This is a fantastic chapter for anyone thinking about or embarking on starting their own company blog.  I have blogged about this subject quite a bit in the past but I want to pull out a few great tips from David (and one of my own) that I have not covered before.

Following the ethical guidelines for blogging David outlines is very important.  Here are the high points:

• Transparency - Let readers know that the blog is tied to the company, don’t try to pass it off as a third party.  When commenting always leave your real name and don’t comment for someone else.
• Privacy - always ask for permission to blog about anything that could be considered private.  If a customer emails you to share their success using your product, be sure to ask permission before sharing it on the blog.
• Disclosure - Always disclose any connection you might have to what you are blogging or commenting about.  If you are recommending a product be sure to reveal that they are a partner.
• Truthfulness - Don’t lie, period.
• Credit - It is very common practice to read someone else’s blog post and write about it on your own blog.  This is fine but always give credit to the source.  (Tip: be sure to add some new idea to the topic and don’t just regurgitate their ideas)

Another tip David suggests is password protecting your blog in the beginning so you can get input from those you trust before opening it up to the entire online world.  I would add that it is a good idea to build up a few posts before you begin promoting your blog so that visitors can get an idea of what your blog is all about.  When we launched The B2B Lead, we wrote about ten or fifteen posts before we actually posted a single one. That way it was easy in the beginning to post something everyday.

One of the best reasons to start a blog is for SEO, but keep in mind you will be not be ranked #1 on Google your first day.  From what I understand (and please correct me if I am wrong) Google searches sites only every few months.  When it notices that content changes have been made it will crawl that site again sooner that a site with no or only minor content changes.  Your blog should have lots of new content so you want Google to crawl it everytime you have a new post.  Over time, Google will recognize that it it a site to be checked frequently, but there is a way to “train” Google  to crawl your site frequently.  You can submit a new site map to Google everytime you post.  I am not a technology expert so my advice is to ask your webmaster how to do this in your blogging software.

For more blogging tips, check out these posts:

Blogs – Don’t Underestimate Their Reach – ReachForce Book Club

Measuring the Effectiveness of Your Corporate Blog

Keep Your Blog on Track to Support SEO and Other Business Objectives

Page Titles are Important

Blog Basics