A short pithy post, this, but brings up an interesting point – beware, even if a blog provides better search rankings and meets other company objectives, it can still turn stale. Especially if you feel you’re writing but no one is reading. How do you get round this? Advice here is to stop talking and start responding.

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It’s often those who can provide most value to a corporate blog who are the ones most difficult to recruit – the management team. How do you get round this truism?

Some interesting notions here, including semi-ghost writing and setting up an interview blog.

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So, recently I came across some subjects on this topic and it struck a chord. After all, a lot of the time what I want is just to knock up a simple site quickly that doesn’t have too many bells and whistles and only has me editing it.

I’m not going into the basics of what a blog is or my particular preference is WordPress (OK, it’s because it’s PHP-based and a damned sight easier to implement and tweak than Movable Type), but rather why WordPress can work well as a CMS.

Why?

• Quick and easy to setup
• Flexible template editor great for creating designs
• There should be more date-based documents on the web! (so you know what information is up to date)
• All content available in RSS format
• The ability to add comments – particularly for articles/FAQ
• No worries about how you implement a blog – it’s already there

Why not?

• No workflow
• No ability for content versioning with multiple authors
• Localization not easy to implement
• (There could be a few more of these but I’d probably need coffee to tease them out)

So if you’re not too precious about the ‘why nots’ then check these out:

PHPit.net

A two-part series that goes into the basics of setting this up. Great thing here is that you can see a living breathing example on the site itself. Also starts with a brief intro into how the WordPress plugin system works in a slightly more digestable format than the WordPress Codex.

Part 1 | Part 2

ONLamp

Nice and straightforward here: just make a few tweaks to the index.php file and create a WordPress Page that acts as your site homepage.

From weblog to CMS

BloggingPro

Some more of those reasons why, although for me the best thing was the link to BlogHelper

5 reasons to use WordPress as a CMS

BlogHelper

A full breakdown of all kinds of different sites you can make with WordPress. I never knew these kind of people existed.

Using WordPress as a CMS

Questions from one corporate blogger to another: how do you deal with confidentiality vs. transparency? How do you avoid irregular posting schedules? These are just a couple of things you should consider.

Nice that for once it’s not a list of tips – just a couple of questions thrown wide open.

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Just in case you are looking for a way to test a web application/design and don’t have access to every operating system and browser configuration, check out BrowserCam : Screen capture for cross platform compatibility testing.

The free trial is limited to 24 hours but it will give you an idea of what the system is capable of.

Just in case you thought we all share common attributes when it comes to interacting with social networks, think again. According to Andrew Girdwood of BigMouthMedia, cheeses, chocolates and wine aren’t the only things that separate Europeans:

“In Sweden – there are not many bookmarking sites, but the Swedes are into blogging and youtube commenting. Yet next door in Norway blogging is less popular, but the Norwegians are into voting sites. The German market as one might assume is a sophisticated market and there are hundreds of social networking sites in Germany. Blogging is popular, but business blogging is rare, however news and community websites are most popular. In Italy, rather surprisingly, corporate blogging has become fashionable and there are a number of Italian online press release sites also emerging. And finally in Spain, Blogger is popular
with the Spanish and there are plenty of social network sites being used including Spanish language Digg style sites.

Andrew concluded Europe is fundamentally fragmented when it comes to social media and there are many different sites and tastes. A campaign in one country won’t necessarily cross over easily and work as you might expect in another.”
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An overview of what Debbie Weil covered in Montreal recently. ‘Ready, fire, aim’ was a mantra that came out. Launch with content and then shape and refine later. Live in the permanent beta phase. If something works, pursue it. If not, discard.

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Sorry, not much to do with corporate blogging and not your average post. I’m putting this link up in the name of knowledge management. If you need a list of the top Wiki vendors, look no further. 

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