Company blogging for the win

OK, so you run a company and have a blog.

That’s great, but are you passionate about putting out content that’s related to your business activities? Do you let your employees express their thoughts online? Are you attracting new and interesting clients through your writing? And do other businesses admire you for your transparency and way of thinking?

If you answer all of these questions with "Yes", go back to work. If you answer any of them with "No", read on.

Yeah I know, in the end it’s not THAT important

When it comes to blogging, most companies have a hard time putting together good content on a regular basis, taking into account that their work days and those of their employees are crammed with client work and “important” meetings.

You just don’t have the time for something which holds as little importance as blogging. In the end, you may just delegate this annoying task to that new intern who mentioned her “copywriting” and “creative thinking” skills in her CV. Or you hire a ghostwriter who knows your business from the inside out (can you spot the deep irony in that statement?) to put together at least one post per month to make it appear as if you were maintaining a regular blogging schedule. In the end, that’s your obligation as well as a modern business, isn’t it?

Obligation…? Ok, ok, let’s start from scratch here, because with that mindset we’re not really going anywhere. Let’s first talk about some of the benefits that blogging yields for your business, and then why YOU, your employees and nobody else should do the blogging for you.

Here are a few benefits of blogging for your business

Generating good content and creating value helps you create a voice in the noisy branding landscape.
Taking a position and having an opinion helps you distinguish yourself from all that noise.
Being an ambassador of certain ideas and values make you stand out of the crowd.
Creative expression leads to employee participation and satisfaction. The brand is owned by the whole team, not just the faceless company.

Don’t tell me you don’t have the time and resources

I think we can agree that those benefits all sound great. Now we still have a crammed agenda, employees that want to go home at 6, and you yourself are too busy (and thus uninspired) anyway to even write a single paragraph, let alone an entire blog post… That ghost writer seemed like a good alternative…

But which techniques can we actually employ to make blogging part of your company’s objectives, generate creative output on a regular basis, and establish a better brand position for yourself?

Here are a few ideas how to turn your business into a blog writing machine:

Let everyone in your company write blog posts, especially those people that burn all their creative juice on client copy-writing all day long.
Establish a regular posting schedule, such as every Monday and Thursday (that’s what we picked, and it works well for us).
Let people write first thing in the morning, when the coffee is hot, ideas are fresh and inspiration is high (except on Mondays).
Collect ideas on a daily basis. Your work itself probably offers plenty of talking points to share: Your processes, your results, how you got there, your tools and your amazing team.
Reward people for blogging.
Don’t insist that every blog is a modern-day epic. A shorter blog post sharing a piece of knowledge is absolutely fine, and no less valuable. It’s also a far less intimidating start for some of your less experienced writers.
Pair up and support people. The more experienced writers on your team have a lot to share. By having them help out others, you can make the process of blogging collaborative, fun, and a great learning experience. Here at Hanno, 4/6 of our team are non-native English speakers, but we still blog relentlessly, and share this load amongst the team.

Still doesn’t make sense?

In the end nobody is obliged to start blogging if there isn’t anything interesting to talk about. However there is a reason why companies such as Buffer, Kissmetrics, 37signals or &yet are creating a culture around their blog as if it were their number 1 marketing tool (hint: It is).

Once people start writing and you get the ball rolling, almost everyone is eager to contribute and put their thoughts out there. And believe me, even though people may not fall in love with your blogging strategy from the very beginning, they will do once they see the results. Human beings have an urge for creative self-expression.

In the end, the craft of writing — just like playing an instrument or drawing a picture — allows us to express ourselves to the world. It’s something which not only builds awareness of your company and demonstrates your expertise, but can also give a deep feeling of personal satisfaction for your team.

Don’t miss this great opportunity. It’ll help your team, your business, and even your industry.

Originally published on Medium on December 10, 2014.