77. e-Branding 9: Your own blog

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E-BRANDING 9: YOUR OWN BLOG

Customers expect to fi nd information about your organisation on your website. Put it there for them to fi nd. If you have regular news to share, you might fi nd that the best way to do this is to start a blog. Blogs, short for web logs, are Internet-based diaries where you can update customers and anyone else who is interested. Your blog will become the place people go to for the latest information.

The idea Your organisation can have one or several blogs, depending on how much you have to tell. Your writers must stick to your brand’s tone of voice in your posts but they can adapt to suit the audience their writing for. There are blogs for the press, on environmental improvements, new products, sourcing, research and other areas that interest both staff and customers, and all the other people your organisation interacts with.

Blogs keep your customers up-to-date, give them a good reason to stay in touch with you and the opportunity to encourage them to get involved. They also help you to climb your way up the search engine rankings.

In practice • Open up your blogs to comments. You can learn a lot from what your customers write in response to your posts. • In your terms and conditions, give yourself the right to delete anything that abusive, but keep those which disagree with you because that opens up a helpful debate. • Make your blogs useful and informative, and be sure that they represent your brand values.