Make no mistake, blogs are still effective in engaging an audience, and more Fortune 500 companies are getting aboard the blog train each year. In a study by the Center for Marketing Research at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, 108 of the Fortune 500 companies had corporate blogs last year, compared to 81 in 2008. In addition, the top 100 companies on the Fortune list appear to recognize the value of blogging, as they represent nearly 40% of the total number of Fortune 500 blogs. (see graph below).
IRON-POOR BLOGS
But anecdotal evidence shows a good number of “tired” blogs across organizations—those with posts that go way back, and that offer little in the form of any recent communications activities.
According to Sam Ford, director of digital strategy at PR agency Peppercom, “blog fatigue” is caused by a content generation-blog disconnect on the part of PR. “Many organizations are excited by the idea of launching a blog and have a lot of great initial ideas,” he says. “But then they blow through those ideas quickly and realize they have no ongoing channel or source for coming up with additional content.” Without a steady stream of fresh content, says Ford, blog quality starts to suffer, and many blogs end up going dormant for periods of time.
It’s a situation that Kipp Bodnar, inbound marketing director at HubSpot, has also noticed in his work with B2B clients. He cites another reason for ignored blogs: “People are spending more time on Facebook and Twitter, and less time on their blogs,” says Bodnar.
But, he continues, that’s a mistake because while social networking platforms provide initial contact and communication, it’s the blog that provides more detailed content that could, particularly in B2B, lead to a sale. In fact, in HubSpot’s recent survey of 250 B2B communications professionals, nearly half (46%) reported sales directly caused by blogs.
Consider IBM’s extensive internal blogging program as a microcosm for the problem of fatigue. It was noticed internally at IBM by researchers Werner Geyer and Casey Dugan, who work at Big Blue’s T.J. Watson Research facility in Cambridge, Mass. Since 2003, there have been more than 16,000 internal blogs written throughout the corporation, some individually and some as a group. But about a year ago Geyer and Dugan noticed that many blogs were abandoned, and 80% of the blogs had five posts or less.
Geyer said many companies see the value of blogs because they allow people to share information, but that “often people stop blogging because they don’t get any attention with what they’re writing, no one comments on their blogs, and they don’t know what to write anymore.”
In an experiment to combat this disconnect between blog and audience, Dugan and Geyer came up with a tool called Blog Muse, in which blog audiences were able to suggest topics that would be matched up to the relevant blogger. Interestingly, there wasn’t an increase in blog posts from the tool, but there was more interaction between bloggers and their readers.
GET A HANDLE ON CONTENT
Of course, most organizations don’t have the research might of IBM behind them. But according to Lacy Kemp, social media manager and the sole blogger at Seattle-based RealNetworks, all you need are some basic analytics tools to help get useful direction on content.
“We’re able to know what people are typing in to search before they go to a blog post,” says Kemp. Between those analytics and the comment boxes below each post, Kemp can get a good idea of what readers are interested in.
Luckily, says Kemp, the bulk of their posts revolves around technology and entertainment, two popular topics that keep the content flowing. In fact, technology and entertainment figure heavily in Technorati’s list of the top 100 blogs/blogging sites (see the top 10 at right).
LISTEN INSIDE AND OUT
So how can PR help keep a steady stream of fresh blog content flowing? Peppercom’s Ford stresses monitoring key influencers on relevant topics via social and traditional media outlets. “If those supporting or writing the blog regularly read the thoughts and latest news from other key sources, they will be much more likely to have a steady stream of content ideas that connect with issues the audience they want to reach cares about,” says Ford.
Bodnar suggests that PR reach out to other functions of the organization to involve them in the content process. “Go to R&D or operations, for example, and ask for ideas for potential posts,” he says.
Here are some other suggestions from Kemp on how to keep blogs fresh:
• Use visuals such as photos and videos.
• Keep the blog design clean.
• Always ask readers a question in a post, or you may never get any feedback.
Says Bodnar, tired blogs equate to stale objectives. “PR should revisit what the purpose of the blog is, and if goals are really being met,” he says.
For many bloggers, says Ford, it’s simply a matter of not enough time to devote to the task. This is where PR should step in, by helping to develop a backlog of content to draw from during busy periods, “and inviting guest posts from a variety of external and internal voices that center on key blog topics,” says Ford.
CONTACT:
Sam Ford, [email protected]; Kipp Bodnar, [email protected], Werner Geyer, [email protected]; Lacy Kemp, [email protected].
Generating content on a regular basis can be challenging. For Lytron’s B2B blog (blog.lytron.com), we meet regularly with our engineers and sale team to generate and develop content we believe our customers and prospects will find interesting. We also track our social media activity in Google Analytics.