I have probably been one of the biggest naysayers of building a blog. Not because I necessarily thought having a blog was a bad idea. I just didn’t want to build something just for the sake of building it and after a few months have it go dark. After many conversations about strategy, goals and purpose with my agencies, Communication Strategy Group and Webbed Marketing, I was convinced that, as a team, we could create a blog that would be worthwhile and would stand the test of time. When we decided to move forward and build the blog I wanted to make sure we followed some key self-imposed best practices:

1. Keep the posts short. This makes them relevant on any platform. Particularly on a mobile device.
2. Make sure the content is not self-promotional. Who wants to read a blog that just talks about how great a company is?
3. Encourage conversation. We’ve made it easy for people to participate. We don’t have a registration form readers need to fill out before posting comments. We also provide an easy way for everyone to participate by letting them vote on whether the topics presented are “hype” (just marketing buzzwords or a passing fad) or “ripe” (real, valuable, something people are taking seriously). Plus readers can see what their peers are thinking with an instant tally that shows where the majority of the votes are pointing on a topic.
4. Promote it. We have put in place a promotional plan that includes PPC, LinkedIn, mobile, customer communications, PR and more to make sure as many people know about our new blog as possible.
5. Keep the content fresh. We are posting 2-3 new posts every week. We have a rolling 30-day plus plan so we are always ahead of the calendar. We are not running around thinking. “What are we going to say today?” We already know for today and the next 30 days as well.

We have only just launched our blog, Hype Or Ripe, and it is already having a positive impact for our organization. It is driving new people to our main web site and getting our customers, partners and vendors talking and sharing.

I am really excited to see where it leads in the coming months. We couldn’t have done it without our partners. Communication Strategy Group’s editorial content has helped to shape our blog posting plan and Webbed Marketing’s expertise in blog development, social media and SEO is ensuring that the posts remain relevant, provocative, engaging and seen by our target audience.

It’s an on-the-go world today. Even our blogs have to keep up.

Lisa Dreher is VP of marketing and business development for Logicalis, a Communication Strategy Group client. Logicalis is a technology solution provider specializing in helping customers with a wide range of technologies, including communications and collaboration, data centers, and professional and managed services.

Remember when you were in grade school and your parents or teachers said, “You’re known by the company you keep”? Did it make you look around at your friends and wonder what being friends with them said about you (and vice versa)? What about today in your business?

What do the partners that you choose say about you, your business and your brand? How is that part of your brand story?

I’ve been thinking about this quite a bit lately as I develop a new partner page for Communication Strategy Group‘s website. I want to strengthen recognition for our agency’s ability to orchestrate large marketing projects for clients through our partnerships with other agencies. Some larger agencies have an “in-house” approach to advertising, website design, identity creation, video and events. We take a more focused approach on content and instead work with agency partners who are specialists in these areas.

But making these selections, and showing how we work together, is tougher than it sounds. Showing that theses companies are more than simply a collection of logos displayed on a web page (like you’ll see at most sites) — that they are true partners that bring special skill sets to a challenge — is itself a challenge.

Here’s what I’m trying to decide:

1. What services do we recommend to partners?
2. What are the specific strengths of each partner and how do they pair up with the first question?
3. Should there be only a single partner for each type of service?
4. How, exactly, do these partners extend our Brandtelling approach?
5. What does the choice of partners say about our agency?

If you think through these questions for your own business, you’ll see the types of things that I am pondering now. For example, we frequently partner with designers, but can we (or they) articulate how we work together?

One of these partners, David Loewy at Loewy Design, has done a terrific job detailing the value we add in a LinkedIn recommendation he created. Another partner, Mark Kolier at CGSM (who I know actually reads these posts, Hi Mark!), is a good sounding board for our digital and direct marketing efforts. How can I best leverage David’s quote and capture the value that Mark provides in partner blurbs on our site?

As I’ve discussed in an earlier post, it’s all about TRUST. Who do you trust and who trusts you? And what does that chain of trust mean for your customers and partners?