When discussing social media for business with clients, three questions inevitably arise regarding business risk. I’m certainly not the first to post about them, but it’s info that bears repeating, especially for the uninitiated. You know what they say, “the best defense, is a good offense” or something like that. Without further ado, here are my answers…

1.) How will we maintain control over our brand in the social sphere?
The most cited answer to this is: You don’t own your brand in the social spheres – you own the ability to share your brand in the social spheres. You won’t have control over what people say about your brand, but you can control how you respond to what is said about your brand. Control can also come in the form of a continuous commitment to publishing your own new content. Quality content that is industry-specific, keyword-rich, relevant and recent can help you rank better in search results, so in that way you can leverage some control over what comes up in organic search results. Another question a business might consider is, how can we lose control over our brand in the social sphere? The answer to that is to jump in without a strategy, without a community manager and with a hyper acute need to “control” your community. If you deliver value, your community will reward you – for, online, it is they who are in control. But that certainly doesn’t mean you shouldn’t participate. And, as already mentioned, make sure you have a social media policy firmly in place before you publish. For legal considerations, read what Cobalt Law has to say.

2.) If we allow broad employee access to social sites, how will we manage threats to productivity?
Before you can address this concern, another issue should be addressed post haste, if it has not been already: Does your company have a social media policy in place? Even if you have blocked Internet access and your brand is not engaged in social media, it is likely your employees are on the socialwebs in their off time. It’s been said, there’s no such thing as free speech in the workplace. If they work for you, you need to provide clear policies about social media conduct (I’m sure legal would agree – for more on legal considerations, read this blog post about legal issues and social media from Houchin & Associates). Here is a Social Media Policies Superlist that can provide insight into how other companies manage their social media policies. Productivity concerns should be addressed in your social media policy (and the training that should follow it) in the same way you address/manage employee conduct/usage of phone and email. You need to legally protect your company, its proprietary information and logo usage. Abuses should be managed/addressed should they occur. This post from Guy Clapperton provides additional considerations about social media and productivity concerns.

3.) How will we manage negative comments?
The same way you manage them offline – professionally and politely. It really is that simple. Read more about handling negative comments in posts by Matt Collier and Amber Naslund, or google it. This is where your customer service skills should (and will surely) kick in. Fear not.

Related articles by Zemanta

• When Should You Engage As a Business in Social Media? (kylelacy.com)
• Social Media and the Bottom Line (socialmediatoday.com)
• Have Emotional Intelligence (justbrand.me)
• The Right and Wrong Way To Use Social Media as a PR Firm (ricksrss.com)
• Social Media Increases Revenue and Growth by 60 Percent (prweb.com)
• New statistics on social media sites (matei.org)
• Is Social Media Too Big For Its Britches? (socialmediatoday.com)

Thinking about starting a corporate blog? Here’s a look at the business blogging landscape from the marketing and operations viewpoints. This is a “back to basics” post to assist those who’ve been asking me about corporate blogging offline. Hope it’s helpful.

Why Create A Corporate Blog?

An organization publishes a corporate blog to meet its defined communication objectives and goals, which can include relationship building with target groups, positioning itself (or one or more of its employees) as industry experts, providing industry news/education, recruitment and media relations. Corporate blogging has evolved as an increasingly useful business technology over the past several years (as shown below in Gartner’s Technology Hype Cycle) and is becoming increasingly valuable as a communication and marketing tool for businesses who are willing to make the commitment – and it is a commitment.

Here are some key considerations…

Objective

What is the purpose of your blog and how will it deliver value/interest to your target audience?

Voice

Who is going to write it? Will the CEO make/have the time? Does accommodating/managing multiple contributors make sense for your business (i.e. employee contributors, guest contributors)? Who will manage the online community that forms around your blog (and other related online “outposts” in the social spheres that can work to help promote your blog and support your objectives)?

Protocol

Once objectives are defined, blogging guidelines and a commenting policy will need to be set up and the company will need to be prepared to set up interdepartmental response channels to manage comments that require follow up. (There are a variety of free and paid tools that can support this workflow.)

Content / Editorial Calendar

Content is king in that if your content isn’t of value, the traffic will not come. If you deliver valuable content, your community will rise up and help promote your content and boost your WOM (word of mouth). Strategic (and ongoing) discussions around content frequency, quality, resources, workflow and purpose are critical to successful blogging.

Benefits

“Corporate blogging is the best way to get information into the hands of your prospects. Those who benefit most from your services are those who are actively searching for your solution.” (Source: Compendium Blogware, Third Generation Corporate Blogging) Traditional marketing “pushes” or broadcasts messaging and information to targets in mass markets, whereas niche blogging “pulls” targets to your content. Traditional marketing is one-sided, whereas blogging can work as a two-way communication platform, enabling greater opportunities to build relationships with those most interested in your industry, your products/services and your ideas – and to create lead generation opportunities. (Consumers often seek your blog out online – and subscribe to it – because it provides them with a “solution” to whatever they are searching for online.)

Challenges

In short, it is my opinion that the biggest challenges to corporate blogging are time, traffic and legal. The internal operational logistics behind blogging can bog some corporate workflows down – from content generation to blog post approval processes to real-time responsiveness (when it comes to comments or other online mentions of your brand). Issue number one (time), drives issue number two (traffic). Without consistent, quality content (posts at least once or twice a week), the traffic you’re hoping for won’t be there. And in some cases, legal likes to take a look at content before it posts, so that can slow things down a bit – but it’s also critical to include legal early on as you establish rules, policies and guidelines. Ultimately, you want to empower and provide your community manager with the flexibility to respond to comments in real time without legal or management approval. Guidelines need to be set first so as not to hinder prompt responses to your community, who will expect it of you.

Comment Management

Some businesses might feel concerned about managing negative comments. The first question to consider is, what volume of negative comment traffic are you currently getting via traditional mediums? The next question is, how much negative content is there about your brand online right now (you should be monitoring for this regardless of whether or not you are blogging)? Many businesses feel it is more important to be proactive in addressing negative content should it occur online. As part of your online strategic plan, you can prepare for negative comments and you can address them professionally as they may occur. If people have really negative things to say, they’ll say them regardless of whether or not you have a blog, so the perceived risk can alternatively be considered an opportunity to address issues should they arise. In this way businesses can work to nip problems in the bud. If you’ve done a good job at building a good rapport with your community, you may find that they are willing to respond to negative comments on your behalf, as well. Negative comments may very well be surrounded by positive comments; businesses should be prepared to trust their community to spot “complainers” in comment threads and only give serious weight to serious concerns that may (or may not!) be raised on your business blog.

Want More Info?

15 Companies That Really Get Corporate Blogging
Dealing with Detractors
Corporate Blog Trends and Samples

In Conclusion

Corporate blogging can create or extend opportunities for cross-channel marketing, organic SEO, email marketing, lead generation, brand awareness, brand loyalty, multi-channel customer service — you may even benefit by working with an affiliate marketing program to monetize your blog. The marketing case is easy to make, but it’s important to ask — and answer — the strategic and operational questions first.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Legal and Ethical Issues of the Corporate Blogosphere (tc.eserver.org)
• To Blog Or Not To Blog – Reasons And Tips Why You Should (best-tutorial.net)
• Blogging’s Back, Baby! (markevanstech.com)
• A Blogging Blast From The Past (newcommbiz.com)
• Compendium Survey Finds 80% of Business Blog Traffic Comes from First-Time Visitors (eon.businesswire.com)
• Is It Possible To Over-invest In Social Media?
• How to Kill Your Blog with Bad Marketing (johnchow.com)
• B2B Buyers’ Use of Social Media – BUYERsphere Report (thecustomercollective.com)