Corporate Blogger | Business Blogging, Web 2.0 & Social Media Marketing for SMEs
Business Blogging, Web 2.0 & Social Media Marketing for SMEs

I plan to be writing more here in 2010 – you had better believe it, buster – and here is all the motivation I need.
Thanks Wilbur! (And thanks to Robin at We Are Social for the great spot.)

I was invited to speak about corporate blogging at ThinkVisibility: a one day web conference that took place in Leeds, UK in September 2009. My talk, The Suited & Booted Guide to Corporate Blogging, focused upon the reasons why so many business blogs, corporate blogs and CEO blogs are rubbish – and set out a manifesto for making them better.

Offical advice has been issued: WordPress has advised all users to upgrade to its latest version. Bloggers are posting about ways in which hacked blogs can be identified and remedied. However if you are fairly new to blogging, or if your blog was set up for you by a third party, you may be left scratching your head. Perhaps you haven’t upgraded your WordPress before now, or perhaps you aren’t that familiar with the nuts and bolts of your web hosting control panel. MySQL? Database backups?If this is the case, this post is for you.

It is all too easy, when you cast your eye over these lavish descriptions of big bucks companies and their tip top achievements online, to overlook the potential “learns” and benefits for companies of all sizes. If you read this particular case study in full – and I recommend that you do – you will find plenty to pore over. You will also note that Dairy Queen, despite its size, hasn’t been “doing” social media for long. Its corporate blog, for example, is just five months old at the time of writing.

A legal ruling about bloggers’ rights to privacy was almost buried within the hullaballoo surrounding yesterday’s Digital Britain report. It’s a landmark judgment though – and if you blog anonymously or under an assumed name, it’s worth reading.

My day-to-day work and social media are knitted together, but I’m surprised to find that an image search for social media diagram churns up 164,000 results.

A blog can benefit your business in many different ways. Here are a few of them:

1. By creating a personality for your brand. The blog will give your brand a public face (or faces), bringing your brand to life and increasing its appeal.
2. Because people prefer to do business with those they know and trust. Social media is all about dialogue, interaction and engagement. Readers will develop a rapport with you and your brand. The blog will encourage interest and increase trust in you, your products and your services.

One of my favourite tweeters right now is @HotUKDeals: the tweeting arm of a website that lists discount codes, bargains, money off deals and so on. Every day, the latest deals come pinging onto my computer screen. It makes me feel as if I am being kept bang up to date with all the latest [...]

How can I live without Twitter? I might as well speak to people in real life then. DO YOU KNOW HOW BORING THAT IS?

This is my favourite Hitler/Downfall mashup to date.