A corporate blog is defined as one branded by a corporate, non-media entity such as Staples, Proctor and Gamble,  Abercrombie & Fitch, American Family Insurance, CitiGroup, Chrysler, etc. and not spearheaded by a single social-celebrity employee.

Blog readership as a whole is increasing but bloggers are on the decline as many are choosing to put their words down on Facebook pages or bite-sized quips on Twitter, as reported in eMarketer’s study on blogging entitled The Blogosphere: Colliding with Social and Mainstream Media. The increase in blog readership seems to be based on the rise in popularity of media or curated blogs such as Huffington Post, Mashable, Forbes,  McKinsey Quarterly  and the New York Times.  Many of these blogs have the same content, but adoption and readership for the latter is growing while, for most, corporate blog readership is stagnant or declining.

My premise is based on the following realities:- the public’s appetite for content and information has grown and continues to increase
– the consumer’s desire to engage with the brands they love continues to grow
– the channels and devices that share content continue to innovate and expand
– the competition for readership is growing exponentially
– the reader’s attention is increasingly challenged by digital “noise”
– the average person has less free personal and professional time to readAs the consumers’ need for – and access to – information grows, their appetite for content channels is evolving beyond the current mediums.   New channels and engagement options such as micro-blogging (eg. Twitter), social networking (Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+) and visual media (YouTube, Pinterest, SlideShare) are disseminating content with fewer characters and greater speed than blogs could ever hope to achieve.  The more content the public wishes to consume and has access to, the greater the appeal of new media that provide easily digestible headlines.   These new channels are syndicating the same content for corporations that their blog predecessors shared, yet drive much more interest, engagement and return.

I’m arguing that the long-form corporate blog post that was once mandatory and the preeminent forum to educate customers,  provide value-added information and demonstrate a brand’s personality, has proven to be just a stepping stone to modern delivery channels.

Last night, many within the #bizforum community stated that you cannot argue for or against the value of a corporate blog, because the ROI from social engagement comes from an holistic content strategy that integrates content across many channels.

I agree with this sentiment but refuse to be bounded by the gravity of past business practices, especially after reading Rebel Brown’s book on Defying Gravity.

An holistic content strategy does not require the dissemination of content across EVERY social channel. Most agreed with that concept yet few are willing to acknowledge that the one channel which could possibly be removed from the mix is the corporate blog.

Ask marketers to remove Twitter or Pinterest from the mix and they don’t bat so much as an eyelash.  Suggest that the corporate blog might no longer be a relevant medium within the social mix and I’m branded a heretic.

When challenged, most presented an argument for what a corporate blog can do for the business, when the real consideration should be what IT IS doing for the business. Few even know.

See: The Corporate Blog Challenge

Should corporate blogs be forgotten completely? Of course not.  Faxes are not commonplace in everyday business communications but they still exist.  Even with a declining audience, a corporate blog can provide value in SEO link strategies and fodder for Google ranking but even then, social sharing and other tactics are beginning to challenge that value as well.

What started off as me questioning the current value of a corporate blog has evolved into a question about the reverence marketers give the blog. Has it been elevated to sacred cow-status? An untouchable deity in the social media mix beyond reproach and questioning?

Feed Your Community, Not Your Ego