At this point, it may not be necessary to explain what blogging is. You should know, you are reading one of them. Yet, corporate blogging is a whole different game to personal blogging. This blog is an example of corporate blogging.

Depending on the direction, corporate blogging is classified into 2 groups :

• Internal : Accessible only to employees, internal corporate blog is very similar to company bulletins or newsletters.
• External : Meant for public consumption, many times it involves PR efforts and soft-selling writings.

Focusing on external corporate blogging, let’s pose a question : Do my company needs a corporate blog ? There really is no easy way to answer this, but some issues you need to ponder are :

• The Nature of Your Product / Service : Is it something that requires a lot of information ? Is it something that can be used in many ways, – and thus, has interesting tips and tricks ? Is it something that needs a heavy PR strategy ?
• Your Company’s Ability to Blog : Contrary to popular belief, corporate blogs are NOT the place to dump your PR essays and press releases. The most successful corporate blogs are the ones who shares some interesting news and insights about their fields. If you’re not sure that you do have someone in your company that can write about interesting issues ASIDE of your product, – then maybe it’s best to forget about the idea.
• Consistency : I keep on stressing this. Interesting topics are not enough when you don’t have consistency. It is as true in the world of corporate blogging as in the personal one.
• Control Method : Corporate blogs need a supervising editorial team. The word “team” is defined loosely. It can consist of you only as the CEO, or maybe a specially-paid group of 6 people. The key point is, you have to have a feel as to what your writer posts about, – and develop some methods to have them stay in the company’s directions.

Those are issues at the very basic level. There are many dimensions that you need to at least be aware about before you decide to take the proverbial plunge. To help your research, the following references may be particularly helpful :

• Wikipedia page of Corporate Blogging
• Sitepoint’s List of 15 Good Corporate Blogs
• Jeremiah Owyang’s Essay on The Many Challenges of Corporate Blogging
• Practical Guide To Starting A Corporate Blog by Jason Falls