Keeping the Faith in your Corporate Blog

Dormant, untendered blogs lie littered across the Internet. Not updated since that first week back in June 2007, they create a visual eyesore and clutter up SERPs with their wanton insignificance.

But a blog should never be beyond recovery. If you’ve taken the time to set one up, it only takes one post to reinvigorate it and bring the page out of its enforced latency period. Why not kick it back into gear and make it a key part of your business once more.

Okay, a blog isn’t for everybody. There are those who spy it for the marketing opportunity that it undoubtedly is, whilst others reject it as an unwelcome irrelevance [see: Using Your Blog as a Marketing Tool]. If you really don’t have the time – bearing in mind a semi-decent post can be done in well under an hour – then obviously a blog probably isn’t going to be your top priority. If you’re not, or don’t employ somebody capable of writing to the standards that you would require, then it might not work out [see: What Makes the Perfect Blog Post?].

However, if you have the staff, the time and are looking for ways to market your website without shelling out any money, a blog is the perfect opportunity.

Blog posts conjure interest. Yes, they have to be interesting in the first instance, but by having a huge volume of additional relevant content circulating out there, your site is accessible from more sources. That is of course if your blog is linked in with your site. If it isn’t, it should be. WordPress, one of the leading blog hosts, can be manipulated in such a way as to fit in with the decoration of any site; so it could effectively become another category within your site.

Ultimately corporate blogs are all about bringing in the hoards through a supply of focussed, industry-based content. In most instances the blog is a peripheral to the main business; however, this is not to diminish its role.

Through writing and maintaining a blog you can gain a rapport with your audience. It’s an ideal opportunity for you to show off your expertise and prowess within your field. You can write reams on your site about how good your services are, but a blog provides a recent insight into your business, how you operate and what people can really expect if they do decide to use you.

A decaying blog is by no means a dead blog though. Whether you’re starting afresh or going back to an old one, remember that the most important thing is the content and quality of posts. People aren’t interested in you continuously slapping yourself on the back; just as they aren’t too bothered if your last post referenced Christmas.

Blogs update and evolve with time; they also offer you an opportunity to view your own personal growth and that of the company. They’re an opportunity for everybody to share an opinion. But just as importantly, they’re also fantastic for bringing in vital traffic; mostly thanks to specific initiatives such as Technorati and Google Blog Search.

Allow your blog to rise from the ashes, ignore the years of misuse and make it work for you once more. Don’ tallow it to simply contribute to the growing online trash gyre – as referenced in my post entitled ‘Is the Internet too Noisy?’ – dust the blog off and start afresh, the results can be quite surprising.  Keep the faith.

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