by you? Is
Trackback a feature to offer? What RSS versions? Atom, too?
Categories or not? A blogroll, maybe?
Make sure you know what all these small pecuhiarities of blogs are
and ifyou think they will help you.
And then you need to take some more important decisions. What will you write about and what is absolutely impossible to write about? Will you for example hink to competitors? Tip: Ifyou say no to this, start at #2 again...
9. Choose which tool to use
There are a lot of tools to compare, but if you have done #8 you know what to 100k for.
10. Create a blogging policy
Again, ifyou have done #8 you know what to put in this - you can get some guidance from others (see the web page of these 14 steps for hiiiks).
11. Make sure the blogger (s) know blogging
Blogging is a skill. Not a very unique one, but a skill. The blogger must first of all know how to write, and he or she should know how the blogosphere works.

14 Steps to your Business BIog
12. Launch quietly
Ideas and fine plans are one thing. But how does it turn out? Are the enthusiastic bloggers good enough to be very visible representatives of your brand?
1 recommend you start low-profile. You could even consider to start behind the firewall or with a password-protected blog.
13. Start doing subtle PR
Don’t issue a press release stating you have a blog. You wouldn’t be the first to do it, but it never seems appropriate. There are other means.
14. Success or failure? Decide on the future of your blog
It doesn’t take more than two or three months, from my experience, to find out ifa blog is good enough to deliver results. llave you been linked to by other blogs? Is anyone commenting? Do you get feedback from your target group?
You also know how much resources the blog really demands by now, which means you have all the information you need to make a longterm commitment.
Orjust give it up.
For related links Qn sorne of these steps, see
http.//www. corporateb]ogging.info/2004/09/14-steps-to-your-business-b]og.agp

What Corporate Bloggers Say
Testimonials
“With our blog, we have created aplace where customers and prospects spend more time with our brand.”
‘Tm sharingmythoughts with them openlyandhonestly, and
con sideringhowrare that is in the modern world, it’s no wonder that I’m able to translate bloggingin to business.”
“While Ihate the word, blogging can turn you into a guru quicker than any other wayright now.”
Read these and others at
http://www.corporateb1ogging.info/testimonia1s7
More corporate blogs
Want to see what others are doing?
• European Corporate Blogs
http://www.corporateblogging.info/europe/
• Business Blog Consulting
http://www.businessb1ogconsu1ting.com/
• CEOBlogsList
http://www.thenewpr.com/wiki/pmwiki.php/Resources/ CEOBlogsList
Blogs to read
•
CorporateBloggingBlog
http://www.corporateblogging.info/
• Dana’s blog
http://www.danavan.net/weblog/
• Micro Persuasion
http://www.micropersuasion.com/
• Corporate Engagement
http://trevorcook.typepad.com/weblog/
• Scobleizer
http :7/radio .weblogs . com/000 1011/
• Contentious
http://blog.contentious.com/
• . . and many, many more. Read a few blogs and you will find links to more blogs than you ever will have time to read.

About & Copyright
The Author: Fredrilc Wacká
1 am a Communications Adviser in Malmó,
Sweden (consultant, speaker, instructor,
producer of editorial content).
1 publish news and comments Qn the
subject of tuis paper at
www.corporateblogging.info on a regular
basis. 1 started my first small business blog
in 2000. ________
Please drop me a une if you have questions or thoughts about the potential of corporate blogging: fredrik)wpr.se.
Copyright
1 have written all this stuff, wlaich means that 1 own it and get to decide how it is used. But it’s nothing strange.
Feel free to link to this document, download it, publish it on your own server, print it, copy it, distribute it any way you want. Just follow two rules:
1. Do not change anything. Either you use tuis document exactly as it is, or you do not use it at all.
2. This document and its content are free. 1 do not charge you anything for it, so neither will you ifyou distribute it. And that includes ifyou distribute it in a context for wlaich you get paid. For example, ifyou’re liired to teach or speak about corporate blogging and want to give the audience this document you may have to pay me. Contact me at the e-mail adress aboye. Most probably 1 will say “ok, you can use it for free”—but that is my choice.