How to Blog for Business:

A Guide to Corporate Blogging

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An Introduction
to Blogging What is a Blog?
”Blogging is one of the fastest growing trends on the
”Anyone can write a > A blog, otherwise known as a weblog, is a personal website that allows you to

blog about anything,

internet in Europe, and with an estimated 50,000 new publish your thoughts, opinions and ideas online. Each entry is time stamped and
blogs created every day[1], it’s a social phenomenon
displayed in reverse chronological order
ranging from
that advertisers can no longer afford to ignore.
> Bloggers update their blogs regularly and respond to readers’ comments, so blogs
teenagers discussing
Blogging is a simple and easy way for people to
share their thoughts, photos, and even audio or video, are effectively constantly evolving online conversations

music and gossip with

online. Anyone can write a blog about anything,
ranging from teenagers discussing music and gossip > There are more than 21 million blogs currently in existence around the globe, but
friends, to gadget with a new blog created every second, this figure is constantly increasing[2]
with friends, to gadget lovers sharing hints and tips
to multi-national CEOs talking with their customers.
A wide variety of people blog, and you can guarantee
a proportion of nearly every social group will be
lovers sharing hints > Bloggers are active participants online – they don’t just use the internet as a
reference source
blogging about something. and tips to multi- > Blogs can be accessed, read and updated by anyone with an internet connected
Importantly, blogging is a discursive medium where
national CEOs talking computer, PDA or mobile phone
with their customers.”
a blog’s readers engage in conversation with the
writer via comments or on their own blog. In contrast, [2] Technorati.com, November 2005
brands traditionally communicate by broadcasting a
tightly controlled message, but they are increasingly

Top
finding that audiences are no longer listening
because new technology, such as personal video

Blogs
recorders, allow people to efficiently filter out
BoingBoing

Daily Kos

advertising from their day to day life.

Instapundit

2004
The Drudge Report

Blogging offers organisations the opportunity to

Slashdot

hold real conversations and develop meaningful

Andrew Sullivan.com

relationships with their customers and community.

Talking Points Memo

It gives companies the chance to both encourage

Eschaton

fans of a product who are acting as unofficial brand

Washington Monthly

Power Line

evangelists and to respond rapidly and effectively

Albino Blacksheep

to negative publicity. Written in a creative, honest,

Little Green Footballs

transparent and authentic manner, blogs are an

engadget

indispensable communications tool.

The Smoking Gun

Suw Charman
MeraFilter

The MSN Blogging Guide offers advice on the dos

Wonkette!

and don’ts of corporate and sponsored blogs and

Gizmodo

The Command Post

demonstrates how to use this new medium.”

Captain’s Quarters

Suw Charman, Blogging expert

Wizbang!

HughHewitt.com

The Volokh Conspiracy

Michele Malkin

[1] Blogpulse, September 2005 Penny Arcade

Informed Comment
0 5000 10,000 15,000 20,000 25,000

How to Blog for Business: A Guide to Corporate Blogging

33824_Blog NEW rev2 6/12/05 2:17 pm
The Growth
of Blogging
> Blogging has seen phenomenal growth
since the first sites were published in the
mid-nineties. According to Nielsen Net
Ratings, the number of users visiting the
top 50 blogging and blog-related sites
worldwide increased by 31 percent from
January 2005 to 29.3 million unique visitors
during July 2005, comprising nearly 20
percent of active internet users
> MSN launched MSN Spaces in December
2004, an easy to use method of setting up
a personal blog. To date more than 30
million MSN Spaces have been created[3],
proving blogging’s popularity amongst
consumers worldwide
> MSN Spaces is now ranked No. 1 in online
year-to-date unique audience growth with
a 1000% increase from 300,000 visitors in
January to nearly 3.3 million in July 2005[4]
[3] MSN Internal data, October 2005
[4] NNR Understanding the Blogosphere Survey, August 2005
How to Blog for Business: A Guide to Corporate Blogging
Page 4
Who Are
Bloggers?
”The number of users > Technorati tracks nearly 21 million
visiting the top 50
blogs and 3 million unique tags
(a tag indicates the subject of a blog post),
blogging and blog- in over 70 languages
related sites worldwide
> Different blogging tools are popular with
increased by 31 percent
different sections of the population, with
the demographic for LiveJournal being very
from January 2005 to 29.3
different from that of other blogging tools
million unique visitors.”
> Forrester estimate that the average age of
a blogger is 41, whereas the average
LiveJournal user is in their late teens
> Analysis of the male/female split has also
produced varying results. BlogAds surveys
estimates that 75.5% of bloggers are
male; Forrester estimate that 58% of
bloggers are men; but for LiveJournal
the figure is 33%
> These statistics indicate one thing:
bloggers are a diverse social group with
differing ages and interests
Celebrity Bloggers
Many celebrities have been quick to spot
the potential of blogs as a way to engage
directly with their fans. Hollywood stars
taking advantage of the blogosphere
include Gwyneth Paltrow, Bruce Willis
and George Clooney
The Huffington Post, dubbed by readers
as the ”Huff”, is a group blog where lots
of bloggers post on the same site
Established by American socialite Ariana
Huffington, the blog features regular
celebrity posts by people such as John
Cusack, Diane Keaton and Ellen
DeGeneres (Source: BBC Weblog Watch, May 2005)
The blogging phenomenon has also
brought with it a new raft of ’blogging
celebrities’ whose blogs have become
famous in the blogging community
Blogging celebrities include Microsoft
blogger Robert Scoble and author
Cory Doctorow who runs top blogging
site BoingBoing
(Source: BBC Weblog Watch, May 2005)
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What can Blogging The Dos and Don’ts

do for Business? of Corporate Blogging
The blog format is breaking new ”In the UK, blog The following points are a guide to what and what not to do on your blog. Also visit
ground for business by:
monitoring business
Charlene Li’s ”Blogger’s Code of Conduct” for more blogging advice[6].

> Creating genuine, two-way relationships Market Sentinel has Do: Don’t:
between a business and its customers
indicated that not > Be as personable as possible – > Be too ’on message’ or approve
> Gaining independent brand endorsement
from users
a single FTSE 100 blogs are a chance to give a face content with your legal team –
and personality to a business this will alienate readers
> Being transparent and truthful, humanising
company currently
> Be passionate and interested in > Be dishonest
an organisation and thereby providing runs its own blog.” your subject matter
something notoriously difficult to create > Pretend you know about
in traditional advertising campaigns > Be honest something if you don’t
> Getting valuable product feedback from > Fully consider everything you > Censor
those who know your products and write before posting – a blog post > Ignore problems or criticisms
services best: your customers CANNOT be retracted
> Reveal confidential/sensitive
> Changing public opinion during times > Steer clear of corporate-speak information, e.g. new products
of negative attention
> Talk about what you know before they’ve been released
> Talk down to, sell to or pitch to
Blogs that rate highly on search engine results are
updated frequently and have lots of links from other
blogs and websites. In contrast, relatively static your readers
corporate websites often do not come out as the top
site in a brand name search. Creating a corporate
blog can be particularly useful to combat this issue, [6] http://forrester.typepad.com/charleneli/2004/11/blogging_policy.html
and to ensure users can easily find and access
a brand site.

However, European companies have been slow

to take advantage of the blog. In the UK, blog
monitoring business Market Sentinel has indicated
that not a single FTSE 100 company currently runs
its own blog[5].

[5] Campaign July 2005

How to Blog for Business: A Guide to Corporate Blogging

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Corporate Blog
Case Studies
Who Got it Right? GM Motors’s
FastLane Blog
> The FastLane Blog was established by GM
Vice Chairman Bob Lutz as a means of
communicating with their core target
audience – everyday motor enthusiasts
> The blog, in their own words ”is all about
cars and trucks” and provides an online
forum for GM Execs to discuss products, ideas
and GM news with other bloggers
> Commenting on the blog’s success in an
interview for Information Week, Lutz says
”To me, the blog is a way for GM to be
culturally relevant. It allows us to be on the
leading edge of new technology while getting
our strong views out there about our cars
and trucks. So far, response has been
outstanding, with more than 5,000 visits
and 13,000 page views a day[7]”
http://fastlane.gmblogs.com
[7] Information Week, July 2005
How to Blog for Business: A Guide to Corporate Blogging
L’Oreal Works with
Blogging Expert
> When L’Oreal brand Vichy launched a new
anti-aging cream in France, it created a blog
for a fake character called Claire to provide
a ’real life’ consumer’s view of the product
> Breaking the blogger’s code of conduct, the
blog was immediately criticised by bloggers
for not being transparent and honest. The
story was the picked up by Le Monde and
leading advertising publications as an
example of how not to blog
> L’Oreal quickly learnt from the experience,
engaged with bloggers to ask for their advice
about improving the blog, and re-launched
the blog with the help of French blogging
expert, Loïc Le Meur. The new blog featured
posts by Vichy team members and is now
well-respected
http://www.journaldemapeau.fr/blog
Kryptonite Ignored the Blogs
> It was known in cycling circles that
the Kryptonite bike lock could be
forced open using a Bic biro – but
when bloggers got hold of this
information, it rapidly took on a life
of its own
> Instead of acknowledging and
responding to the blog posts about
the problem, Kryptonite attempted
to ignore them. Five days after the
first blog post was published,
the company had still not offered
any reaction
> The result of this scandal cost the
company 10 million dollars in just 10
days, a loss which resulted directly
from their short sightedness
regarding the immense influence
blogs can have and which could have
been avoided had they taken action
when the story broke
”Using the correct tone on a corporate
blog is absolutely essential to its success.
Companies must allow their employees to
blog with a personal, conversational tone
rather than trying to create a unified,
neutered company blog that is always
’on message’. But if a company blogger
doesn’t adhere to key ethical principles –
such as transparency, honesty and
authenticity – they risk being pilloried by
the blogosphere. Unlike broadcast ads,
which rapidly fade from people’s
memories, blog posts live forever online:
in search engine caches, the Internet
Archive’s Wayback Machine, or even
simply in quotes on other people’s blogs.
This means there is no room for error –
companies must get it right first time.”
Suw Charman
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What Blog?
Businesses can create different
types of blog, e.g:
Thought Leadership Blogs
A blog could be created for a product developer,
customer service manager or CEO as a means of
humanising the company and raising the blogger’s
profile as an industry expert. Examples of successful
thought leadership blogs include General Motors Vice
Chairman Bob Lutz’s FastLane blog. The trick to success
is to write about issues and not just republish company
news or press releases.
Sponsored Blogs
Alternatively, a brand could sponsor a specialist blog
in their industry’s field, such as Canon Europe’s
sponsored MSN Space specialising in hints and tips for
aspiring photographers, in order to engage in a dialogue
with consumers.
Semi-Official Employee Blogs
A company employee could also create a semi-official
blog, such as Microsoft employee Robert Scoble’s blog,
Scobleizer. This type of blog creates personality for the
brand, providing insight into the company in a non-
didactic tone. Dubbed ’Microsoft’s Chief Humanising
Officer’ by The Economist, Scoble has been credited
with improving Microsoft’s corporate image and
building a strong rapport with technology consumers.
http://scobleizer.wordpress.com
Commenting on Blogs
If a company wants to engage with bloggers, they first
need to spend time reading blogs and then can begin
commenting on them. This demonstrates that the
company takes bloggers’ opinions seriously and is
interested in having open, public conversations with
their customers and critics.
How to Blog for Business: A Guide to Corporate Blogging
How to Blog:
A Step by Step Guide
”If a company 1. Before you start
wants to engage with
> Make sure you are familiar with the world of blogging before you start. Spend a few weeks reading
a variety of blogs, from popular consumer blogs such as BoingBoing, to general interest personal
bloggers, they first blogs and corporate blogs. Find blogs by searching on keywords in blog search engines such as
Technorati or Icerocket
need to spend time
> As you become familiar with the blogs you are following, and as you get to know the blogger,
reading blogs and
experiment with leaving relevant comments on posts you have opinions about. This will help you
become comfortable engaging in public debate online before starting your own blog
then can begin > Pilot your blog internally before launching publicly, to ensure that you are comfortable with the
technology, have found the right tone of voice and know you are able to dedicate enough time to
commenting on them. keeping the blog updated. Pay attention to corporate guidelines and be sure you are clear on
This demonstrates
which issues you can talk about publicly
the company takes
2. How to set up a blog
bloggers’ opinions
> There are several websites that offer hosted blogs or blogging software for you to install on your
own server. For a beginners level blog you can create a MSN Space at msnspaces.com, or try
seriously.” Blogware or Typepad for an intermediate level blog. If you are more experienced with web
technology, try installing Wordpress or Moveable Type
3. What to write in your blog
> Bloggers write about subjects they have a passion for, their interests and their areas of expertise.
Brand blogs should be transparent and a true representation of the blogger’s thoughts and
feelings, and should keep to the generally accepted blog code of ethics. Ensure that your voice is
personable and does not relay the company’s approved messages word for word. A blog that has
been approved by lawyers will be immediately recognisable as a fraud by regular bloggers and
will almost certainly result in bloggers posting negative comments about the brand
> When you refer to other people’s blogs or articles you’ve read on the web, you must create a link
to the original article so readers can easily find it. The aim of blogs is not to be ’sticky’ but to send
your readers off to other interesting sites, and the more often you do this, the more often your
readers will return
4. Keeping it going
> Once you have established a blog it is imperative that it is updated regularly, at least twice a week,
but ideally daily. Consequently, it can be time-consuming and will involve promptly replying to
messages other bloggers have published in response to your posts. It is also key to maintain
enthusiasm for your writing and subjects
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Generating What This Means

Awareness for Advertisers
How Will People Know About my Blog? ”Links and trackbacks The new wave of blogs extends the media ”Visits to blogs
are the lifeblood of currently account
space for advertisers and heralds a new era
Links and trackbacks are the lifeblood of blogs. Many of actively engaging with consumers online.
blogs. Many bloggers for almost 1 in 200
bloggers will regularly seek out the blogs that link to
them and follow trails of links from blog to blog.
Blogging offers a way for companies to open
will regularly seek out visits to all websites
Register with specialist blog search engines, such as
technorati.com or blinkx.com. Make sure that your blog up dialogues with consumers, gain invaluable

the blogs that link to in the UK.”

is set up to notify both the blog search engines and the customer feedback, develop meaningful
recently updated blog registers, such as weblogs.com, relationships and help shape online users’
every time you publish a new post. Most software has
these notifications built-in. them and follow trails perceptions of a brand. This open, honest,

of links from blog

discussion paradigm is in direct opposition
to established, but often intrusive, forms of
to blog.”
Be an enthusiastic commenter on other people’s blogs.
Most systems allow you to enter your own URL so that marketing communications.
readers can find your blog. When commenting,
remember to be relevant to the original post, and to Bloggers are a crucial audience to understand.
never sell, pitch or market to the blogger. You are
taking part in a community, and you must behave
They are often online opinion leaders and their
as a responsible member of that community, not comments about a business’s blog can be
an onlooker. influential amongst other online users, their
friends and colleagues offline and the media.
Starting what is known as a ’meme’ will also drive traffic Journalists are increasingly using blogs to find
to your blog. This is an idea considered as a replicator,
i.e. a post which gets picked up and rapidly circulated
stories and interesting voices to quote.
by the blogosphere (the online network of bloggers).
Deliberately starting a meme is very difficult as it is Using a blog is also a fast and effective means
hard to predict what will catch people’s imagination of reaching a target audience as visits to blogs
and concerted attempts often fail because they are currently account for almost 1 in 200 visits to
too contrived.
all websites in the UK[8].
You can also post links and content from official blogs
[8] Hitwise, August 2005
on the company website, to drive further consumer
awareness of the blog.

How to Blog for Business: A Guide to Corporate Blogging

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MSN Spaces for
Advertisers
> As one of the leading blog services on the
internet worldwide, MSN Spaces offers
advertisers an opportunity for their brand to
tap into the consumer blogging phenomenon
> Brands can place text ads on users’ individual
MSN Spaces and ads on the MSN Spaces
Homepage, so they can directly engage
with consumers in their own personal
online ’space’
> Alternatively, advertisers can commission
a MSN Sponsored Space. This is a premium
advertising opportunity allowing advertisers
to create a consumer-friendly specialist blog
for their brand or product with engaging and
relevant content, encouraging direct
interactivity with the brand
MSN Spaces Fast Facts
> MSN Spaces is available in 15 languages
and in 30 countries around the world
> MSN Spaces gives customers their own place
on the web to create and publish a dynamic
online scrapbook where they can share
photos, blogs, personal music lists and more
> MSN Spaces users can share their blog
with their MSN Messenger and MSN Hotmail
contacts, and additionally invite visitors in
their extended online network if they
so choose
How to Blog for Business: A Guide to Corporate Blogging
Case Study: Canon Europe
> MSN worked closely with Canon Europe to
develop an innovative MSN Space, tailored to
meet its specific objectives
> As the first brand in Europe to take advantage
of the new sponsored MSN Spaces
advertising offering, Canon innovatively
tapped into the popular blogging trend
> Canon’s Sponsored Space featured digital
photography hints and tips to promote the
Canon Eos camera, Canon Pixma Digital
Printers and Canon Direct Print
> Consumers could also upload their own
photography onto the branded Canon MSN
Space to win a Canon Digital Photography kit
for their home and users voted for their
favourite photo by adding comments to the
uploaded pictures
> Traffic to the branded MSN Space
was driven by editorial on the MSN
Homepage and MSN’s leading
communication tools, MSN Hotmail
and MSN Messenger
http://canon.uk.msn.com
How to Track
Success
> Most blog hosts will enable you to track Blog Advertising –
ROI for Brands
the number of page views your blog is
receiving, and will provide a ’referrer log’
of people linking to you. This will give you
> The main advantage of blog advertising is that it
some idea of how many people your
enables brands to reach consumers who are
blog is reaching, but it is important to
actively participating online
remember that any blog statistics require
careful interpretation > Blog advertising has grown dramatically over the
past year in the US, since bloggers realised the
> You can track the traffic to your blog by
earning potential of selling advertising space
looking at either:
when political parties included online advertising
• Number of visitors as part of their election strategies in the 2004
presidential election
• Server stats
> Now big brands such as Nike and Audi are
• Javascript stats - Statcounter, Nedstats,
placing blog ads as a cost-effective means of
Sitemeter
reaching consumers who are actively engaged
online. For example, UCC spent $15,000 on their
> Most blog search engines run a daily list blog campaign compared with $1m on a cable TV
of the top ten most visited blogs advertising campaign. Midway through the
campaign the blog ad had attracted 74,000 clicks,
> Services like Technorati and the Truth
placing the cost of the blog campaign at
Laid Bear Ecosystem provide blog
approximately only 20 cents per viewing[9]
rankings based on links and/or
traffic statistics > Blog advertising is a relatively new approach in
Europe, but advertisers are now starting to take
> However, it is not just about the number
advantage of this opportunity, with blog ads in
of people reading your blog, but the
the UK currently costing between a few pence
quality of readers – it is better to have a
and a pound sterling per click
small but enthusiastic audience than a
large ambivalent one > One of the most successful blogs running
advertising in Europe is C’est moi qui l’ai fait, a
> You can find out who is quoting you by
French blog at scally.typepad.com run by a
monitoring the number of trackbacks to
woman who discusses her passion for cooking[10]
your blog and your referrer logs. This will
keep you updated with the number of
people actively engaging with your blog [9] Financial Times, April 2005
[10] International Herald Tribune, August 2005
and also with what other users think
about your content
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Conclusion:
Brands don’t blog. People blog.
As blogs become increasingly popular and move into the mainstream, it is tempting to view
the blogosphere as a single homogenous group. However, closer examination reveals a
collection of small, diverse communities, each with its own characteristics. It is the social,
community-driven nature of blogging that makes it such a robust medium and explains why
we are seeing the beginning of a long-lasting phenomenon, rather than a short-term fad.

The expected growth in internet-connected mobile phones and PDAs will further support the
proliferation of blogs as people publish more often from mobile devices (called ’moblogging’)
and this expansion will be enhanced by increased broadband penetration. Despite the size
of the blogosphere doubling every five months, blogs suffer from high churn rates with a
substantial proportion abandoned within just a few months. In addition, blog technology is fast
moving and bloggers are fickle, readily switching from one service to another to get the best
blogging experience they can.

As blogging becomes more widespread, more people are turning to blogs for information
about the news and to research products and services. In fact, blogs and bloggers are seen as
trusted sources of information, more so than traditional brand websites and news outlets[11].

There is clearly a great opportunity for companies to actively engage with customers through
the careful use of blogs, but to be successful they must adopt blogger culture and write with
honesty, transparency and authenticity. The benefits of blogging will be to transform the
public’s perception of your business by providing an opportunity for employees to engage
with a vital group of evangelists and learn from the wider blogging community.
[11] Edelman/Technorati report, Engaging the Blogosphere, Nov 2005

Contact us
For press enquiries, please contact
Vicky Perry at The red Consultancy on + 44 20 7025 6500
Vicky.perry@redconsultancy.com

For sales enquiries, please contact

Mark Charkin at MSN International on + 44 20 7434 6457
Mcharkin@microsoft.com

Contact Suw Charman

suw.charman@gmail.com
www.suw.org.uk