Building Credibility with Blogs

There really aren’t many signs pointing to the declining popularity of blogs. Each day it seems the reach of blogs actually continues to grow and expand in different areas and industries. Many companies and corporations are turning to blogs with more frequency as a means to raise their internet presence while increasing the interaction with target audiences.

A blog can also be a great forum to help build credibility for an organization by highlighting an executive as an industry expert. By leveraging resident expertise on a particular topic that is germane to their industry, a company can take a leadership position in starting the dialogue, engaging their audiences and in the end, building credibility for the company about a specific topic.

It is not uncommon to see a CEO blogging about the next big industry trend. One of my clients, David Smith, president and CEO of Recap Advisors, a Boston-based affordable housing consultancy, has been blogging about affordable housing issues for several years. His in-depth coverage of complex concepts has brought him a level of credibility that few people enjoy in the affordable housing space.

If your considering launching a corporate blog-- great! Just remember, have a strategy and a policy before you start banging away on the keyboard. Keep in mind that that there can be serious ramifications of what you say, especially regarding sensitive corporate information.

To help guide you through blog planning take a look at Northeastern University & Backbone Media’s Blogging Success Study.