Business blogging: is there a downside?

I have been recommending that businesses start a daily blog to add content to their web sites in general, and their company as a whole.



Along with the fresh daily content, so loved by the search engines like Google, MSN, Inktomi, and AltaVista, comes an improvement in their search results for your keywords. Your business can use the daily blog to increase your marketing efforts, their public relations work, and their relationship with their customer base.



That's all great. So what's the catch?



There is a downside to everything, and blogging is no exception.



First of all, a committment must be made, by one or more individuals in the company, to post articles on the blog. That is often easier said than done! Busy schedules will often take precedence over what may be perceived as "just the blog". There may be simply not enough time left in the day, to devote to a meaningful posting, about the company's activities.



Secondly, there may have been a lack of proper internal company communications, about the value and importance of the blog. Its place in the overall business goals may not have been well defined by its supporters. Failing to spell out to employees, the results expected from maintaining the blog, the entire project may find itself abandoned.



Thirdly, the personnel selected to write the regular posts may not be skilled writers. While no one expects Pulitzer Prize level prose, the written articles must make some sense to the reader. Very bad writing will doom the blog to oblivion. Care must also be taken to ensure the entries don't turn into jargon laden, unreadable tomes, understood only by specialists in the field. Readership by the target customer audience will drop dramatically, making the blog useless in achieving its goals.



Fourthly, disgruntled employees must not use the blog for venting their frustrations with the organization. While blogging entries that discuss current challenges facing the company are often healthy, vindictive rage is not. The blog is not a scandal sheet. On the other hand, some other staff may use the blog as a personal diary, detailing their lives outside of work. Again, that is not the purpose of the business blog. Individual diaries fall under the umbrella of the personal journal, kept separately from company issues.



As you can see, there are some potential problems with setting up and maintaining a business blog. If neglected, those potential difficulties can end the blogging program before it begins.



The difficulties mainly stem from a failure, on the part of company management, to state clear goals for having the blog in the first place. Proper communication and honesty with the staff, about the blog's purpose, can go a long way to resolving those problems. With the employees on board with the blogging concept, strong writers with a dedication to the daily work of posting, can be found.



With a little planning, and a well defined set of goals, the blogging effort can avoid the downside entirely.