Corporate blogging becomes key PR strategy

Traditional public relations firms are having a difficult time keeping their clients these days, as a growing number of companies use blogs to market their products and keep in touch with their customers. According to one prediction, approximately 70 percent of public relations companies in operation may have to fold in the foreseeable future, due to the fact that technology is allowing for companies to find much more cost effective ways of getting out their message to prospective clients. In the past, companies relied on press releases if they wished to inform the public about new developments, but now, firms are able to employ corporate bloggers who not only write such press releases in a more engaging manner, but can develop an on-going rapport with readers by posting informative articles on a regular basis.

Few internet users are keen to spend their time reading a series of press releases with their morning coffee, but many people do enjoy browsing through blogs run by companies, as they not only market consumer products or services, but also provide useful information, tips and industry news entirely free of charge.

The role of blogging in the corporate world is set to increase even further when the White House changes rules concerning the release of information by publicly listed companies. Presently, all publicly listed firms in the United States are required to issue formal press releases and cannot only include new information on their website or blog. Yet President Barack Obama’s administration has now clearly signalled that it will be looking to change this rule, when the White House decided to circumvent traditional routes of distributing information and simply posted all weekly addresses by the president to its own site. Once US regulations change, millions of companies will take the distribution of information completely into their own hands and corporate blogs will play an even more important role in their marketing strategy.

Thank you to Fuat Kircaali of the Web 2.0 Journal for the initial report.