Corporate blogs offer an unique level of interaction with the customer – they can communicate information rapidly and receive feedback in the form of user comments. This creates a personal or social touch to a company, increasing trust and communication. Social Media for business, such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn also have a similar effect, with the added benefit of access to niche and targeted groups, which can increase marketing effectivness.

However, there are also a number of dangers associated with corporate blogs and social media for business if these tools are not used correctly. The nominated blogger or bloggers for a company must be in a position of trust, as their comments must represent the company’s message, not their own opinion. Horror stories of ‘loose-cannon’ corporate bloggers, who communicated their opinion rather that the company’s stance, has ended up in numerous libel cases in the US and lost business and reputation due to vitreous or loose comments regarding other companies or customers in general. Twitter is especially dangerous as sometimes the language can be colloquial and company representatives can forget their context and tweet something rash. Once a comment is tweeted, there is a permanent record of it online, even if it is deleted from the users account.

A corporate blogger should follow the following basic rules to ensure that they or their company doesn’t end up in court or suffer loss of reputation or business:

1. Think before you blog or tweet – is this a message the company would post on its website? if I said this to my manager would he/she agree with it and post it via mail to your clients? would you see this on a memo from the CEO of the company for distribution to the media?
2. Keep opinions to a minimum as an opinion is subjective and there is bound to be at least one or two people that disagree with it; and the people that disagree with it could have been your next customer.
3. Keep it factual, but relevant – facts will enhance your reputation as a knowledgeable and intelligent corporate entity.
4. Avoid destructive criticism – no one likes people that put other people down or who lavishes in others misery.
5. Avoid giving away too much personal information – its a business blog, use your personal blog for this
6. Avoid giving away too much company information – competitors read your company blog too

Blogs and Social Media can be very rewarding for business as long as the boundaries are drawn and that the company bloggers know their limits.

Keep it safe, keep it positive, keep it factual  and keep it coming…