To Blog or not to Blog: Key Questions for Marketers and Communications Professionals

Many companies have very simple questions: Should we have a blog? If so, what kind should it be? Who should maintain it? What should its purpose be? What will we use it for?

Before you start a blog and engage into Blog marketing – you should ask yourself these questions:

Are you willing to engage in a dialogue with your public?

What is your strategy for becoming an advocate with your consumers?

Does your company have a blog policy? If so, do your employees know about it?

Do your company’s employees contribute to blogs on your company’s Web site? On their own Web sites? Does your company have a policy about employees authoring their own blogs? Do employees know about such a policy?

Does your company’s communications agency have a blog strategy? Does the agency take blogs seriously? If it has a policy, do you know what it is? Has one been crafted for or presented to your company?

If your company has a blog, does anyone pay attention to how many hits it receives, who links to it and what kind of comments it receives?

Do you know how many times your company or brand was mentioned in blogs and in communication forums in the last year? Quarter? Month?

Does your company monitor blogs and online conversa­tions to determine what’s being said? Who handles the task, and how often? What kind of data is collected, and who receives it?

If your company monitors blogs and other online con­versations, does it also have a protocol for responding to negative information it finds? Who responds? What event(s) triggers such a response?

Does your company know whether existing consumers or critics—some of whom already might be in your customer database—are active bloggers or influential bloggers? (e.g., do you ask them questions about their blogging behavior when you interact with them in order to find out their level of blog activity?)

Do you understand the differences between the types of bloggers, e.g., credentialed media bloggers vs. consumer bloggers?

If financial analysts, media representatives and other outsiders are researching your company, do you know which blogs they consult?

When you launch a new product, event or campaign, does your company have a strategy for presenting the information to bloggers?

Because blogs are so easy to publish, has anyone determined whether certain elements of the blog-pub­lishing format should or could be easily adapted for your company Web site? • •

Are you willing to enter the world of blogging with honesty, frankness and humor? If you cannot get past “marketing speak” and defensiveness, then do not blog.

For more informations about these topics take a look at the Intelliseek site and the Keller Fay Group. I highly recommend their studies.