Successful SEM (define)
initiatives require common sense when navigating
the corporate landscape and uncommon sense when
it comes to spotting trends and niche
opportunities on the search horizon.
Fortunately, forward-thinkers and
trend-spotters make it easier for search engine
marketers to figure out future maneuvers. Though SEM
visionaries don't always agree with each other, their
insights into how new developments will influence SEM
are provocative. They both inform and intrigue search
engine marketers.
Corporate vision, on the other hand, is
often outsourced. It took about five minutes for email
to emerge as an indispensable personal communications
tool. It took about a decade for it to become an
indispensable communications tool for corporations,
generally after an outside consultant recommended it.
As with other technology trends,
individuals have to embraced blogging. According to an
Edelman/Intelliseek
report, about 20,000 new blogs are created each day, and
an estimated 10 million U.S. blogs will exist by the end
of this year. Yet it's estimated fewer than 10 percent
of Fortune 500 corporations leverage blogs as part of
their SEM strategy. Small businesses, meanwhile, have
leapt into the blogosphere.
A recent Backbone Media
study finds three quarters of current business
bloggers are from companies with 1-100 employees,
generating less than $50 million in annual revenues.
Nearly half of these bloggers are business leaders,
presidents, or principals (45 percent); 33 percent are
department heads; and 22 percent are staff.
Risky Business
Corporate blogging opens and streamlines
two-way communications between consumers and
organizations. It offers big brands an opportunity to
promote their products as well as to improve search
engine rankings, particularly when corporate bloggers
focus their efforts on writing about their own products
and product development.
Corporate blogs aren't without
challenges. According to the survey, the biggest
corporate concern about blogging is the time needed to
manage the blogs; next is legal liability.
Though corporate governance and laws try
to catch up with blogging, a growing number of
employees, from such companies as Wells Fargo, Delta Air
Lines, and Google, have been fired or disciplined for
what they said about work on their blogs.
Corporate bloggers may also inadvertently
violate trademark or copyright laws on their blogs. In
the rush to publish, bloggers can leak trade secrets and
product release dates. Corporate bloggers may libel
another employee, a client, or a competitor. Blogs are
also likely devices for astroturfing (define)
and potential security violations.
Many corporations now have employee
blogging guidelines to avoid such problems. In May, IBM
unveiled such
guidelines. They state the obvious: employees should
identify themselves and make it clear they speak for
themselves, not the corporation. Corporate bloggers
should stay away from ethnic slurs, personal insults,
obscenities, profanities, and vulgarities, as well as
avoid inflammatory topics, such as politics and
religion.
Goodwill Hunting
Corporate SEM strategies aren't developed
in a vacuum; they're made by committee. This means
different corporations utilize blogs in different ways.
Developing a corporate blog is like developing any other
vehicle leveraged in an SEM campaign. Goals must be set,
responsibilities assigned, an implementation timeline
established, and results measured.
According to Backbone Media's case
studies, several blogs published by large corporations
produced the following strategic benefits:
-
Public relations:
Corporate blogs provide another way to publish
content and ideas, get information to customers
quickly, and receive customer feedback.
-
Sales generation:
With transparency heightened, corporate blogs can
establish industry-specific thought leadership,
build online user communities, and increase sales.
-
SEM: Blogs
can boost search engine positioning, increase link
popularity, and readily allow for RSS syndication.
All these add up to increased site traffic.
Although improving search engine
visibility and increasing sales are demonstrable
benefits, putting a price on creating goodwill among
core consumers is more difficult. Corporations are
finding goodwill can be generated when bloggers stay on
topic, provide uniquely pertinent information, and are
responsive to customer feedback.
Corporate blogging facilitates real-time
online marketing opportunities, especially for big
brands. Blogs aren't a singular SEM vehicle; they're
just another tool. They don't replace corporate
pressrooms, email newsletters, or corporate Web sites.
Yet corporate blogs can create brand buzz that's proving
to be a worthwhile investment.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
P.J. Fusco
has been working in the Internet
industry since 1996 when she developed
her first SEM service while acting as
general manager for a regional ISP. She
was the SEO manager for
Jupitermedia and has performed as
the SEM manager for an international
health and beauty dot-com corporation
generating more than $1 billion a year
in e-commerce sales. Today, she is the
lead search strategist for
Netconcepts, a cutting-edge SEO firm
with offices in Madison, WI, and
Auckland, New Zealand.
