blog

It’s relatively easy for companies on the Fortune 500 to get material for their blogs. These large enterprises have access to beefy research departments, paid primary research and other tools that smaller companies simply can’t afford. But, this doesn’t mean you’re stuck writing “soft” blog posts that lack the punch of big stats and pretty charts.

To integrate data-driven blog posts into your editorial calendar, all you have to do is use the news. By working with the research of the major players and media outlets in your industry, you can add more texture to your blog without having to invest heavily.

Here are six ways to turn the public domain into your free “research department”:

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Technorati editor Don Martelli and I went back and forth recently about whether it makes sense for corporate blogs to leave the comments feature enabled. I’m among the few who believe that comments add little value (at best) on a B2B corporate blog. It’s counter-intuitive and likely to get me beheaded by an angry mob of social media gurus. But, if you think through the dynamic, you’ll start to see how it can make sense.

When I brought up the concept, Martelli noted, “I don’t think this is commonly practiced.” It’s true. I haven’t seen many blogs with commenting locked, though I have seen plenty of corporate and brand blogs that just have no comments posted. He added, “In those cases where comments are off, the blog is more of a news feed than an actual engagement tool.” Again, he’s right, but I suspect traditional views of social media (if there can be such a thing so early in the game) are clouding the ultimate objective: to connect with your market and get them to enter your sales cycle.

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When Mark Hermann, an excellent corporate blogger, bid farewell to his blog, he pulled back the curtain. Among the frank observations he made, one in particular stuck with me: you’ll run out of topics faster than you think. I’ve been there, and it’s awful.

You get started thinking about how much there is to say about your company and your industry, and soon enough, you’re flipping through trade magazines for inspiration. Well, it isn’t always that bad, but the reality is that you’ll soon find yourself struggling to find an insight to provide. Why is that? With rich marketplaces and unique developments in every market around the world, you’d think there’s no shortage of fodder.

Stop thinking about potential for a moment, and turn yourself over to the cold clutches of reality. Most of what you’re thinking you’d never put on a corporate blog.

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Getting started is the hardest part. I remember when I launched my first corporate blog. I had a backlog of posts and had worked late nights and weekends for six months. Readership was almost nothing. I knew this would happen, but it didn’t make me any happier. It’s easy to throw in the towel during the first few months, but that means giving up all the return for the work you’ve already expended. Stick with it!

The first 90 days are all about survival. To help you get through them, here are five tips that I learned the hard way.

1. Be realistic
You’re not going to fill up the internet the first day. You won’t even fill up your blog. Start with measurable, attainable goals — the first being to get your blog up and running. Then, work on building a backlog of stories (this will get you some much-needed breathing room later). Once you get comfortable with your corporate blog and have worked it into your other responsibilities, set more aggressive targets.

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When you’re launching a business-to-business (B2B) corporate blog, the worst thing you can do is look to the likes of TechCrunch, Mashable and Technorati for a starting point. The mass media blogs that are so popular — and which may have inspired your own initiative — are fundamentally different from what you’re about to kick off. Don’t get me wrong: I read mass media blogs regularly (and even write for a few), but the dynamics are wholly unlike what you’ll encounter with a corporate blog. If you have visions of turning your corporate blog into the next Gawker-sans-edge, take a look at the four tips below.

1. Volume, volume, volume
When you have a dozen writers each contributing at least one post a day, well, you’ll have a lot of content. When you have one writer who’s also toiling away at other marketing tasks, you won’t. Committing to a blog post every day is a challenge for a business, especially if your blogger wears other hats.

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I’ve ghost written for a number of executives and companies, and the issue of voice always comes up – especially for corporate blogs.

I read a great article by Mark Herrmann (PDF) a few days ago about this (via WSJ). Before he took his current job, as chief litigation counsel Aon, he ran an excellent legal blog, Drug and Device Law Blog, in conjunction with his law practice.

Herrmann emphasized the importance of developing a voice. Focusing on voice over content, however, is among the greatest barrier to progress you can face when trying to get a corporate blog off the ground. Instead, you should focus on information.

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Corporate blogging has become incredibly popular in the business to business (B2B) sector.

Industries that were once thought inhospitable to blogs, these tools are not only popping up but are making a profound difference in marketing, relationship cultivation and client interaction.

Yet too often, the full potential isn’t realized. Corporate blogs either don’t deliver on expectations or, worse, are left to suffer a quiet, lonely death. When this happens, of course, blogs themselves are blamed, with little consideration given to the fact that execution (rather than platform) was flawed.

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One of the biggest social media marketing mistakes I’ve seen companies make is to emulate the wrong blogs. Whether it’s The VAR Guy or Engadget, corporate bloggers look to popular independent blogs for ideas. To a certain extent, this is smart: the top blogs can have some great features and styles that are worth adopting. But, much of what they do can be unwise (or simply impossible) for you to implement. The reason for this is that different blog types carry their own objectives and constraints.

Think of content as a funnel. At the top is the widest sent of information available, the ability to write about any subject dealing with any company anywhere in the world. At the bottom is the narrowest of topics, tightly defined in order to appeal to the smallest of niche markets. This is how blogging works, with the mass media sites having the greatest flexibility in terms of the content they can use and corporate blogs having to hunt for ideas that are focused on promoting their capabilities while remaining sensitive to their clients.

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When should the handoff from marketing to sales occur? The trend has been to gather ever more intelligence about your targets before unleashing the sales force on an opportunity, in the hopes that a more refined view of the prospect will lead to a shorter and more successful sales cycle. With more metrics brought to bear on the situation, the conventional wisdom goes, the sales team will be better equipped to communicate with the prospect, understand his needs and close the deal.

There is some truth to this thinking, but it has led sales and marketing departments astray with over-analysis. Analytics and market and prospect intelligence are undoubtedly crucial to the effective progression of a sales opportunity from early marketing efforts through the sales cycle and ultimately through implementation, as well. But, data has become a crutch, preventing sales and marketing teams from moving swiftly to take advantage of clear opportunities.

IT marketers and sales forces need to regain a sense of balance.

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