Your Corporate Blog in 2012

If you thought starting a blog was easy, good. If you’ve had no problem coming up with fresh and relevant content, great. If you don’t have a plan to make your corporate blog work for your bottom line in 2012, read on.

Get Focused

Choose a topic. Even if you’ve been blogging for years, the start of the year is the perfect time to plan your “big picture.” What is the focus? The most successful blogs have a clear theme and are written for a specific audience. Ask what your goal is: To educate? Inform? What is your perspective? What makes you a subject matter expert? Who are you writing to? Answer the above. Then write a mission statement for your blog.

A Word about Content

So you’ve got your mission statement, and broad ideas. Now drill it down. Match your bullet points with things you’re passionate about. Take your brainstorms, decide which ideas you’d like to work on first. Combine several ideas if possible, this will result in truly unique content. Now get out your calendar and fill in topics and when you’ll post on them.

Get Famous

So you’re producing great content, but no one’s reading it? It’s hard to stand out in a global blogosphere. Follow these tips to boost your blog’s readership in 2012 and beyond. First record your current stats. What are your traffic, comment rate, and/or conversions?

Because your blog is a reflection of you and your business, publicize it to like-minded individuals. But remember, it’s not all about you. Highlight the benefits of your blog, benefits to the reader, that is. Focus on building relationships. If your blog is the primary way you hope to position yourself as a subject matter expert, you need to be engaging. Be specific. Leave comments for others. Reply to comments left for you. Personalized comments reflect genuine interest.

Don’t forget to ask for comments. This is the call to action on your blog. Don’t assume readers will leave a comment if you don’t ask. And don’t be a know-it-all. Ask, “What did I leave out?” And allow your readers to disagree with you. (You’re welcome to disagree with me at anytime!)

Social Media

If you’re not using social media, you’re missing out. Your blog can truly go viral, with the right exposure. Using tools like Networked Blogs, you can even have your blog automatically published elsewhere. There are tools you can use to autopublish on Facebook, Twitter, even LinkedIn. 

Do you need help developing your blogging or Internet marketing plan for 2012? Call me (Terra) at 715-584-6773. If you have a corporate blogging experience (good or otherwise), please share in the comments below.