While I typically focus on career and life resiliency issues, many of you have asked me to discuss ways blogging can be used for professional as well as for personal endeavors. My free resiliency blog, which began as a way for me to stay healthy and focused after a layoff, has now helped me very humbly gain visibility and credibility worldwide on resiliency topics. I am so grateful that the blog has also assisted me in beginning my successful speaking and writing business.
In these challenging times, blogging can be one of many very effective and resilient tools in communicating with your employees and the world on a whole myriad of topics. As many of us use blogging as a way to express ourselves, there are numerous ways corporations can find ways to strategically make blogging work for them internally – and externally.
In a recent national survey, blogging for work purposes is now seen as an important way to help maintain a resilient mindset among employees. Many corporations – large and small – are looking at blogging as a way to get their executives closer to employees, while offering them a “real time” way to communicate with each other – especially in different offices and remote locations.
As I’ve talked with terrific folks like you worldwide, finding ways to further communicate messages or bring teams closer together are definitely at a premium in these very challenging economic times. If done appropriately, corporate or business blogging can become one of your most innovative and resilient ways to communicate messages that may be more effective than using traditional communications techniques.
A Resilient Beginning
Firstly, I’d encourage you to think about the following workplace questions:
Do you see blogging as only a fad with little obvious use in a business setting? Are you a bit apprehensive that your supervisors at your company would not see recommending corporate blogging positively? Do you see your current set of communications vehicles at work satisfactory in effectively getting information out throughout the company? Are you not sure of the various “out-of-the-box” ways of communicating such as business blogging is right for your company or corporate culture?
If you’ve answered “yes” to any of these questions, don’t feel alone. A recent national survey of managers and supervisors found that 83 percent of us said “yes” to at least one of these questions. More than 50 percent said “yes” to all of them.
Are you surprised? I wasn’t. I have spent the last 25 years successfully (or at least mostly successfully) testing and implementing new communications techniques. I remember when e-mail was in its infancy and there were good folks saying that such communications vehicles would not be used much except in personal correspondence.
As I highlight my journeys with blogging, here are a few corporate facts to mull over:
- 55% of corporations have adopted blogs for both internal (91.4%) and external (96.6%) communications, and are finding significant benefit to both forms.
- 70% of those corporations not yet blogging plan to start.
- More than half of all corporate blogs have started within the last year and penetrated nearly all industries.
The Possibilities Are Endless
After a layoff earlier this year because of the economy’s perfect storm, this truly tragic and painful experience led me to create a personal life and career resiliency blog for my health – http://resiliencyfirst.com. My blog’s success is now attracting more than 20,000 great folks like you worldwide monthly. This has propelled me to start a resiliency speaking and writing business reaching 100s of thousands – and I hope eventually millions – worldwide with the strategies for those who are struggling at work or looking for their next great work adventure.
Unique Ways to Convey Messages
As I was creating my business blog, I have made sure my writings stay “real” using my personal business experiences and my life-long challenges as a person with a physical disability (Cerebral Palsy). Both highlight common-sense resiliency strategies for career and life success. The keys for me have been to be authentic, write about something I know about and tell my true feelings about myself and my resiliency topics – warts and all.
Importantly for my business, this also included:
1. What value will I provide my audience? If you don’t provide value you won’t get folks back.
2. What specific subjects can I write about in a timely manner? I’ve now written 40 articles reaching so many folks worldwide.
3. What will get your attention? How do I get them to read it and think they should. Headline and first paragraph are everything. If they read nothing else that gives you the gist.
4. Write like you’d like to be written to…
Our Own Individual Deck of Cards
My physical disability (Cerebral Palsy) affects my walking and the right side of my body. While I don’t mention this lifelong challenge upfront in my speeches, webinars or blog articles, I do highlight some of my personal life experiences that have formed my resilient mindset in life. These “real moments” are so important in keeping your messages worthwhile to your audiences – whether corporately or for your personal experiences.
I suggest you always remember that the needs to be passionate, real, not preachy, gauge your audience and, most importantly, understand the right writing tone the blog should be. A corporate or business blog should not be written like a newsletter or an e-mail. Through my experience, it is best to write the piece in first person – as you may talk with someone over coffee.
Understandably, this is easier said than done. But as I write my own business blog, I use personal business experiences as well as my life vignettes to provide practical resiliency examples and strategies to my worldwide audience. I openly talk about my layoff experiences and my physical disability challenges to connect with audiences in my unique way. Again, I try to understand my audience and compassionately relate to their struggles and needs.
I, however, never put my life challenges above anyone else…there are many terrific folks like you that have your own unique set of experiences that may be more challenging than mine. Very humbly again , many have commented that my blog is like talking with them one-on-one…whether they are in Australia, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia and six of seven continents so far. I am so gratified that this is how I can keep my audience interested – and coming back for more.
For my business, I blog folks to help them tap into their own resilience. I mix in my personal and professional vignettes to show that all of us need to dust ourselves off once in awhile and get back in the “game of life.”
Whether it is me falling and hitting my head on a marble floor in front of work colleagues because of my disability or inevitable work challenges, my messages are always about adapting to circumstances sometimes out of a person’s control. Such real examples resonate with folks because I’m giving them a little of myself and showing that I’m successfully adapting to the cards all of us are dealt in life.
My business blogging strategy is to show folks they can be more resilient than they think. All of us have a lot going on if only we believe in ourselves.
Why was I Motivated to Create My Blog?
Besides offering me a way to stay healthy after my layoff, helping folks through their struggles – whether looking for work or trying to find their next great adventure – was one of the main reasons I created my site. All of us need a little help and understanding once in a while, and I thought my common sense resiliency strategies might crack open the door to those who have had it had just shut in their face. It’s been a humbling experience having so many great folks like you worldwide follow and comment on my writings on a weekly basis.
This has allowed me business-wise to get established as a great resource, which has translated my demand for resiliency speaking gigs at corporations, colleges, associations and conferences. My blog’s success also has given me the opportunity to create an upcoming web site where I can offer resiliency e-books, taped presentations, audio podcasts and webinars to reach out for those of you looking to build own your own life and career resiliency.
Corporate or business blogging can make a difference in so many ways…
So Blogging is Hard Technically…Not!
As I thought about writing a blog, my main worries were not being able to write effectively or speak in front of terrific groups like this. When I was getting started, my biggest perceived challenge was how to do it technically. What blogging software should I use? How would I update my site regularly, etc., etc.? I may be able to write a speech or article like this in a couple hours, the infrastructure of computer technology can sometimes bring me to my knees for mercy.
I realized I needed to stick with my skill sets of writing and speaking, and seek the assistance of others to set up the technical and infrastructure aspects of my blog. I did some research and contracted with one of my Linkedin friends to set me up, so I could just focus on the creative end of things.
For less than $10 per month and a small set up fee, my Linkedin friend created a blog for me on Word Press, a publishing platform that makes it a snap just to post, post, post.
The key in posting, however, is the frequency in which you do it.
Setting a Schedule
Whether you are doing a business or personal blog, an important key to its on-going success is the frequency of your posts.
The blog became so fortunately a “regular read” for so many folks worldwide. People write me back messages using the words “great,” “fantastic” and “right on” in reaction to my resiliency messages. This “excitement” has translated to a large readership and the opportunity for me to reach out more with a new web site, speeches and webinars.
For my business blog, I post at least one new article every week. My readership is used to the routine now. If I disrupt their expectations and leave the site static for too long, I could ultimately lose credibility, visibility and influence.
Keeping on Subject is Important
I mentioned earlier about understanding your audience and only writing on subjects you know and feel confident about. While I have been a corporate communications executive for more than two decades, my business blog is not about corporate speak. My business brand is about resiliency in your life and career. My readership is based on discussing candidly – through personal and professional experiences – about such resiliency issues. If I would go off my brand, I would potentially confuse and alienate my audience.
There’s an old saying that I think sums it up for me: “A company’s brand takes much work to attain and an instant to lose.” Staying on subject in a professional or personal blog will keep enriching your brand, so your messages stay pertinent to what your audience expects to hear from you. Please always remember, my friends, to stay on brand.
My Echo Can Be Heard
O.K., I thought I had a great idea about establishing a blog about resiliency. But then I worried about how my potential audience would find my messages. In a corporation, it is a bit easier because you’ve got a captive audience – so to speak – it is just getting them to read and see value in the corporate blog, which we chatted about earlier.
For me, I was out in cyberspace with ten trillion other sites wanting folks to click on them. To build my base following, I used other social media avenues – like Linkedin, FaceBook and Twitter – to link my blog and articles to the world. I also joined an online news publication that I wrote articles about resiliency and “advertised” my blog. It takes a lot of work to get noticed and move your Google analytics get higher and higher.
By using such social media and Internet tools, I’ve been able to get my business blog usually on the first page of searches in Google when folks are looking for info about life resiliency. Updating the blog on a regular basis also helps with the frequency to where my blog is seen.
That’s Great and Everything But What Else Corporately?
Possible ways to use business blogs is to establish a CEO or management blog as a way to offer alternative options to communicate sensitive messages. Then, to make such a strategy more effective, the next step is to allow employees to post comments in reply to management’s blog entries…this builds a link between the two groups. In this way, executives can keep a finger on the pulse of their workforce, and managers can gain feedback on projects or ideas they might implement. This enables a “flatter” corporate hierarchy in the fashion of many modern corporate structures.
There is, however, more chance for a blogging mishap once you enable employees to leave messages on the blog. The opportunity for something inappropriate to be posted increases drastically. If employee commenting is to be allowed, a much more involved policy on blogging must be developed. Also, this is a much larger undertaking for the HR and IT departments.
The riskiest and potentially most rewarding internal blogging model allows any employee to start new posts. I have used this corporately in the past. This situation can create a collaborative environment not possible without an online forum having the functionality of blogs. Without blogs, an employee might ask a question of a single or a few co-workers. By posting the question on a blog, a solution may be solicited from anyone in the organization with expertise in the topic.
The right architecture can connect employees from around the world for resource and idea sharing. Teammates can easily keep the whole team informed on project progress, and managers can announce to a whole office when their employees have completed impressive tasks.
Likewise, employees can use the blogs to stay in touch on a personal level. Blogs can be used to organize extracurricular sports leagues or other events, facilitate ticket and garage sales, or share birth and marriage announcements.
Externally Speaking
External blogs are made available on the Internet for the world to read. These are intended for marketing and for developing a community based around your products, brand and thought leadership. External blogs offer a forum for company representatives to communicate with the public. Executives can release important industry relevant news, developers can share product documentation, employees can provide a window into daily life at the organization, and marketers can communicate directly with their target audiences.
Like internal blogs, the external model may also implement systems based on the privileges granted to various users with similar risks and advantages. Stricter
policies create a safer, more legal-friendly blog while looser policies can create a larger and tighter community. Wherever in the policy spectrum a company’s needs lie, there are a number of best practices to follow.
Transparency is Key
People who read and write blogs generally speak plainly and expect others to do the same – whether in the corporate world or not. Since blogging has become part of the main stream – at least on a personal level – folks are use to quickly dismissing messages that employ buzzwords and marketing speak. It is important that internal or external corporate blog posts always be candid and honest.
As I’ve mentioned, it should also be clear who is blogging and why. Most people want to know the source of any information and blogs are no exception. In the case of corporate blogs, readers will want to know the poster’s position in the organization and the motivation for making public announcements on the Internet.
Bloggers are already on the Internet and use it to relentlessly to check facts and sources. If they feel like a post is an attempt to hoodwink them with half-truths or camouflaged marketing messages, bloggers will make short work of discrediting an author — and the parent company. Credibility is particularly hard to recover in the blogosphere, and failed attempts at slighting the blog community frequently make head- lines. Several case studies address this golden rule of blogging.
There are definitely many more applications you can use corporate or business blogs to your advantage. My own business example is one of many possibilities for you to ponder. I encourage you to look on the Internet to further expand your business or company’s world of corporate blogs – from customer relationships, to internal collaborations, to knowledge management to, yes, even recruitment.
In my business journeys, I’ve definitely come to realize that blogging is more than just a personal way to communicate your views. It’s a business strategy to enhance brand, image and profit margin.
I hope it also will be a great strategy and opportunity for you and/or your company!
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