The Corporate Blogging Book by Debbie Weil (Penguin Portfolio); available on Amazon

The Sept. 20th, 2006 teleconference for The Corporate Blogging Book was a lot of fun. There were nine participants, each of whom purchased five copies of my new book from 800-CEO-Read.

One caller, Cathy Chatfield-Taylor, was energetic enough to take really good notes. Inspired by her efforts, I added a few things (and corrected a few things). Then the 10 of us agreed to offer anyone who's interested the summary transcript as a PDF download.

Here are some of the questions we addressed. They were submitted by the participants, an interesting mix of consultants, corporate marketers and non-profit advocacy professionals.

Questions (see PDF for answers)

- What blog platform to use?

- How do you transition a blog from being a content management system to a more engaging interactive communications format?

- What do you do if you've published an ill-conceived post? How do you take it back??

- How do you handle comments? Moderate? Not allow?

- How do you build readership?

- How do you help non-writers blog?

- How can a non-profit raise money with a blog?

- What should an executive think / do / feel after finishing the book?

- What’s not in the book?

Download an edited PDF transcript of The Corporate Blogging Book Teleconference.

Get Corporate Blogging Tip #2 in the July 24, 2006 issue of WordBiz Report. If you’re not already a subscriber to my e-newsletter, sign up here.

Useful Link

How to make money from a blog as a marketing tool

Makes the point that a blog is a Web site on steroids because of the blogging technology behind it. I cover this in depth in a chapter in my book: “The New ROI Is ROB (Return on Blog)”

The results of my 2005 1-Minute Blogging & RSS Survey emphasized that “Time” was the top fear factor holding folks back from creating and maintaining a corporate blog. [PDF summary of 2005 survey - 708 respondents]

This year’s results are not dramatically different. “Time” is still a concern. “What to write about” is an equal concern. In addition, the non-adoption rate of RSS appears to be continuing. 59 percent say they have downloaded an RSS newsreader; only 42 percent are using one to read blogs via RSS.

There were just under 450 responses this year, from a mix of small business and corporate types. Most, presumably, are readers of WordBiz Report, where I advertised the survey. [PDF summary of 2006 survey - 449 respondents]

Baseline questions

- 96% of respondents know what a blog is
- 85% know what a podcast is
- 64% know what a wiki is
- 57% are familiar with the term social media

Note: these stats make perfect sense, don’t they?

- 59% have downloaded an RSS newsreader
- but only 42% are reading blogs via a newsreader

Note: this corresponds to the non-adoption rate of RSS newsreaders in last year’s survey.

Most important concerns about launching & maintaining a corporate blog:

59% - Time it would take to write
57% - What to write about
35% - Who in their company should write the blog
34% - Whether blog entries would need to be pre-approved

Is blogging a fad?

85% - Blogging is *not* a fad
67% - Blogging will become a must-have corporate marketing & communications tool

In 2005, 80% said blogging was not a fad. 55% said blogs would become a must-have corporate marketing tool.

So the needle is shifting slightly, but noticeably.

Sampling of comments left by respondents

“Isn’t the word ‘Corporate Blogging’ an oxmoron? Corporate means limiting or confining while blogging means the free flow of ideas & information.”

“I’m convinced of the need (for a corporate blog). It’s just a question of time and resources.”

“We’ve considered it, but I’m getting a lot of resistance because no one else is doing it in our industry and our marketing department is always hesitant to be the first with anything. Sigh!”

“Planning to launch a CEO blog shortly.”

“I don’t want to talk to the guy who sells me a vacuum cleaner… Blogs are going to be useful only to businesses that need to and fro communication.”

“[Corporate blogs could become a way to] spew out more propaganda and yet make it seem cogent and real-time. Sorry to be so pragmatic or sarcastic… too many years in Corp. America.”

“Just another tool in the quiver. Nothing will ever replace face to face.”

“Companies like mine [has 3,000 employees] will struggle with who will do the writing, editing and posting and how to show tangible results from the effort.”

This is Tip #3 in a series of 5 key corporate blogging tips. See the July 10, 2006 issue of WordBiz Report for the full story. I point my e-newsletter readers to HP’s Eric Kintz and his provocative blog post: Why blog post frequency does not matter anymore.