Ruth Atherley's Posts

AHA Blog Post - Creating And Maintaining A Good Corporate Blog

There is a good piece on SherpaBlog that focuses on three steps to take in order to create a good corporate blog. It’s solid information for anyone either thinking about starting a corporate blog or who needs some help maintaining their current one. Equally as valuable are the comments below this blog post. There are lots of experienced people weighing in on the topic.

AHA Take

A corporate blog is a great opportunity to connect with stakeholders. Having more than one blogger can be helpful to keeping the blog content current and engaging.

If you look at a blog much like a magazine or newspaper columnist would approach their work, you would identify the topics or subjects for each post and set a schedule to develop the content.

Making sure that there are new posts uploaded on a consistent basis is crucial. We all know what it’s like to go to a blog that hasn’t had any new content for months.

We often work with clients to develop a blog editorial schedule that helps to manage the blogging process. Depending on the blog, we often assist clients to set up interviews that will provide a different perspective for their blog. We also research stats and facts on topics. It’s easy for someone writing to make an error based on incorrect information or an assumption. If you put up something that is factually incorrect, that can hurt the credibility of your blog.

A well-written, consistent blog can provide great value for an organization both internally and externally. Approaching it like it’s a professional column is a way that we have found to ensure that new content is developed with accurate information, a focus on the reader, and there is a commitment to being accurate and consistent.

What are the key points for you when it comes to your corporate blog?

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Love it or hate it, you have to admit, Facebook has created a global online community that offers huge opportunity (and equal risk) for many brands. Recently, Facebook launched a PR on Facebook page that provides some great information on how to use Facebook to connect with your stakeholders, consumers and community.

This is an excellent resource if you are interested in finding out if Facebook would be of value for your organization. And if it is of value, there is lots here that can help you to engage on Facebook.

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AHA Can Write

Shel Holtz has a very interesting piece on whether writing is a core skill for a professional communicator. He did a round up, asking several strategic communications professionals for their take and their responses are thoughtful and relevant. It’s an interesting topic and this piece is definitely worth reading.

AHA TAKE

There are some communicators who focus more on the actual craft of writing in their day-to-day work than others, but I can’t imagine that a professional communicator doesn’t need solid writing skills to do their job. Communication is at the very foundation of what we do (we are called communicators, after all) and words are the building blocks for communication. No matter how we communicate – through speeches, newsletters, meetings, video, webinars or any other form – at some point, there is writing involved. To be able to write clearly means that you can think clearly and that’s where it all begins – developing a strategy, defining the message and identifying the tools.

I think that there are different levels of writing well. There are some people that are gifted storytellers; these people can bring the information being shared to life. Their words engage. Others write in a more “corporate” manner, providing just the facts in an informative and straightforward way. Different things apply to different projects or initiatives. However, I strongly believe that if a person doesn’t have, at the very least, the basic skills – including spelling, punctuation and grammar – they will have a real challenge as a communicator.

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