Welcome to the Melcrum Social Media Newsletter.

Blogging remains one of the first tools organizations look to when wondering where to start with social media. Which probably explains why, according to Melcrum's new report How to use social media to engage employees, 65% of the corporate communicators who responded to a global survey said they either have a blog in place or plan to introduce one in the next 12 months.

The reasons are simple: blogs are inexpensive and relatively easy to get off the ground, and there’s now a substantial amount of good practice out there to guide your strategy.

With this in mind, here are five top tips to get you started with corporate blogging, taken from our new report:

1. Keep it simple
There’s no reason to go for a “bells and whistles” approach to setting up a blog when a simple blogging platform will do – especially if you’re still in the experimental phase. Understand what the basics of blogging are and ensure your platform has them. Don’t get bogged down with features.

2. Find people who love to blog
If you’re worried that a new blog may not survive in a work environment not yet accustomed to this kind of open and informal way of communicating, find the people inside your organization who do feel comfortable with it and let them get the blog rolling, so to speak. Chances are, many of your employees are already blogging outside the company.

3. Make blogs part of the wider conversation
Few believe that blogs will replace internal communication or become more important than face-to-face meetings or even an effective regular conference call. So, instead of attempting to replace existing communication channels, start off by introducing blogs as just another way to share ideas or information.

4. Keep the conversation going
For some blogs, such as those created to cover a specific event, it may make sense to keep them going for a limited period only. However, blogs of a more general nature and long-term outlook should be populated with postings and comments on a regular basis, or risk being forgotten about or not taken seriously.

A good corporate blog should be updated at least twice a week if not more. It's worth noting that most blogging platforms allow you to update from a mobile device, or schedule posts so that you can write several at a time but set them to publish automatically over a period of time.

5. Focus on opportunities, but be aware of risks
As the possible risks introduced by blogging remain an issue for many organizations, you may need to convince the powers that be that starting a blog is a good idea. To do this it’s worth highlighting the positive impact blogs can have on the company’s internal and external PR. In a case study in the new report, The World Bank identifies three important outcomes of its blogging initiative:

1. Renewed credibility for the voice of internal communication.
2. A feeling of inclusion among employees, and better awareness of the outcomes of internal meetings.
3. An enthusiastic blogger can help shape the external perception of the organization.

Good luck with starting the conversation in your own organization.

Best regards,

Alex Manchester
Editor
Alex.manchester@melcrum.com

P.S. You can now download the first chapter of Melcrum’s new report How to use social media to engage employees absolutely FREE. This chapter covers the most important part of implementing social media tools in your organization: Strategy.

This week's Melcrum headlines:

Does his tum look big in this?
- Black Belt Dojo - 22 May 2007

Dismissing forward thinking. Again.
- The Melcrum Blog - 24 May 2007

Bloggers risk dismissal by writing about work
- The Hub, UK - 25 May 2007