By Sean Ashcroft
IN THE mid-1990s corporate websites emerged as the must-have business tool, but just a few years earlier websites had been an unknown quantity, and many businesses were slow to realize the potential of the online revolution.

Today, of course, it's unthinkable that a business would opt not to have a website, because a website is an organization’s most public face, and is key to reinforcing brand values and engaging customers.

As we head into a new decade, businesses are again facing another technology-driven revolution: social media. And at the heart of this revolution is corporate blogging.

Many organizations see blogging as a recent phenomenon, yet it's been around since the early 1990s - almost as long as the internet itself. Blogging has long been accepted and embraced by people as a valid and effective way to communicate with fellow earthlings, and increasingly people expect their favourite brands to follow suit, in the guise of corporate blogs.

Corporate blogging may not fit every business model, but far more companies ought to be embracing the marketing, advertising and PR opportunities offered by social media, particularly corporate blogging. The benefits of corporate blogging are well documented.

Below are listed three common misgivings businesses cite regarding corporate blogging. I also outline reasons why these fears are unfounded.

Corporate blogging fears 1: Blogs take up too much time.
There's no escaping the fact that running a good corporate blog takes time. But show me a marketing strategy that does not eat up time. The truth is that successful blogs are passionate blogs, whatever subject they tackle, and where there is passion, people find time.

In small organizations, senior people, such as the founding partner, MD or CEO - will be the ones penning corporate blogs. These are people whose writing is typically driven by the same passion that fuels their daily business lives.

In larger organisations blogs are commonly crafted by a team of people, so spreading the load. Most organizations will find that many employees are only too happy to volunteer their services as corporate bloggers, because it bolsters their job satisfaction and their visibility as a valuable employee.

Corporate blogging fears 2: Blogging will distract employees
Presumably, if you fear blogging as a distraction to staff you must also be uncomfortable with employees using the internet for professional purposes, because after all, blogs are just websites. And what about email? How much time do your people squander on inappropriate or ineffective use of email as a communications tool? Yet email and blogging are really just flip sides of the same coin.

Appreciate corporate blogging for what it is - an internet-based marketing tool - and you'll be well placed to explore its potential.

Corporate blogging fears 3: Blogs mean negative feedback from customers
Effective marketing is based on customer intelligence. By giving customers a platform to voice an opinion on your products or services, a corporate blog is invaluable for harvesting customer insight, both negative and positive.

Negative feedback also gives you the perfect opportunity to quickly resolve customers' problems in an ultra-visible fashion. This will impact positively on customers’ perception of your brand and its values.

Besides, seriously disgruntled customers will gripe online whether you have a blog or not. Better that they do so on your corporate blog than through their own (perhaps hugely popular) blog, or on Facebook or Twitter.

A corporate blog is a lightning rod for customer feedback, and this allows you to quickly monitor and respond to complaints of all kinds, instead of frantically fighting fires across the internet.

About the author
As well as writing Planet Client, Sean Ashcroft is managing director of zyzzyva, a social media journalism agency helping small to medium sized businesses add social media strategies to the marketing mix.

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