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Why do you blog?
If you have a personal blog, but you do not know for sure why you blog in the first place, that’s forgiven. But as a corporation, you need to answer this question before you wade into the blogosphere. You need to be clear whether you want to better communicate with your customers, to market your product/services, to become an opinion leader in your industry or for some other purpose.
When you set up a corporate blog, you have to be aware that the blog will represent your company–as well as your company’s reputation. Thus, ideally, a corporate blog should reflect or portray the characteristics of the company you’re working at. Is it fun? Is it conservative? Cool or elegant? Open or closed?
An objective keeps you on track—and serve as a guidance. You know what kind of postings you should write, what kind of language and style you should use, which bloggers you’d like to engage, where to go when you’re blogwalking. A purpose gives you a focus, a direction. If you know where you’d like to go, you can utilize the resources you have to get there.
If you want to go to Rome, you can find many ways to reach the city—you can buy a map and find out about the route. You can plan out the journey and manage the resources you have until you end up there.
When you do not know where to go… well, you can still pack your bag and leave, spend your time and energy to be where you are… only to find out that you don’t really want to be there.
But you also need to be mindful that corporate blogging is not for all companies. Only companies with a culture that encourages an open mind and is secure enough to take and field criticisms should attempt to engage in corporate blogging.
That’s because blogs are open conversations and anyone out there can take you on or challenge your views. You have to be prepared to engage in conversations with your readership. It can be a challenging task, but the rewards are excellent as well.
8 Responses to “Why do you blog?”
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so tell us the rewards, dear …
salah satunya, bisa bertemu dan bertukar pikiran dengan blogger sekaliber ndoro kakung
I agree on the point that not all companies should blog. Companies that are not ready for criticism and ready to commit the time and effort to talk to their customers should not blog for the sake of blogging. I know that the CEO of Certis Cisco in Indonesia has a blog. Does anyone have any idea how the response to the blog is like? Do you think it has added value to the company’s overall image?
I agree that companies have to have strong reasons and be “mentally prepared” to blog (or not to blog, that’s the question
).
The very fact that we all seem to forgive a person for not knowing why (s)he write a personal blog–or do whatever things (s)he does in life–however, is often the root of one’s problems, personally and professionally.
Let’s use blog as an example. People blog, write whatever their heart desires, write about sensitive things, without realizing the blog is there for the whole world to see (unless you set it to restricted).
The consequence is the same, although perhaps the scale is not.
And the principles you have mentioned ..
.. open mind and is secure enough to take and field criticisms
.. An objective keeps you on track—and serve as a guidance.
.. A purpose gives you a focus, a direction.
.. If you know where you’d like to go, you can utilize the resources you have to get there.
How true is that to a person as well. And how underutilized.
Another post about corporate blogging:
Takut diumpat di blog korporat? on http://www.virus-communications.com/blog/?p=140
You can also read iim fahima’s blog post: Buat apa bikin komunikasi 360 degree kalau ngga bermanfaat?
I share Eva’s opinion, and I would like to quote:
“Let’s use blog as an example. People blog, write
whatever their heart desires, write about sensitive
things, without realizing the blog is there for the
whole world to see (unless you set it to restricted)”
There is a blog of one of the guys in Maverick which
frequently expressed some sensitive personal matters.
My company recently added a corprate blogging to their internal site to promote communication between the many remote IT workers we have. I’m not sure its doing so well, many are too leary of this type of open communication.
You can also read Asia’h Epperson’s blog post: Asia’h Epperson | Finalists In Top 9
I blog to write what’s brewing in my mind, to fill my spare time by being sentimental of my pastime as a freelance journalist and copywriter, and to have interactions with my fellow Indonesian (and other nationals) bloggers.
The reward is to have my opinions ‘out there’ for the world to judge/counter/challenge/agree with, to hopefully have some kind of impact on other people, to try to open other people’s minds - or being less arrogant - offer an optional/different view on current or past events that I blog about, or simply, for other people’s entertainment and amusement.
In any case, I like to practice my right to voice my concerns, ideas and thoughts and at the same time, hone my writing skills, if I actually have any.
Many, many rewards this blogging thing brings people, methinks. In Indonesia (and countries alike), blogs have revolutionized how people think and act, it has also been the main tool to stall the corrupt government’s wish to stupidify the whole nation, thus making it easier to govern.
I’m sorry, I will cut this short, this is turning into another one of my rants. In fact, I will post this as an entry in my blog
Have a nice day!