The benefits of corporate blogging can be pared and shaved down into three primary purposes, presented here chronologically according to the marketing life cycle of a site visitor:

1. Search Marketing - one primary benefit of blogging (if done well) is expanding the quality and quantity of your site's content. Explaining this in rich detail would take too much time, but it is un-debatable that Google and other search engines favor websites that are content-rich and optimized for their crawlers. This includes having relevant content that is well written and updated regularly. Make a habit of contributing to your blog every few days, if possible, to build steady "interest" both from site visitors and search engine bots.

2. Improve Conversion Rates - high-quality, relevant content that addresses key business issues can help increase the confidence level of site visitors (customers, partners and prospects). But, the converse is true, too. Poor-quality or irrelevant content can cause visitors to distrust you. When picking topics and writing, be sure to communicate in a natural comfortable way, but avoid digressions that you wouldn't feel comfortable talking about in a public group setting.

3. Communicating with your Constituents - Once you have created relationships with prospects, you may find the blog a useful place to provide industry insights and topical recommendations. Keep your clients coming back for more information and you will find this as an effective means to spark new opportunities (either with the client or their referral).

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It makes sense if you think about it. Colleges and universities are refreshed annually with a new crop of young people. Young people get it. They want it. So it doesn't surprise me to find more and more colleges and universities experimenting with social media and producing great results.

Here's a news report by Katie Wilson of the Times West Virginian in which she features the West Virginia University (WVU) College of Law. She reports:

On May 13, 25 students from the WVU College of Law departed for a study-abroad program in Brazil. The trip ended June 2. They catalogued their experiences in blogs, or Web logs, that were posted at on the university’s Web site…

Take a look at the site that was created, the posts that were written, the number of contributors enlisted in this effort and the overall quality of this University-sanctioned site. Amazing.

Now travel to the Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville (SIUE). Here's an Associated Press story from late May that reports about this university's creative application social media:

To mark the university's golden anniversary, administrators are asking alumni, students, faculty and community members to share their memories about SIUE through a blog.

This link takes you to that online site. In an email exchange yesterday with Ms. Barbara O'Malley, Executive Director of Marketing and Communications at SIUE, she told me, "The blog has been an interesting experiment." She didn't elaborate and I don't blame her for that, but I'm betting the emphasis is on the word interesting. I congratulate her and others like her because right now that's what social media is: a great and interesting experiment. College and university educators and staff like Ms. O'Malley that are willing to take the risks that attend any kind of experimentation should be lauded for their courage and creativity. Even when the results aren't what may be expected, everyone learns something and isn't that the idea?

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The simplicity and the power of the new online social media opportunity is astonishing. Students that are currently enrolled in higher education are a generation raised with much skill in regard to using, navigating and sometimes completely relying on the Internet. What’s even more astonishing? The fact that more academic institutions are not taking the necessary steps needed to evolve to this new medium and solidify their establishment’s name. Here at AgencyNext we’ve just uploaded a new whitepaper entitled Social Media Opportunities for Colleges and Universities: The Untapped Power of the New Media Era, in an attempt to help clarify some common questions.

The piece touches on the following subjects:

When is it time to consider an online community?

Defining the online relationship.

How social media can distinguish your reputation.

Getting involved in the current conversation.

Who can help?

[Download PDF]

Conversation? Yes, because today’s online generation has little interest in a highly-polished institutional website broadcast sanctioned after much review by lawyers and public relations people. They prefer interactivity, fresh and timely content, a chance to hear from their peers whom they trust most (even when they don’t know the people in the peer group personally). Would be students seeking answers online are looking for online communities where they can dialogue… ask questions, leave comments, read and respond to online impressions offered by peers and others.

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