A new study by Northeastern University (Boston, USA) Professor Walter Carl and John Cass at Backbone Media Inc. examines the conditions and factors that contribute to a successful corporate blog and helps companies decide whether or not they should blog. According to the study, five factors that consistently contributed to the success or failure of a blog were:
- Culture: If a company has particular cultural traits worth revealing or a bad reputation it wants to repudiate, blogging can be an attractive option;
- Transparency: Critical to establishing credibility and trust with an audience. People want to see an honest portrayal of a company and know that there are not ulterior motives behind the blog. Blog audiences respect a willingness to disclose all points of view on a subject;
- Time: It takes a lot of time to set up, research and write a quality blog. Companies need to identify a person who has the time or whose schedule is freed up to make the time, or need to engage a group of people to share the responsibility;
- Dialogue: A company’s ability and willingness to engage in a dialogue with their customer base about topics that the customer base is interested in is critical to its blogging success;
- Entertaining writing style and personalization: A blogger’s writing style and how much they are willing to reveal about their life, experience and opinions brings human interest to a blog, helps build a personal connection with readers and will keep people reading.
For a copy of the full report, visit: http://www.scoutblogging.com/success_study/
The study also looks at how the set-up of a blog contributes to its success. Key factors identified are:
