As Web 2.0 quickly becomes Web 3.0 and beyond, it’s clear to me that blogging will begin to play a major role in our online strategy. The question is where to start. Here’s a quick summary of some of the things we mulled over at Mezzanine before making the leap into the blogosphere.

Considerations:

1. We’re a marketing company – While many industries can benefit from blogging (provided it’s done well and consistently), having an active online presence is even more important for marketers. We need to understand emerging technologies and trends rather than just reading about them. Beyond being trendy, blogging also speaks to one of our major strengths – our people.

1. We now have the resources – My major concern with launching a blog was the upkeep. I would rather have nothing than be saddled with a poorly thought out and executed blog – luckily, with strong internal drivers, and talented contributors, I don’t have to choose. This blog is about the whole organization, created by the whole organization. And without the burden of dealing with a heavy corporate communications process, we have the ability to produce more relevant content at the pace our visitors demand.

Goals:

1. Enable people to get to know us – As mere mortals, everyone at Mezz can only be in one place at a time. That means limited time to have meaningful conversations with our clients, our industry peers, and our prospects. Our best relationships all revolve around open dialogue, mutual understanding, and consistent and frequent interaction. Moving some of that conversation online will allow us to reach more people more frequently.

1. Give the whole team a platform – I’m often invited to share expertise as President and Founder of Mezzanine. Launching a blog will allow all Mezz team members the opportunity to speak on marketing issues in which they have particular interest or expertise. We have so many bright and creative people at Mezzanine, that it’s sometimes difficult to translate all of that internally held knowledge into thought leadership pieces – a blog gives our people a podium to share their insights freely.

1. Measure engagement – From a tangible perspective, a blog is a great way to gauge interest and engagement on particular topics. As a professional services firm, we take our cues from client interests. What are our customers thinking about? Even moreso, what are they worrying about, and how do we fit in to their businesses to help ease their minds? With website analytics, feed analytics, and commenting functionality, we’re increasing the quality of our data.

So there you have it, a quick summary of the Mezzanine thought process in starting a blog. What about you? Why has your company started blogging? Or even more importantly, what has held you back?

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Tags: Blogging, Mezzanine, Online Marketing

This entry was posted on Monday, June 2nd, 2008 at 11:00 am and is filed under Marketing Execution and Tools, Mezzanine. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.