If you write a corporate blog, chances are you want people to read it, which requires socialization. I use the word “socialize” as opposed to “promote” because I view a blog as the center of a corporations social media strategy — and social media is a means for conversation.
Promotion, on the other hand, is a reference to output-only marketing — frowned upon in social media circles.
Once you’ve carefully considered the objectives for your blog and have developed thoughtful blog posts, here are some ways to socialize your blog. This list is by no means exhaustive, but rather it’s a good start.
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1. Post a link on Twitter with a title that catches attention. Be sure to use relevant hash-tags to allow people interested in the subject to find your post.
2. Integrate your blog with your LinkedIn profile. Updates will automatically appear in your profile, though you should also update your status (What are you working on right now?) with a link and a headline. You might also consider submitting the content to relevant groups or discussion sections on LinkedIn.
3. Whatever blog platform you are using, you should ensure that you enable RSS feeds. This allows people to subscribe to your post and display new content on any RSS reader. I like Netvibes.
4. Social bookmarking like Digg and Delicious staples recently I’ve also begun experimenting with Buzz from Yahoo, Google’s Bookmarks and Technorati. There are more than 50 such bookmarking tools and can easily be incorporated by adding a ShareThis widget to your blog. Each of these bookmarking sites have slightly different advantages and help ensure your post is easy to find based on its topic. I find Delicious particularly useful because I’ll often bookmark industry articles I find interesting — these articles are automatically shared on my blog, it’s RSS feed, and also my LinkedIn profile.
5. Claim your blog on Technorati. This will provide an easy way to see who has responded to your blog and also allocates and “authority” which is a measure of influence that enables you to track your progress.
6. Like LinkedIn, if your company has a Facebook fan page (and it probably should) you can also update your status here to include a headline and a link. I’ve also begun experimenting with doing the same on Plaxo (and other similar social media platforms) though I’m not as active on this site as I am with others like LinkedIn and Twitter.
7. Since blogging is a contributing to a conversation, you should read and comment on other relevant blogs. If a post you’ve published is relevant, include a few lines of your post and convey how it relates to the post your commenting on and include a link. You should not comment or leave link if your commentary is purely self-serving. This post here provides a great review of what constitutes spam in blog comments.
8. Finally, amid the options for socializing a blog on the Web, don’t forget to socialize your blog in more traditional means. For example you might consider including a link in the signature block of your e-mail, a URL on your business card, or including a hyperlink on any presentations your give.
There are a number of other ways in which you can socialize your corporate blog — embedding video, presentations from SlideShare or photos from Flickr. The above are just a handful of the tools I’ve found to be helpful and would invite readers to add their thoughts in the comments section below.
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Photo credit: Flickr, amateur photography by… patio social (CC BY 2.0)
