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pr & communications consultant at prandsocial.com
07 April 2008 12:14pm
I have several clients that are considering starting corporate blogs but I'm still yet to find an example of a decent blog in the B2B sector. Any suggestions?
Client Services Director at FreshNetworks
07 April 2008 15:41pm
Not quite in the B2B sector, but I think that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office has a really good set of blogs and really gets the use of tools like this in a way that some corporates that I've worked with don't.
They have a range of employee types blogging (from the most senior to a recent entrant) and the blogs manage to combine some personal observations, day-to-day accounts of jobs and some thinking on issues and policies. They help you to see a different side of the individual bloggers and also of the FCO.
You can find the blogs at: https://blogs.fco.gov.uk/roller/
Also as an example of a corporate blog from a smaller business you could always look at the one I write: http://blog.freshnetworks.com
Managing Director at Shine Marketing
08 April 2008 11:09am
Have a look through Debbiew Weil's book, there's loads
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Corporate-Blogging-Book-Debbie-Weil/dp/0749927437/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1207649118&sr=8-1
Mostly US examples but there are some heavyweight examples in there such as Cisco and Intel.
My advice would be to start with something that's similar to the information they send out already - corporate news and press releases, then work outward from there as they find their feet.
pr & communications consultant at prandsocial.com
08 April 2008 11:35am
Thanks for the responses. It's weird because I really cannot find an example of a UK based SME that has a blog and is getting value from it. I mean surely they must exist?
Managing Director at Shine Marketing
08 April 2008 12:30pm
There are plenty out there, but the value is very hard to put a measure on.
We have one on our agency site that is relatively new but I know that we get search traffic from the content that leads to enquiries.
We set one up for immediate future PR last year and both the blog and site get more targeted search traffic as a result, also I've seen the blog that DeviDoll.com run at blogspot create spikes in traffic and sales.
We also built the Dave the Dog Communications site on Wordpress specifically so it could benefit from the SEO benefits that the platform brings, even though the blogging element is a relatively simple news section at the moment.
What's missing are many individuals in the UK who will help companies with their blog as a part of an overall strategy. You can sling up a Blogger account or a Wordpress installation in no time so the perception is that it's a cheap and easy form of communication, but knowing what to write about, or how to use it to engage your stakeholders needs a lot more experience and commitment.
Without dedicating time and resource to blogs they have a tendency to stall quite quickly.
pr & communications consultant at prandsocial.com
08 April 2008 12:47pm
thank you, that's really useful. I really agree with your statement "What's missing are many individuals in the UK who will help companies with their blog as a part of an overall strategy."
I kind of assumed there must be lots of experts in this area but actually there seem to be very few.
XS-PRO Limited
08 April 2008 15:19pm
I have been looking for a decent blog for SME's for quite a while now too.
I was thinking of starting one on IT usage for SMEs as we are an IT support company, and for a while i did have one running, but it didnt seem to garner much interest.
I think the biggest things with blogs is not to expect an immediate response, but something over time, and to make it viral. Unfortunately with the way of the web these days, something meaningless can have a more of a viral effect than something that IS genuinely useful.
On our website www.itbug.co.uk we setup a separate section for funny IT stories www.itbug.co.uk/itstories.aspx , but it took us a long time to get people interested. Would have been great if we could have leveraged the DIGG effect (if you have heard of it?)
On 12:14:31 7 April 2008 katiemoffat wrote:
pr & communications consultant at prandsocial.com
08 April 2008 15:24pm
I should clarify that I mean blogs that are by businesses working in the B2B arena - not blogs for businesses. I think one of my clients in particular should definitely have one (for SEO benefit and communicating with customers) but perhaps I'm wrong?
Like the idea of the funny stories section - Digg is so US based though isn't it.
On 15:19:14 8 April 2008 XSPRO wrote:
XS-PRO Limited
08 April 2008 15:29pm
Ahh, sorry my mistake. I misunderstood your question i think.
You are right. Digg is more US geared.
It really depends on what your desired outcome is in my opinion.
If its SEO that you are looking for, i have personal experience with much better methods that with blogs. Right now if you type in "Pay as you go IT support" in google, you'll see we are at number 3, and we have only been doing this work for about 2 weeks, and setting up a blog was a never a consideration for us. We dont think it can work. And hopefully within the next month or so, you'll see we will be even higher up.
However if its intercommunication between businesses, then ive always found something more custom is helpful but then thats dependent on each business that you are working with.
We have done various business websites and each of the sites communication in the arena in various ways.
Sorry if my response is a little vague, but i hope it makes sense.
Im on email, msn or skype if you want to chat further.
Regards
pr & communications consultant at prandsocial.com
08 April 2008 15:42pm
thanks for the pointer to FCO blog, I know what you mean about how they are a good example for how corporates should be doing it
On 15:41:13 7 April 2008 MattRhodes wrote: