Nate Riggs: Social Business Strategies; communication, social web strategies, & passion in Columbus, Ohio.

It seems that almost every company out there is trying to figure out the art of blogging and how to do it right for business.  There are tons of benefits for the organizations that can make it work for the long haul.

We’re starting to see more and more companies take a collaborative approach to corporate blogging.  Rather than naming a dedicated company blogger, or a set of individual bloggers, taking the collaborative approach calls for multiple contributors from various levels within an organization to submit content on a single, company-owned platform.

Most of these blogs will also highlight each individual contributor to take advantage of the essence of humanization that is created in having individual voices present.

Some of my favorite examples of well-focused and consistent business blogs include the following:

• Hubspot’s Inbound Marketing Blog
• Junta42′s Content Marketing Institute (I’m a contributor)
• GSW’s What’s Your Digital IQ
• Incept’s Conversational Marketing Blog (Client)
• Kodak’s A Thousand Words
• What’s the Diff? by QuickenLoans

Collaborative blogs make sense for companies in that the approach spreads the content creation workload across multiple individuals, making it much easier to maintain a higher frequency of posts.  Another benefit of multiple contributors is that your blog’s readers gain a variety of perspectives from within your company.  Each contributor typically has a unique set of experiences and stories to share, which in turn can make the depth of your blog’s content increasingly rich.

So how do you get there?

The most important truth for a company to consider is that no matter what fancy technology you implement, blogs will never write themselves.  That said, a great place to start (even before forming your content strategy) is to build your team of collaborative corporate bloggers.

6 Essential Steps to Build a Collaborative Blog Team

• Start Small - Don’t try to shoot for the moon on your first attempt at launching a collaborative blog.  Selecting a core team of 3-5 dedicated contributors, who will deliver content regularly, is better than a team of 20 contributors who struggle to keep up with the publishing requirements.  Set a goal for each member of the team to produce one post each week to start.  Once your team members get comfortable with that schedule, kick it up a notch.
• Balance the Team – Build your collaborative blog team with individuals from different levels and departments within your organization.  Not everyone needs to come from the marketing or sales departments.  A balanced blog team will include company leaders, customer service representatives, operations folks and maybe even individuals who work in the accounting department.  It’s also a good idea to look for contributors who already understand the blogosphere.  While experience in copywriting is a plus, an understanding of how blogs and social networks operate is much more valuable.  Finding contributors who are avid blog readers and commenters will ensure that your team has, at least, a basic understanding of how blog content is typically formatted.  Pay special attention to employees who already write a personal blog; they can prove to be a very valuable asset to your team.
• Pick Good Administrators – Make sure to select one or two collaborative blog administrators who take on administrative duties as a core part of their responsibilities at your company.  At times, these folks may need to spend a greater amount of time working on blog tasks, since they will act as a bottleneck for final approval on all posts.  For this reason, it’s a good idea to keep the number of administrators to a minimum.  Administrators will have full access to all areas of the blog, so selecting someone with previous technology experience is a good idea.  Finding an administrator with experience in search engine optimization is also a plus.
• Design a Workflow Process – I’m always careful when using the phrase “editorial calendar” in blogging because the blogosphere is very dynamic.  Trends and topics can change on a daily basis and it’s important that your blog content stays relevant to the conversations happening on the web.  Building a high-level content strategy, and assigning focus areas to your contributors, is a good way to stay focused yet agile.  Also, be aware that there are tools available that can help administrators manage the process of post submissions so you don’t have to chase team members around with emails and spreadsheets.
• Subcontract with a Proofreader - This is one of the best decisions a company can make in terms of time management.  In most cases, your blog administrators will have loads of other tasks on their plate while also trying to manage the team and keep content flowing.  While proofreading each post for grammatical and spelling errors is absolutely critical to your success, it’s often a major time suck that can be overlooked.  It’s a good idea to seek out the services of an experienced freelance copywriter who can serve as a proofreader and content flow editor to lift this burden off your admins.  Most of these individuals will offer an affordable price per page model.
• Develop Blog Team Mastermind Groups – Consistent coaching and discussion on what’s working and what’s not is valuable for any blog program.  Setting up weekly or biweekly mastermind sessions – during which your blog team can get together to discuss strategy, challenges and content ideas – will keep the momentum going.  You might consider having these sessions over morning coffee or boxed lunches.  These mastermind sessions are also a good opportunity to bring in outside resources for training, such as SEO consultants, social media specialists or writing coaches.  Making an investment in improving the knowledge base and skill level of your blog team will pay dividends almost immediately.  Always keep in mind that company turnover might effect your collaborative blog team, at some point in the progression.  Accordingly, it is important that team members have the ability to get newbies up to speed quickly.

Are there any steps you feel I’ve missed?  What would you add?

nateriggs

I advise mid-sized & large organizations on how to adopt and use social media to market through organizational culture and better serve their clients. I'm also a blended family dad who enjoys music, photography and distance racing. When I'm not writing here, you can find me writing over at the Content Marketing Institute. Like what you've read so far? Then why not subscribe HERE?

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