Blogging to Communicate Directly with Customer Prospects and Generate Media Coverage
by Jeff Hardison of McClenahan Bruer Communications
Jeff presented a case study about a corporate blogging program he developed for PolyServe. In mere months, the program generated thousands of visitors to the blog, impressive media coverage, and referral traffic to the Polyserve website. What contributed to the blogging program’s success?
My takeaways
- A narrow topic: Oracle clustering
- An expert on a narrow topic: Kevin Closson
- A need for content on a narrow topic from an expert: With a little research, you can tell when traditional (and new) media simply are not covering a particular topic in a particular space.
- An easy-to-use and effective platform for communicating said content: In this case, Jeff chose WordPress. (Good choice, Jeff! More on this in a future blog post…)
- A patient blogging teacher and a willing-to-commit blogger: The success of the teacher is only as great as the commitment by the student.
- A plan to promote the blog
The results
- Blogger was established as a thought leader
- Many PR “wins” which resulted in traditional and new media coverage
- Creation of dozens of key conversations in industry
- Blog became the number one referrer to the corporate site
- Niche blog came to own targeted search keywords
Recommendations from Jeff
Ask yourself: Is my organization “ready” for corporate blogging? Are we ready to commit time and human resources to the effort? Are we prepared to accept the good with the bad? Can we deal with potential failure? Even if the answer is “no,” it would still be in your best interests to start entertaining the concept of a corporate blog “as your target audiences will increasingly use social media.”
Don’t forget, Jeff says, you can always “experiment.”
ADDITIONAL READING: Check out the list of corporate blogs mentioned in Freep.com article “To blog or not to blog.”