Bad-blogger Poster Children

Eeek! This is the reason most blogs fail - there is a general lack of commitment to the blog and keeping it up to date. I am the bad-blogger poster child.

Hm. Let's discuss this in a corporate setting, because really, it's one thing if I get distracted and forget to post for a few days - I'm an individual who attempts to make time (sometimes, sometimes not) to put my two cents out into the collective Internet. If we go back to basics, my understanding of a corporate blog is to offer:

1 - A unique perspective that offers value to the reader. Who cares if it's the millionth blog about the company picnic. Tell me something I care about about the industry, the trends or something else related to your company / products.
2 - A non-sales message. If I wanted a sales message, I'd visit your corporate site. See point #1 - give me something I care about.
3 - Brevity. Like all good messaging, you want the reader to leave with a nugget of information and ideally the curiosity of wanting to know more. Less is more. If I want to learn more, I'll Google you.
4 - Updated material, ideally daily or every other day. Why else would I visit a blog unless there was new and interesting information there? (OK, I promise to try to be better about that ;-))

So, how can a business make a blog work for them? I think like in all marketing communications, there needs to be an understanding about why they're blogging, and what value it'll bring to the company. After all, time is money. If a blog is an attempt to be seen as cool, hip or somehow trendy then it is destined to fail. A blog needs to arrive from a genuine source and have a relevant message. Otherwise it's just some more hot air from talking heads.