The main purpose of a corporate blog is that is provides a direct and less formal communication for the organization with its current and prospective stakeholders. Corporate blogs also create the impression that your organization is open and responsive. Here are five reasons why corporate blogging for any organization is a great idea:

• Expert Positioning – Many popular blogs are the ones where the blogger is an expert on the topics he/she writes about. This is a specific niche in which the blogger has a wealth of knowledge. Therefore, a corporate blog can be used to communicate expert advice and industry information on specific topics.

• Corporate Social Responsibility – A blog can be used to highlight the corporate social responsibility activities within your organization. This demonstrates that your organization is conducting business in a responsible and community supporting manner.

• Reputation Management – It is possible for anyone to post positive or negative comments about your organization online. A corporate blog acts as an avenue for your organization to manage its reputation online by being able to respond accordingly.

• Conversations – Blogs, by their very nature, are interactive. Bloggers make posts and readers make comments. Therefore, blogger and reader become part of a conversation. For the corporate blog, its a powerful opportunity for all stakeholders to communicate directly with each other.

• Marketing – A blog can be used as a marketing or brand building channel. More specifically, many corporate blogs are connected to social media such as facebook and twitter and as such content from the blog is syndicated to them. This in turn creates a marketing outlet for your organization with stakeholders.

These tips were first published in the October 2009 edition of Management Magazine, a monthly publication from the Kenya Institute of Management.