The Blog

Blogging is a relatively new but potentially powerful communication tool that is becoming increasingly used in the business world. The goal of a corporate blog should be to establish an open "conversation" with your customers, thus promoting goodwill and further establishing the brand and company values. This can have a direct effect on the bottom line. According to Corporate Blogging: Is It Worth the Hype?:

"Corporate blogs are giving established companies and obscure brands alike the ability to connect with their audiences on a more personal level, build trust, collect valuable feedback and foster strengthened business relationships. More importantly, these companies are enjoying tangible returns on their blogging investment in the form of increased sales, partnerships, business opportunities, press coverage and lead generation."

As part of the overall launch strategy, defero should maintain a frequently updated corporate blog. This will help to establish defero as a "thought leader" and increase its viability in the field. A representative blogger should be designated early on in the process (preferably the CEO or other key executive) who will be responsible for writing and updating the posts. Topics to blog about include:

• current projects
• new services
• rate changes
• referral information
• cost saving operational changes
• leadership changes and promotions
• open positions
• awards
• publications

Once the initial blog is established and up and running, peripheral blogs can be created from other team members. However, all blogs must be monitored and properly coordinated so that they have a unifying message that is reflective of defero's company values.

There are various platforms that can be used to create the blog. One is pre-existing software such as Blogger, which is what I'm using now. This is extremely quick and easy to set up and provides a very usable interface, as seen below:

A benefit of going down this road is that the service is completely free and has very minimal impact on your bottom line. However, because it is another company's software, you do not have complete control over the design features or where and how the data is stored and who has access to it.

A more expensive but perhaps ultimately more viable option is to create the blog internally via your own team of software developers. It can then be stored directly on the company server, along with the website. Using your own server will eliminate any confusion as to the "authenticity" of the blog (such as, "Is this really defero's CEO?") and will eliminate unwanted advertisements. This option will allow defero the greatest control over the content and allow for the most effective branding.

Whatever the platform used, it is crucial for the blog to maintain defero's branding and company standards. The logo and slogan should be displayed prominently as the header (such as it appears on this blog), and the font and approved colors should be used throughout each post. This will continue to assure readers of the authenticity of the blog and have them believe it is a direct line of communication to and from defero. RSS feeds must also be provided and clearly displayed on the blog pages. These feeds allow users to subscribe to the blog and be notified whenever there is a new posting. This provides a great way to maintain a constant flow of content distribution to your potential customers.

Another great benefit of blogging is that it will increase defero's web presence and visibility. This is done partly through an increase in search engine results. Search engines place a particularly strong emphasis on blogs, and choosing labels for each post will increase hit rates. This post, for example, is labeled defero, blog, branding, social media, and web. When a potential client searches for social media, this blog will be more likely to be returned somewhere in the search results, especially if it is linked from and contain links to other highly trafficked sites. In general, hyperlinking to other articles and company websites should be used frequently in the blog postings, as this will increase online search results as well as further defero's overall web presence. As confirmed in Corporate Blogging: Is It Worth the Hype?:

"Greater word-of-mouth buzz on- and offline, higher search engine rankings, increased press coverage and superior lead generation are just some of the potential benefits of blogging in a corporate setting."

As with the other areas mentioned in this proposal, developing interesting and engaging content will be the ultimate key for the defero blog, and particular attention must be given to this area. As stated again in Corporate Blogging: Is It Worth the Hype?:

"It is a company’s blogging content strategy that will determine the overall relative success of a corporate blog when it comes to building a community. The success of building community will determine a company’s level of direct traffic, higher search results, and online PR."

The goal of defero's blog is to continue building the company's online presence and accessibility. Tying in with the website and the social networking accounts, the blog will act as one more piece of the puzzle that will establish defero as a trustworthy source and ultimately drive potential customers to seek out your services.