It’s important to bear in that branding doesn’t only take the form of CI, logos and signatures (although that is a large and important part of it) but it also takes the form of company blogs.
The value in having a company blog
Starting up a company blog is a great way to drive awareness for your brand digitally and ensure that your company and brand has a presence online. The other effective thing about a company blog is that it can be used for editorial purposes and to convey visual messages to an audience.
If used effectively, this could be a powerful tool over and above your company’s existing brand touch points.
Content is king, and your employees are your best resource
When it comes to creating a company blog, it’s essential that the design and style of it aligns with your brand’s personality, not only from a design perspective, but also from a content perspective. The question must then be asked: who should be generating content for the company blog?
The answer should be as clear as anything: Your employees. Your team should be your number one resource when it comes to compiling content for the blog.
If you have a big team, you are exposed to a larger pool of resources of people, each with their own ideas and different interests, who can contribute an eclectic mix of content to the blog. Having your employees contribute to your blog or various platforms is ideal when you need to create unique content.
Brand awareness in the sense that, your staff, aka: ‘employed media’ (as Cerebra would call it http://www.cerebra.co.za/employed-media-opportunity-ebook), become brand custodians. They bear the torch of your company wherever they are and in whatever they write. They create insight for your clients and potential clients. When your employees share their insights, this creates a great sense of belonging for your employees.
What content should be considered?
With everything being so automated and most blogs ‘pushing’ content from other sites, it’s essential that you and your employees create your own, or find unique and innovative content that will drive people to want to follow your company blog. It’s always good to have unique content that you or your company has curated. This creates authenticity and ensures a more engaging atmosphere for the reader.
If you’re toying with the idea of starting a company blog and having your employees contributing to it, there are some key things to remember:
- In both the design style and content on your blog, it’s important to create your own personality.
- When it comes to content, create a unique offering. Every blog says that it is different from the next, but what is it that will make YOURS shine? How will your blog stand out from the rest and cut through the clutter?
- Fail to prepare, and prepare to fail. Content planning for your blog is key. Draw up a roster of which employees will create content for your blog at different intervals. This will ensure that you always have new content going up on the blog, regularly.
- Cross platform distribution, make sure that you can send out and have different touch points for your blog.
- Create a buy in for all your employees. Portray the benefits of them contributing to the blog, and how it can be a creative outlet for them. Don’t force them to contribute if they don’t want to. Contributing should be something they feel they are keen to do, not a chore that they HAVE to do.
- Ensure that your employees contribute content that they are genuinely interested in – it will make the world of difference to the content.