April 19, 2010 – Red Bricks Media, San Francisco- This week Twitter announced its new advertising platform, Promoted Tweets, which is officially still in beta. As the beneficiary of massive traffic growth, it seems that Twitter has chosen this moment to introduce a monetization strategy through advertising.

The news was broken by an article in The New York Times, and bloggers such as John Battelle have been following this story closely. Media people everywhere are excited about this product if only because of the opportunity presented by Twitter’s impressive user base—which appears on track to include … everyone.

There are two successful cases for Twitter’s advertising play: Google’s AdWords and AdSense programs and Facebook’s performance advertising service. While repeating Google’s magic advertising success seems unlikely, Facebook has been able to generate a significant revenue stream in just under a year. The blog Inside Facebook estimates that performance ads will account for over half of the network’s estimated $1B in sales for 2010.

So what are Promoted Tweets? Promoted Tweets are ads that brands can buy at the top of Twitter search results, just like AdWords places text ads on top of Google search results. Advertisers will be able to buy these ads via an auction model. Whoever is willing to pay the most per thousand viewers gets priority. Depending on how many people view and click on the Promoted Tweet, it receives a “resonance” score that predicts how frequently it will appear in the future. Resonance is calculated using nine variables such as viewers, click through, retweets etc. The greater the user engagement with a Promoted Tweet—and thus its “resonance”—the more likely it is to appear. Like Google’s Quality Score, resonance is intended to keep ads relevant and positive.

 The marketing value of Promoted Tweets remains to be seen, but there are valid reasons for the initial excitement:

1. Promoted Tweets Rise Above the Fray
   A host of marketers, including some Red Bricks Media clients, communicate with their audiences via Twitter. However, Twitter’s egalitarian publishing model means that most subscribers receive a cacophonous flood of tweets all day, and only a minority of these is interesting. For brands that tweet, many posts have only fleeting value. Often they go unseen amongst all the other tweets in a user’s stream. Promoted Tweets allow brands to hold and maintain top position, just like AdWords or Yahoo Search Marketing ads do.  

1. Promoted Tweets Are the Spark that Lights the Fire
   We believe that good Twitter strategy is critical to a complete social media program.Yet, a significant base of Twitter subscribers is as difficult to grow as a house email list or a Facebook fan base. Twitter subscribers can wither or flourish slowly over time or like wildfire. But they behave unpredictably in any case. Promoted Tweets give brands a launching pad from which to ignite an active subscriber community, although at a cost.

1. Promoted Tweets May Provide Massive Reach
   Because Twitter is nearly ubiquitous on the Web, Promoted Tweets create an avenue to reach a huge number of people. That scale reminds us of Google, where it’s possible to message to almost everyone interested in almost any subject, such as shopping, finding a vendor, or researching life choices. Almost everyone uses Twitter to listen to the pulse of current happenings: events, entertainment, news, product launches, and so on. Imagine being able to message reliably to all those people.

When Should Brands Consider Promoted Tweets?

Promoted Tweets will provide an opportunity to brands to engage with any topical, trending subject on the Web. That broad condition applies equally to consumer and B2B marketers. Here is a short list of marketing objectives we believe Promoted Tweets could accomplish:

1. Build New Channels. Promoted Tweets would be a great way to publish promotions, contests, or sweepstakes, earning new followers in the process. As we mentioned, creating a Twitter subscriber group provides low cost, evergreen, loyalty brand communications for the future.
2. Drive Traffic. Similar to StumbleUpon, Promoted Tweets will allow online publishers to advertise content specifically to interested audiences.
3. Increase Awareness. We’ve already seen how advertising on search results increases brand awareness for qualified groups. With Promoted Tweets, brands will be able to introduce themselves, at scale, to people interested in their offerings.
4. Manage Crises. During crisis, customers and other stakeholders love to tweet each other with opinions and pronouncements. With Promoted Tweets, brands can offer their side of the story authentically, sincerely and instantaneously.
5. Manage Launches. Product launches generate buzz on Twitter. Promoted Tweets allow advertisers to build and capture that buzz while directing members to relevant links. This goal could apply to new products, software and entertainment such as books, movies, or plays. Imagine how James Cameron could have used Promoted Tweets to message to Avatar fans and detractors.

Scale, relevance and authenticity are equal ingredients in Promoted Tweets possible success. We await this product anxiously on behalf of our clients and their customers. Happy Tweeting!

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By Scott Tieman, Head of Client Services

Recently, my clients have been beating a path to my door to run social media contests and sweepstakes. They’ve read the buzz about companies unlocking tremendous value through these programs and want to get in on the action.

My original intention for this article was to outline the key considerations I talk to them about: differentiating the concept, keeping the participation simple, integrating cross-channel, promoting the heck out of it, and aligning incentives. Each of these warrants its own discussion, but the one that seems the most obvious and yet is the least intuitive is the latter, aligning incentives. So, I’ll start there first.

Too often, contest and sweepstakes planning focuses heavily on logistics without regard for the incentive structure. The reason is obvious. Marketers care about their return – increased awareness, sales, etc. But, participants only care about what they’re going to get out of it. Without this value exchange, these programs fail.

Below, I outline three key considerations when planning contest and sweepstakes incentive structures: choosing between cash and prizes, using incentives as a promotion vehicle, and targeting the incentive to your desired audience and outcome.

(1) Cash may be king, but it costs more than you might think.

People barely notice anymore when marketers offer the chance to win $1,000, or even $10,000. They’ll gladly take the money if it’s given, but won’t go through the effort of contest participation. Cash prizes only start to cut through the noise at $100,000 or more. However, at this incentive level, the program must be far reaching to earn back the investment in awareness, participation, or output.

As an alternative, consider incentives that would be valuable to the intended audience, but would require less cash. Focus on noteworthy, unique prizes that people can’t get elsewhere or can’t afford. This might include tickets to the Olympics, producing your next commercial, or even digital brand badges. When you do a cost comparison between cash and these types of prizes, the prizes are usually cheaper and stand out more.

(2) The incentive should help promote the program.

Noteworthy incentives generate buzz which helps further promote the contest or sweepstakes. When planning the incentive structure, consider how buzz worthy the prize is — will it help promote the program?

State lotteries are great examples. Participation grows as the prize pool increases – not only through increased investments from regulars, but also from people normally on the sidelines. The odds of winning don’t change. The expected payout may be higher, but even that isn’t guaranteed given the additional participation. Yet the bigger prize pool generates increased participation despite little additional promotion. The reason is that as the prize pool rises, more buzz is generated by media outlets that normally wouldn’t promote a lottery.

(3) Offer bamboo to the pandas, eucalyptus to the koalas.

In planning contest incentives, consider the audience. Look at the audience research you’ve done and ask what would motivate your target consumer to participate. Thinking “who wouldn’t want cash or a trip to Vegas?” isn’t enough.

Below, I’ve included an example that I think illustrates all three points very well.

Recently, a well known tech blogger took advantage of the hype surrounding the launch of the Google Nexus One by using the frenzy to increase his own online influence. Immediately following the product release, he snapped up 10 devices for $6,000. He then offered to give away one device randomly for each 10,000 followers he collected on Twitter. The only requirement to enter was retweeting his offer. By the end of the first week, he had given away five devices; by the end of the second week, another 3.

Several things strike me about this sweepstakes. It was simple. Participants only needed to retweet the offer. The timing was impeccable. His prospective audience wanted to get their hands on the product, but few had $600 lying around. Had he launched the sweepstakes a month later the response rate would have been far lower. The incentive was relevant to his audience. The people he wanted to collect were precisely the ones that would be most interested in the Google Nexus One. He astutely listened to the chatter and used it to his own benefit. The economics are astounding. Each additional follower cost him $0.06 – that’s it! You can’t even get one paid click to your site for that amount. Had he chosen to instead give away $600 for every 10,000 followers, no one would have noticed. The value generated is substantial. Now that he has collected this audience, his megaphone is supercharged and each additional communication is “free.” What would you be willing to pay to get your message out to 100,000 customers and prospects?

Scott Tieman is an Account Director at Red Bricks Media. He is an experienced internet marketer and certified search professional. In his role, he has directed online marketing programs for SanDisk, Nestle, LA Times and more. Scott can be reached at stieman@redbricksmedia.com.

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We are happy to announce our latest panel discussion and networking event: “St@te of the Feeds”, a review of the social media landscape—where it started, where it stands today, and where it is headed in the future.

This evening of drinks, appetizers and insights will take place during AdTech SF, on Wednesday, April 21st, from 6-9PM at Roe, 651 Howard St, San Francisco.

We have secured a fabulous team of panelists, all of whom are experts in the social media space. They come from a wide array of backgrounds and experiences, and will come together at St@te of the Feeds on April 21st.

Paul Ollinger, VP of Western Region Sales for Facebook, had extensive knowledge of the monetization and benefits of using social media in one’s marketing efforts.

Sean Blankenship of CODA Automotive knows the potential of social media first-hand. As VP of Digital and Social Media Experiences, he is using social media to bolster his marketing efforts for CODA’s new evolution of the electric car.

Diana Cartwright, now the VP of Corporate Marketing at Kaleidescape, was most recently a social media thought leader at SanDisk.  SanDisk’s social media strategy has been very fruitful, and Cartwright is now bringing her knowledge into a new environment.

The panel will be moderated by Sandy Grushow, a veritable social media rockstar.  His current company MediaLink is at the forefront of the social media space, and Grushow’s knowledge and expertise make him the perfect moderator for this in-depth discussion.

You are welcome to attend! Please RSVP at: www.redbricksmedia.com/party

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By Vincent Ma, the Product Guy

Even if you’ve never heard of APIs or web services, there is a good chance that you have benefited from them. If you ever posted a tweet from an iPhone app, used Google Maps outside of Google, or found a lost cow while playing FarmVille, you have used a service that takes advantage of APIs. Wikipedia defines an application programming interface (API) as “an interface that a software program implements to allow other software to interact with it.” An API is essentially a bridge that allows an authorized 3^rd party to programmatically interact with data and features of a particular web application.

Why would a company like Twitter want to provide API access to 3^rd party developers?

Having a good API is a great way to extend a company’s brand visibility, foster innovation, and ultimately drive underlying business success. APIs have been a major reason why companies like Twitter and Facebook have experienced such tremendous growth over the last few years. As documented by the programmableweb.com Twitter mash-up directory, there are at least 350 web applications that use the Twitter API. It is no wonder why more and more web applications are implementing APIs as a strategy to gain users and spur growth. Recent news of services like Foursquare (a location based social network and game) and Bump (a mobile data exchange application) announcing new APIs indicate that the trend isn’t going stop anytime soon.

Why should we as marketers be excited about this API trend?

APIs offer marketers and their agencies a quick and easy way to build and deliver compelling and engaging branding experiences and to integrate useful data/services/features into their existing websites or marketing campaigns. A great example is the partnership between Foursquare and Bravo where users of the television channel’s city guides app can access the “check-in” Foursquare feature through Bravo’s own mobile app and earn Bravo themed Foursquare badges.

In addition to opening up the creative possibilities for advertisers and their agencies, APIs also provide the plumbing required to connect, automate, and optimize campaigns across your multi-channel digital marketing strategy. For example, Red Bricks Media use many channel specific APIs in our suite of workflow and management tools, including promotion scheduling and automated SEO audits that allow our client teams to work more effectively and efficiently. Beyond the streamlining of marketing operations, APIs allow us to more easily collect, process, and act upon the mountain of data marketers receive on the weekly if not daily basis. Our marketing intelligence platform, Kunu, utilizes a host of APIs in order to provide the analytics and deep insights required by our clients and account teams. As more marketing technologies and platforms offer APIs, we’re getting closer and closer to the development of a centralized marketing engine for creating, managing and optimizing truly integrated marketing campaigns.

How can marketers leverage APIs to drive content sharing that takes less than an hour to implement?

If you regularly update your corporate blog, send out press releases or have marketing content that you would love to have shared across social media platforms, considering adding a content posting and sharing button (like the one you see at the bottom of this post) to make it easier for your readers and customers to share your content with their friends. Marketers can either add the sharing functionality provided directly by each social networking site or use 3^rd party providers, such as sharethis.com and addthis.com, which have packaged solutions that make it even easier to add sharing functionality across all the top social networking and social bookmarking sites. If you have another hour or two to spare, think about integrating commenting functionality from social media sites like Facebook to your content that will allow your customers to not only leave comments on your website that can be easily posted to their profiles but also discover content on your site filtered by your user’s social network.

As the digital worlds continue to integrate and move towards an integrated seamless experience, developers and marketers are challenged to create experiences and solutions that take advantage of this ever changing services landscape. It is an exciting time and I’m personally anxious to see (and use) the next great web service or mash-up to make the headlines. In the mean time, what are some of your favorite web services or mashups that you’ve come across? Feel free to leave a comment at our blog about your favorites.

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By Craig Hordlow, Co-Founder and Chief Search Strategist

The Apple iPad, introduced by Steve Jobs in San Francisco on January 27, 2010, is unusual for Apple products in that the media knew most everything about it before Jobs’ presentation, and could only speculate for whom the device is meant and why they would use it.

The iPad is not filling any pressing unmet need, nor is it introducing us to any new technologies.  The iPad is an evolutionary step towards device integration.  If this step had been made by a less significant company, like Sanyo or Casio, it would have received little attention.  But Apple’s brand capital creates media fanfare, and its cultish following provides a forgiving consumer base.

There is speculation that the iPad will compete with e-readers. But the iPad has a computer screen that is hard on the eyes and while its portability may make reading easier, it is simply not an e-reader.

Apple knows that many people use computers primarily for getting on the internet and sending emails, and it streamlined this device for those people. The $700 price tag is welcoming but nothing more than that, especially in this economy. The virtual keyboard, while meant to simplify the device, is unorthodox, meaning it will be met with everything from confusion and frustration to satisfaction and joy. 

The risk that Apple runs with the iPad is cannibalization of its own products.  In his keynote address, Jobs said that “netbooks aren’t better than anything”, which was his inspiration for the iPad.  But having little more functionality than the iPhone, Seth Jayson (Senior Technology Analyst of The Motley Fool) quipped that the device reminded him of pictures in The Onion a year ago with Jobs telling his faithful following, “You must buy a large iPhone.”  The iPad, being something of a cross between a netbook and an iPod Touch, is not positioned to convert any segment of the consumer base to its theocracy.

Despite all of this, marketers and advertisers must be alert because anything Apple introduces to consumers has the potential to be a game-changer or at the very least, another opportunity to market to Apple’s faithful following.  The iPad will host the next generation of Apple-approved applications.  While the iPad has more processing power and memory than the iPhone, one might think that the next wave of apps will consequently be more robust.  The problem with that logic is that iPhone apps are either designed to be streamlined for the very limited capabilities of the iPhone, or for the mobile, location-aware attributes of the device.  Therefore it is difficult to imagine why a new catalog of iPad applications will be a game-changer.

If the iPad doesn’t sell an impressive number of devices, marketers and developers may dutifully build iPad apps for consumers who feel entitled by the explosion of them on the iPhone. The absence of a clear, de facto sense of purpose for the iPad among industry analysts has created confusion where excitement was expected.  Unless Apple can create a large customer base, marketers and advertisers will curb their enthusiasm, waiting for either another evolutionary step (such as a comparable Google product) or mass adoption of the device.

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Under the new Guides, advertisers may no longer use the phrase “results not typical” in their campaigns. Instead, advertisements must disclose the results that consumers may typically experience.

Paid or gifted endorsements must also be disclosed in advertisements, and this extends to bloggers and ‘word-of-mouth’ marketers as well.   This means that bloggers may no longer accept payment or free products in return for promotion without disclosing that fact. If your company is providing material or monetary compensation in exchange for promotion by bloggers or celebrities, this exchange must be communicated to the consumer.

Furthermore, if compensation is provided to a research organization which is cited in an advertisement, this fact must be made public within the advertisement as well.

Interestingly, the FTC Guide now holds endorsers more accountable for their statements. As of December 1^st, endorsers and advertisers may both be held liable for false, unsubstantiated or misleading product statements.

While the FTC Guides are not officially binding laws, they are part of the Federal Trade Commission Act, which is included in federal legislation. For more information, visit:

http://www.ftc.gov/multimedia/video/business/endorsement-guides.shtm.

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By Elliott Easterling, CEO

Many marketers are missing the point with Facebook and social networks. The complexity of managing company profiles, the risks of user-generated content, and the lack of control keep many marketers away from creating a robust social network presence.

Social media represents a sea change in the way that brands project and broadcast themselves. Traditional models of web advertising start from a website that is broadcast out to the public. Historically, advertising was placed to bring people back to this channel.

With the advent of social networks, blogs, and micro-blogging (Twitter), brands have had a whole new spectrum to broadcast their brands through, and in most cases, these are not contained within the safe and controlled confines of their site. These new advancements have required that marketers reinvent their digital marketing efforts to consider the nuances of these new media. Creating and managing a presence on Facebook involves a unique set of considerations that are not native to traditional web publishing.

One of the most interesting considerations is that marketers must not just “project” their brand through their website, but rather must make their brands “converse” through these new forms of media. The way that brands are now fragmented through these new channels and must now become animated and have a voice is completely changing the ground rules for digital marketing. Silent films now have sound, and the brands that do not have a voice in this new media will not reap its vast rewards.

I wrote last month on the opportunities that exist for acquisition marketing in Facebook. Now I’ll address retention marketing on Facebook, which warrants its own discussion (and a lot more beyond this).

The benefits to building a fan base in Facebook are akin to developing an electronic direct mail (EDM) list. Unlike EDM lists, on Facebook you can not only market to your customers but they can interact among themselves and do the marketing for you.

Marketers need to start to treat their social network fan bases as marketing assets and need to measure their effect on their sales. So when a promotion is dropped to an EDM list, a similar message should be dropped to Facebook fans. Ultimately the revenue generated from a Facebook fan base should be uniquely tracked within web analytics systems and reported back to senior marketing management just like every other key marketing channel.

What is amazing about Facebook is that it is an incredible value for the associated costs. Marketers spend significant amounts managing their EDM campaigns, and get much of the similar messaging capabilities and the benefits of an integrated social network “free” from Facebook. Facebook is in essence a Hosted Social Network for corporations, with very low marginal cost to touch consumers. Eventually Facebook may find new ways to charge corporations, and the risk of having your fan base hijacked with high marketing fees are very valid and need to be considered as you make your investments.

Let’s take a quick look at Starbucks. At last check they have over 5MM fans on Facebook. That base of evangelists can be activated through promotion and coupons to drive retail sales, which is likely having a very healthy effect on Starbucks’ bottom line.  Starbucks has a concerted and active paid Facebook fan recruiting program. It has yielded a base of fans that has nearly doubled in the last 4 months.

So when our clients ask us whether they should be advertising on Facebook to build up a fan base or to drive traffic to their site, my answer is usually “try both.” To successfully manage a Facebook fan base and a social media profile, you do need to have a concerted investment of resources within your organization — so that is a prerequisite to a fan building program. Facebook is not for all brands, but it is for more than have given it a real chance to play an integrated role in their digital communications.

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New service offers complex, comprehensive performance assessment and monitoring solutions.

San Francisco, CA – November 3, 2009 – Red Bricks Media, a full-service digital marketing agency, announced its new Analytics & Insights practice. Offerings will help clients better utilize marketing and website data to make more intelligent business decisions.

In order to meet the increasing and varied demands of digital marketers, Analytics & Insights will provide solutions that are both highly customized and platform independent. From defining analytics requirements to ad-hoc report development to generating robust data visualizations, the new service focuses on providing the data needed to make informed marketing decisions on budget and resource allocations.

“While a lot of agencies offer one-size-fits-all reports, our solutions focus on determining exactly what drives the success and failures of our clients’ digital marketing campaigns,” said CEO Elliott Easterling. “Whether we are analyzing the performance of a single channel or pulling together complex information from multiple campaigns, our goal is to provide custom, data-driven recommendations that will improve performance.”

The first offerings within the new practice will address the core elements digital marketers need to get analytics configured and intelligence uncovered:

• Analytics Platform Implementation Consulting
• Customized Reporting Solutions
• Deep Dive Analyses
• Cross-Platform Analysis Tools

For more complete information please visit www.redbricksmedia.com.

About Red Bricks Media:

Red Bricks Media is a full-service global marketing agency headquartered in San Francisco, with offices in New York and Hong Kong. Since 2003, they have offered services in search engine marketing, interactive media planning, email campaign management, creative, web design, and social media marketing. Their client list includes top brands like Microsoft, Hearst Magazines, THQ and the Los Angeles Times. To learn more about Red Bricks Media’s Web Analytics practice, please contact sales@redbricksmedia.com.

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by Elliott Easterling, CEO

I recall the first day I opened up AdWords almost 6 years ago to test out the self service functions. That feeling of bliss came to me again when I explored Facebook’s self service tool for the first time last December.

Joy came to me with AdWords because I encountered the tool as a data driven marketer. I spent 3.5 years at Digital Impact (now Axciom Digital) learning the ins and outs of database marketing before I started Red Bricks Media. At the time, we were working with algorithms to process large amounts of user behavior and self-profile data to predict the best products to put into individual emails. This behavioral targeting experience is what got me excited about AdWords. I quickly realized that search queries were in fact behaviors that could be used to present targeted ads to potential consumers. I was amazed that I could tap directly into the flow of demand. The combination of powerful targeting and scale is what made Google such a useful tool for marketers.

Excitement came to me with Facebook because I recognized the same opportunity to build marketing programs with amazing targeting capabilities supported by significant scale. Facebook allows marketers to target users based on the content of their profiles. Rather than being fueled by behavioral data, Facebook campaigns are fueled by profile data. This data is incredibly clean and accurate because, in general, people do not lie about their interests on Facebook. They might exaggerate but they won’t likely lie because peer pressure from Facebook friends creates a system of accountability. The profile data in Facebook is especially powerful because it represents the brand of Facebook users. The things you put in your profile represent the things that are most important to you and also the way you see yourself and want to represent yourself to the world. Facebook profiles are the sum of passions, interests, and make up the brand of one. Facebook also provides a separate targeting axis - one that surrounds demographic data. Where you live, where you went to school, and every piece of data collected in the registration process is targetable on Facebook. This matrix of interest data and demographic data make for great user segmentation and targeting. See chart below.

Since users are not actively seeking out information on Facebook as they are doing on search engines, the click-through rates (CTR) tend to be lower. This limitation can be overcome using the sheer scale of available inventory on Facebook, which can yield great click volume even with low CTRs. From our experience, Facebook campaigns can realize good conversion rates because our campaigns heavily segment users into tight interest groups and then present compelling messages to those users. Our background in database marketing has given us an edge in developing and designing successful Facebook campaigns.

Is Facebook right for your business? It is, to the degree to which interests in Facebook correlate to an interest in your product or services. If, for example, you are in the business of selling tissues online, you may not get much out of Facebook’s targeting capabilities. No one is likely to wax poetic on the virtues on a clean nose on their profile. Alternately, if you sell tours of India, you will have access to the more than 2.8MM 18 and older Americans that that show “travel” as an interest in Facebook. Matched with demographic data, a campaign could even target users in San Francisco with customized messaging – “Explore our tours to majestic India, flights leaving from San Francisco daily.”

As performance marketers, we tend to focus more on media that drives conversions. Facebook also has the amazing ability to drive great branding, so let’s not rule out the campaign for the tissue company quite yet. Facebook branding and fan development warrant a separate discussion, which is forthcoming next month.

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By Scott Tieman, Senior Marketing Strategist

Not long ago, seemingly every company rushed into the blogosphere with its home grown corporate blog. The thinking was the company could use this platform as a marketing megaphone to amplify the buzz around its latest products, events, and more. Companies soon realized that the excitement of hosting a blog soon died off and their blogs floundered, never to be touched again. At Red Bricks Media, we often encourage our clients to make the plunge, but not before a serious gut check. Many articles focus on the philosophy of blogging; we’re going to discuss the practicality and logistics of blog ownership, an oft overlooked topic.

Corporate blogs that fail are either conceived from the top down or bottom up, but not both at the same time. They need support from both ends to flourish.

Let’s examine top down first.

Corporate blogs can be excellent marketing tools when they’re aligned with the strategic marketing objectives of the company. Translation: what do I hope to accomplish with my corporate blog? Typically, the response is less than satisfying, something like “engender loyalty” or “proactively offset negative marketplace sentiment” or “inform our customers of new product releases or enhanced feature sets.” These are diffuse goals that are difficult to measure. How will you know if your campaign is succeeding without actionable measurement?

Next, companies need to make an important commitment to the employees who contribute to their corporate blogs. First, contributors shouldn’t feel like blogging is a side gig to be done when all other tasks are complete. On the contrary, you should write this activity into your employees’ job description. This will ensure that the contributors don’t feel like they need to always cut into their free time to write. Also, you should consider offering an attainable performance bonus for consistent, high quality contributions to the corporate blog. This will ensure a high level of contribution even during the times when the hours are demanding at the company.

Finally, a company should embrace the idea that their corporate bloggers are a precious, scarce resource. They will be the company champions and the company’s face to the rest of the world. As such, you should commit to not only promoting the corporate blog to increase audience size, but also recognition for the contributors. Making someone an anonymous contributor will most likely decrease that person’s sense of responsibility to the task.

Now let’s examine bottom up.

Corporate blogs require consistently active, passionate authors. When identifying employees to take on this new role, you should always start with hand-raisers. These are the employees most likely to embrace this new role as contributor. However, they shouldn’t stop there. We all know people that have great intentions when starting a new project, but quickly grow bored over the monotonous routine of completing the project. Corporate blogs have indefinite timelines, so it’s important to make this selection carefully. We typically recommend identifying multiple contributors for the same blog. That way, you can ensure that there will be some coverage when the initial excitement wanes and people get inevitably swamped with work.

Also, look for people that have something fresh to say. There are millions of blogs out there and probably more than you know that cover your own company. You should read some of them first and figure out what will differentiate what the company has to say from what has already been said. If the corporate blog is same old, same old, someone else will probably say it better than your company.

Finally, nothing saps the passion out of contributors more than muting their voice with unnecessary corporate blogging “guidelines.” Blogs are social media. The best blogs enable an authentic dialog between authors and their audience. Marketers LOVE control, but this is the wrong place for too much of it. Two thoughts come to mind. First, make sure to enable comments on blogs. Dialogs are inherently two-way communication. If you want a monologue, post another press release. Second, limit the number of bureaucratic filtering layers. Let the true voice of the author ring through. Anecdotally, I worked at Yahoo! two years ago. Before any article got posted to their corporate blog, two managers and the legal team needed to give their stamp of approval. The result was that all articles sounded the same, corporate, and boring. The author’s true voice had been stripped out. Don’t let this happen to you.

Corporate blogs fail for a host of reasons. Before starting a corporate blog, perform a serious gut check. If not, you’ll sign the death warrant on your own corporate blog before it’s ever launched.

This article is cross-posted from Scott’s blog.

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