Aug28

Corporate Blog Roadtrip 1: A Map and a Full Tank

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That new corporate blogger — the one that was trained in relationships — is now ready to start that new corporate blog. Where does she start?

Let’s imagine she is you.

A Map and a Full Tank

To prepare for a corporate blog roadtrip, you need a map and a full tank of gas. You also need a route — a way to get the blogging content your stakeholders want you and need you to be blogging about. This vehicle runs best by observing, listening, getting to know the road for most of the first 100 miles.

Everything in business is about the people.

    1. Can you see them? Can you hear them? Look and listen. Value relationships. Find out from the people –both inside and outside of the enterprise — what the people need and desire.

    2. Can you find them? Look in your own building. Talk to the people who touch cutomers. Ask how they want you to influence their customers. Try simple blog searches for your company name and your products. Follow the searches to see what folks are saying.

    3. Can you see the patterns? Take notes and remember from one conversation to the next. Listen for the things that folks aren’t saying — what are their unexpressed needs and desires.

    4. Can you imagine yourself in their position? Take on the points of view of the people you listen to. Rescale your world view to look as others do. See where your organization fits in their world. Know what they think of you. Know whether they think of you at all.

    5. Can you persuade yourself and your organization to make room for the information you just gathered? Bring back the conversations you heard — from inside and outside the enterprise — in a formal fashion. Point out the patterns. Pick two or three idea threads that seem to flow through every conversation. Use those threads to form your first short-term blogging goals.

You might call this the prework, the proverbial packing before a long road trip. It’s a step that many corporate bloggers miss.

Listening is something humans don’t do particularly well. However, we’re far more adept than organizations are at this skill. That’s how and why blogging helps an enterprise develop positive relationships with customers. It is a person listening and talking to other people.

Most relationships start best when they are highly packed with active listening.

Liz Strauss

 

  • http://www.cblohm.com CB

    Excellent! When I was in grad school one of my professors recognized immediately that I had a visual learning bent, that I needed pictures in my head to understand things. So he’d paint analogy after analogy until finally a picture would emerge, which apparatently he could tell from the expression on my face, cuz he’d flash a tiny smile, pause for just a second, and then move on to the next topic/lesson and set of analogies. Much like that professor taught me that I have a terrible poker face, I’ll never look at a road map or filling station without remembering this three-part “lesson.” Thx!

  • http://www.lettingmebe.blogspot.com Liz Strauss

    Hi CB,
    Glad you liked this road map. This one keeps going there will be a fourth part coming. :)

    I sure appreciate your colorful comments.

    smiles.
    liz

  • http://www.lizstrauss.com/2006/09/05/everyones-business/setting-up-a-home-2-names-are-the-most-important-words/ Liz Strauss [dot] com Setting Up a Home 2: Names Are the Most Important Words

    [...] Choosing a name for a new corporate blog is an adventure. Hopefully it’s one that grows out of the active listening that has been taking place through the corporate roadtrip that got us here. [...]

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