About six weeks ago, we linked to a good essay on corporate blogging by Reprise Media, the folks behind the ever-intelligent Searchviews blog. More recently we got to debating the merits of what might be called an editorial strategy for maximizing organic search traffic vs. one that favors brand transparency.

What the heck am I talking about? Basically, we’ve been debating exactly what a corporate blog should do for a company at a very tactical level - vs. the more conceptual goals that Randy Schwartz laid out in the Searchviews piece. Should it be driving traffic through amplifying organic and even paid search? Or should it primarily be a tool for prospective clients to better understand the experience of working with the company? Or should it be doing something else?

Of course, corporate blogs can be both/all of the above, and more - depending on the blogger and depending on the company. Robert Scobel, for instance, likely isn’t judged in terms of the organic search traffic that he drives to Microsoft. But for us - or any relatively small, high-end business - the question is a fair one. Especially when it’s stated in terms of post length.

The assumption is that it’s easier to generate more posts if they are short. And that more, shorter posts will generate more traffic at least in the short run - from a kind of scattergun effect (if for no other reason). Particularly if the posts (while short) are smart and link to other smart or interesting things. Given that at the start it may not be clear what will best attract people to a new blog, a multiplicity of “hooks” is probably more effective, sooner, at generating traffic than longer posts.

The argument in favor of longer posts? If appropriate, they may be a better expression of your work process, insights, and professionalism than a basic “link aggregation” strategy as represented by a lot of short posts. Also, there’s a lot of extremely savvy bloggers out there monitoring hundreds of feeds who are highly practiced at that approach. Whereas, perhaps, there are relatively few capable of writing thoughtfully about a specific type of business. But, of course, fewer longer posts will probably capture less traffic.

Then there’s the option of doing both - something we try to do here from time to time - and which Searchviews does even more consistently. Currently, however, we are weighting our commentary on the long side, in the hopes that - as we build our audience slowly - we become known for our thoroughness as much as our wide-ranging taste in links. That is, you might find sites with a far greater collection of interesting odds and ends. But if you happen to see one of our posts, chances are it will take a precise dive into the ideas around a topic, rather than just calling attention to the topic itself. Or so the theory goes…as always, more to come.

JF

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 28th, 2005 at 4:28 pm and is filed under General.