When I started blogging I just jumped in with both feet. It was great fun but I do have a few scars from mistakes I could have avoided. So before you start shooting from the hip like I did, I?Äôd like to offer the following step-by-step approach to ensure that you get started off on the right foot.

Step 1 – Establish guidelines for your corporate blog

You might be thinking that since you going to be the only one authorized to post on the corporate blog that you needn’t have a formal company policy for blogging.
This is a huge mistake in my opinion.
I say this because it is more likely than not that some of your employees already have their own blogs and will, if they haven’t already, make posts about their work. Trust me, it is much better to take a proactive approach rather than waiting to see if a potential conflict arises.

Hill and Knowlton, a PR/Advertising company, has some of the best guidelines that I have come across. Here is a sample of their guidelines:

In connection with any blogging, please be mindful of the following:

• Most weblogs publish RSS feeds that others can subscribe to, so remember that others, including your colleagues, may be actively reading what you write.
• Think of what you say in your weblog in the same way as statements you might make to the media, or emails you might send to people you don’t know. If you wouldn’t include it in those, don’t post it on your weblog.
• Never disclose any information, including textual or visual material, that is confidential or proprietary to Hill & Knowlton, or any third party that has disclosed information to us (e.g. clients, journalists, suppliers, etc.). Your existing contract in any case prohibits this.
• There are many things that we cannot mention as a publicly-owned company. Talking about our revenue, future plans, or the WPP share price will get you and Hill & Knowlton in legal trouble, even if it is just your own personal view, and whether or not you directly identify yourself as an employee of Hill & Knowlton.
• You should make it clear that the views you express are yours alone. You may want to use the following form of words on your weblog, weblog posting, or website:
  

  The views expressed on this [blog; website] are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer

Step 2 – Read, read and read some more before you write your first blog

Reading what other corporate bloggers are writing can provide you with basic corporate blogging guidelines and spur ideas for future blogging topics. You can find potentially interesting corporate blogs by going to blog specific search engines such as Google Blog Search and Technorati. When you do find an interesting blog take a look through the sites it has listed in its blogroll. More likely than not, an interesting site has interesting sites in its blogroll.

Step 3 – Write with passion and sincerity

The quickest way to kill a blog is to use it as another way to distribute company press releases and white papers. It is appropriate to refer to whitepapers and press releases, but these posts are the exception and not the rule. The purpose of your blog is to engage your markets in conversation and the best way to start a conversation is to be sincere and honest in your blog while writing about things that are important to you and to your business. You want to be interesting and approachable and talking about your interests helps do that. Corporate speak wont get you far in the Blogosphere.

Step 4 – Be specific (focus on a niche)

Personal blogs are really all over the map when it comes to the topics that individuals talk about. That’s just their nature. Corporate blogs, however, should stick to a handful of categories or topics. This is not to say that you shouldn’t be personal in your blog posts because you should, but the people you are trying to reach don’t want to read through your blog if it is interspersed with personal ramblings about your daughter’s day care problems.