Company Blogs: The How and the Why

When Maples Communications was asked to build a communications program to help build awareness for Maxwell Technologies, one important aspect of the program was to create a place for Maxwell to share thoughts, ideas, news, and opinions on the company and its products. That place is the Maxwell blog site launched last week.

When tasked with building the blog, Maples decided on a customizable WordPress template that was edited to closely match the Maxwell home page. The cost and time associated with building the blog from the template was considerably less than attempting to create a custom blog from scratch, but still allows for creativity. Once loaded we added the following plug-ins to further customize the site:

• Add to Any - allows readers to share your information
• Akismet - stops spam in the comments of your posts
• All in One SEO Pack - Optimizes your blog for search engines
• Google Analytics for WordPress - Adds analytics capabilities
• Tweetmeme - Gives readers the option to “Tweet” a post on Twitter
• Twitter Widget - A sidebar widget showing recent posts from Maxwell

Now that the blogs are public, they become another tool in the communications program for Maxwell. Not only are the blogs a place for educating stakeholders, they are also a “hub” for any information Maxwell wants to publicize. They are linked to all of Maxwell’s social media properties and each new post is promoted through those properties. This way each post gets Tweeted, posted on Facebook, and shared with other relevant social networking sites.

The idea of a company starting its own blog is not new-in fact it is almost old-fashioned in comparison to some of the new social media tools and platforms available today-but it is still a core part of any communications plan. Here are just a few examples of the power of a blog:

1. A blog allows an organization to become its own publisher 
2. Nine out of ten members of the media are turning to blogs to get information for stories
3. Blogs are timely and give a company the ability to respond instantly
4. The regularly updated content that blogs offer increase a site’s SEO
5. A blog is a place to share all the information that happens between press releases
6. Companies can humanize themselves by putting a personality to their brand name
7. Blogs give companies a tool that allows them to direct traffic to wherever they like
8. If your product is unique, a blog can become an education resource
9. A blog gives your customers a chance to comment on your organization
10. Posts written in a blog are easily sharable across social media platforms

With regular posting, a blog will become a repository of dynamic information about the company, its products, and the industry. It often becomes the single most visited page on the company’s Web site, and pays dividends in attracting and informing target audiences.

And finally, if you do use a WordPress blog, remember to check the most important setting!

Tags: blog, maples communications, maxwell, social media, ultracapacitors, WordPress