Notes from Nothing

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3 tips before you launch a Corporate Blog…

As most of my readers know, in the recent past I’ve been focusing on corporate blogging and even recommended a few posts on it. This past week, I’ve immersed myself in crafting and launching a corporate blog for LinkedIn! Yes, it’s been as much fun as talking about it, but there’s a lot more details to attend to while launching. But it’s finally live and you can check it out here:

LinkedIn Blog | Subscribe to RSS Feed

Here are three tips for marketing/community managers who’re either contemplating a corporate blog or are in the process of creating one:

1. To blog or not to blog: Before you start work on a corporate blog, I’d recommend careful thought into whether or not your company requires one. Every company has unique needs and you’re better of evaluating its need thoroughly before you start. A great post to get you started would be Nicholas Carr’s — Seven Rules for Corporate Blogging.

2. Getting the team on board: Once you decide on starting one, there are tons of details you need to concentrate on. Let’s start with internal evangelism. A corporate blog is all about a conversation (for lack of a better term), between an organization and it’s users. All organizations are represented by the people who work there, and so it’s important that you have everyone on board, before you start blogging. Also, make it a point to collect internal feedback on every critical element of the blog before you make decisions (couple of examples below).

3. Comments and Privacy: Before you actually get into the specifics of blogging, there are a couple of primary details you’d need to concern yourself before the blog is out the door. The first would be your comments policy. Do you allow comments or not? The second area would be your privacy policy. Most corporate blogs involve many individuals from your company blogging on the company’s behalf. So, it’s essential that you develop a privacy policy before the blog posts are written. Here’s a great example.

3 great examples of corporate blogs:

1. Yahoo!: Yodel Anecdotal

2. Dell: Direct2Dell

3. Facebook: Facebook Blog

I’d encourage you to check out the LinkedIn Blog, subscribe to the RSS feed and feel free to leave a comment or two 🙂

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11

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  1. Now that’s what I’m talking about… « Marketing Nirvana

    […] I’d mentioned in my earlier post, allowing comments is one of the important questions every company should ask themselves before […]

  2. Mario Sundar

    Hi Kay,

    Let me tell you, it’s great being a part of your team. Thanks for the kind words.

    See you at work tomorrow 🙂

  3. Kay

    Mario, I think you missed the most important tip for launching a corporate blog:

    Find someone smart, super passionate about blogging and your company to lead the effort. 🙂

  4. LinkedIn Launches Corporate Blog Linked Intelligence

    […] Mario also runs the Marketing Nirvana blog, where he writes about customer evangelism through community. In conjunction with the launch of the LinkedIn blog, he’s posted on Marketing Nirvana about 3 tips before you launch a Corporate Blog. […]

  5. Mario Sundar

    Hi Cece,

    Thanks! Glad to see you derive some benefit from such posts. We look forward to seeing your entry into the corporate blogosphere.

  6. Mario Sundar

    Hi Nicki,

    Thanks for swinging by. I’d love to chat more with you on various tips-and-tricks to keep a blog community, vibrant and active. I love the “feed the beast” analogy 🙂

    And, BTW, have I told you, what a great example you’ve set with the Yodel blog. Kudos and Thanks!

    To answer your question on the NewPRWiki… Yes, I did contact Constantin who’ll be adding LinkedIn to the list. I’d also recommend 2 other resources to be listed under: http://tinyurl.com/2caofd.

  7. Nicki Dugan

    Hey, Mario – quick moronic question. Did you add LinkedIn to the NewPR Wiki? If so, how? The list of noteworthy Yahoo! blogs is sorely lacking and I’ve love to update it. Lemme know if you have any scoop.

  8. Cece Salomon-Lee

    Congrats Mario! LinkedIn has been making some interesting changes and having you as their blog editor will be awesome. Good luck and keep the posts coming. These have been extremely helpful as we edge closer to tipping our toe into the corporate blogging pool!

  9. Nicki Dugan

    Welcome to ye olde blogosphere, Mario. And, gee, thanks for the props for Yodel Anecdotal. Happy to share insights on the good, the bad and the hairy. My best advice is to feed the beast as often as possible — it doesn’t even need big four-square meals to be satiated. But most of all, have fun!

    Oh, and check out a post we threw up Yodel was a mere two weeks old on Reid Hoffman’s visit on campus: http://yodel.yahoo.com/2006/08/16/yahoos-gets-linkedin/

    Good luck!

  10. Mario Sundar

    Hey Mack!

    Yes, I’m super-excited!

    I believe the goal of a company blog is to encourage and stir conversations between the internal community (employees) and the external community (users). I consider myself more of a blog guide/editor and so you’ll be hearing more from me, and more from LinkedIn 🙂

    Thanks for your support. Feel free to send me your thoughts/feedback on the blog itself.

  11. Mack Collier

    Congrats Mario! I know you are excited, as you should be. Will you be the sole writer, or part of a team? Can’t wait to see where you take LinkedIn’s blogging effort!

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