Corporate blogs 'should be customer-focused'

Businesses setting up a corporate blog should ensure it is as focused on the needs of customers as possible, according to a new report.

A survey by Forrester Research revealed that corporate blogs were the least trusted source of online information by consumers, with emails from acquaintances being the most trusted.

Josh Bernoff of Forrester Research said the findings suggested that businesses need to do more with their blogs than simply use them as a means of promoting their goods and services, noting that this approach could harm search engine optimisation.

"Search engines love blogs but only if those blogs get links from other sites - and an ordinary product blog won't get very many," he explained.

The expert advised organisations to blog about the problems being faced by their customers - in other words, issues that readers are likely to care about.

Corporate blogs could also be built to appeal to those who are fans of a particular product, or expand existing content if the company in question is a media outlet, Mr Bernoff said.

According to Technorati's State of the Blogosphere report for 2008, 12 per cent of bloggers post online in an official capacity for their companies.