Every company is getting into blogging it seems but somany people seem to be struggling with it What would you guess the biggest problem is?
Not enough content?
Not enough budget and/or resources?
Poor writing skills?
No, not usually. These are the obvious aspects of the care and feeding of a blog but many organizations overlook the ORGANIZATIONAL requirements to successfully execute a blogging strategy. Your company has to have the right culture to sustain a blog.
If your company blog is floundering, keep reading. You might see something familiar! Some signs that you company may not be built to blog:
- Corporate culture mis-match — You need to build your strategy around the realistic capabilities of your company culture. As grandma used to say, you have to deal with what is, not what you wish for. If your CEO simply is not going to blog, deal with it. If he is not going to tweet, forget it. Move on. That doesn’t mean you can’t be successful, you just have to adjust. Your culture is your culture. Your blog isn’t going to change it. But your blog can probably conform to your situation and still have an impact.
- Lack of executive sponsorship— On a related topic, if you’re counting on a “grassroots” effort to establish a company blog, you’re setting yourself up for problems. To be successful in the long-term, you must have support from the top. Why? That’s the person with the purse strings and resources. That’s the person setting the strategy. And if a blog doesn’t fit in the picture, you’re vulnerable. If you need to sell your boss on the concept, you might start here.
- Lack of executive engagement — To really build community, you need your executives to be involved in the planning of content and engagement of your audience. Some executives will relish this opportunity. Others will hate it. If your boss is in the second group, you need to lower expectations. I’m not saying executives actually have to blog … but they have to be involved.
- Unwieldy politics. Every organization has politics. But when everybody is trying to own a piece of your blog, watch out. If you find that Legal, HR and the janitorial staff demands to approve your blog, it might be a sign that your company is just not built to blog. Remember, the beauty of the social web is an ability to react. Pages and pages of blogging and content guidelines might be a sign of trouble.
- Unrealistic expectations — … and her brother “impatience.” It takes time to connect and build an audience. If your boss is making your employment contingent on the number of blog comments you get, it might be time to leave : )
Any of this sound familiar? What are your experiences with corporate culture and blogging success?
Illustration: toothpastefordinner.com
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