To expand on our recent post about why a business should blog, we want to offer just a few ideas of how you can use a blog.
Executive blogs are authored by the person calling the shots, or someone very close. They tend to be popular, because people always want to know what the company leader thinks. Mark Cuban's blog, Blog Maverick, is one of the best. Ideally, the executive will do his own writing, but sometimes, he or she gets help.
Employee blogs can be just as popular. Typically, an employee blog will offer help and insight on a particular product or service offered by the company. Microsoft, for instance, runs many employee blogs to support its various software products. For instance, this Microsoft employee writes about some highly technical products in his blog, Solutions Monkey. An employee blog such as this might have a long or short life span.
Thought leadership blogs are less concerned with specific products and services, and more concerned with providing insight and new ideas. Such blogs indirectly enhance sales by building the company's reputation for innovation and expertise. A good esample is Creating Passionate Users, written by Kathy Sierra and some other talented contributors, offers extremely edgy and though-provoking commentary on marketing topics.
News aggregator blogs provide links to other blogs and Web sites with content of high interest to a particular industry. The strategy here is for the company to become the "go-to" site for industry news. GM's popular FastLane blog, besides being a great example of executive blogging, positions itself as the place to go for information about GM and auto industry trends.
News blogs may or may not encourage online conversation, but the other types definitely do. As comments roll in, a company can see how the public is reacting to a product, a position statement, some bad press, a new idea. Comments are unfiltered, immediate, and (at times) brutally honest. That kind of market intelligence is hard to come by and hard to beat.
