The Corporate Blogging Book explains why you need a company or organizational blog – and how to launch a successful one. Blogging is no longer optional. A blog is the home base of your social media strategy. Think of it as the hub of the wheel.

An effective blog enables you to to have a two-way conversation with customers and employees, recruit Millennials looking for an open company culture, diffuse a crisis by publishing your side of the story and — perhaps most crucial — shape the conversation online around your brand.

What you need to know about blogging

Learn what to write about; how much time will it take; how to handle critical feedback; how to measure the ROI of blogging. Get ideas from smaller company blogs. Learn why – or why not – your CEO should blog. The back of the book is filled with resources, from sample blogging guidelines to blog design tips.

Learn from Big Brand corporate bloggers like Dell, GM and Google as well as small businesses. Get specific tips on how to develop a credible, authentic (writing) voice that engages your readers and turns them into fans — if not customers.

From the back cover

“The world does not need any more boring corporate blogs. We do, however, need a great one…from you. Open this book to any page and you’ll discover ideas you can use to accomplish that goal, starting right now.”
–Seth Godin, author of Small Is the New Big

“Rock-solid advice and examples for anyone considering business blogging. Weil deftly shows how to avoid the pitfalls of open communications while establishing a real conversation with your customers.”
–Chris Anderson, editor-in-chief of Wired and author of The Long Tail

“To blog or not to blog? In business today, that is the question. And nobody is more qualified to provide the answer-and to demystify the blogosphere for corporate America-than Debbie Weil. With incisive writing, vivid examples, and plenty of takeaways, this is *the* book smart businesspeople should read to understand the ins and outs of blogging. Prepare to take notes!”
–Daniel H. Pink, author of A Whole New Mind and Free Agent Nation

“This compact yet comprehensive encyclopedia of corporate blogging lucidly explains why blogging should be part of any customer loyalty strategy. Even better, it helps ensure your blogging efforts will you make you-and your boss-look good.”
–Jackie Huba, coauthor of Creating Customer Evangelists

“Future CEO bloggers will thank you, Debbie, for saving their precious time with your book. If I’d read this book before I started blogging I would have saved 5-6 months of trial and sometimes embarrassing error. Maybe more. Great job!”
–Zane Safrit, CEO, Conference Calls Unlimited

“The plain-English practical advice in The Corporate Blogging Book offers the kind of insights that took us years of trial and error to figure out. . . . An invaluable reference.”
–Mena Trott, president and a cofounder, Six Apart

Praise for the original edition

Library Journal

Blogging has become not just fashionable but mandatory in today’s business world, but some managers have taken to it more readily than others. Here are two approaches to the subject. Weil, publisher of the e-newsletter WordBiz Report, conducts readers on a fun and freewheeling excursion into the world of blogs for managers and for employees who want their managers to allow blogging. Written informally, much like blogs themselves, the narrative interweaves stories about corporate executives who blog with tips on both the value of blogging and on how to start doing so. She discusses the problems and pitfalls of corporate blogging and even has practical advice for the most dreaded fear that CEOs have about blogging, loss of control: “Get over it.” She includes discussions of wikis and podcasting, as well as legal resources, and has some sample policies and guidelines. For those not up on the language of blogs, she includes a glossary and a list of recommended readings. Her bottom line? “The essence of blogging is being real, and real isn’t necessarily perfect.”
– Robert Harbison, Western Kentucky Univ. Lib., Bowling Green Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Book List

With citizen bloggers multiplying by the minute, corporations are keen to co-opt the authenticity of this online publishing phenomenon. But while many already understand the concept (GM’s Bob Lutz, who wrote the foreword, is a blogger), many more are struggling to make sense of a fairly simple proposition: use your blog as a meaningful conduit to your customers, and watch them become your best advocates; use it as an outlet for stale press releases, and watch the world yawn or walk away. Weil provides background on blogs, offers tips on writing them (“invite a conversation”), addresses common concerns (“what if my employees are blogging?”), discusses tools and technology (including podcasts and wikis), and offers a cheat sheet for convincing the boss that it’s time to blog. Bonus resources include sample policies and guidelines, design tips, a glossary, and more. Short and sweet, this is more enthusiastic and personably written–and includes fewer CYA disclaimers–than Nancy Flynn’s Blog Rules (2006) and is more appropriate for the corporate crowd than Andy Wibbels’ Blogwild! (2006). Keir Graff
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