6 Tips for Reinvigorating Your Corporate Blog

By Tami Casey
Compelling content is one of the best ways to reach customers and potential customers, and one of the best channels for posting content is the company blog. While the blog is a common on most corporate sites, the quality and freshness of these blogs varies greatly.
  
Nothing turns off a visitor to your site more than an inactive blog. But in today's "do more with less" world, who has the time to keep the blog fresh?  Banish stagnant blogs by resourcing them properly and refreshing content weekly. Here are six tips to help keep the blog fresh and active:

1. Editorial Calendar—Establish an editorial direct/owner and make sure to create a three month calendar of potential topics and owners. Populate the calendar with important dates such as product introductions and industry events.
2. Length—keep blogs to 250–300 words. For lengthy pieces, consider making it a two part story.
3. Repurpose content—Trouble coming up with unique content ideas? Summarize white papers or press releases and mixing in personal opinion to create fresh blog posts. Attending a tradeshow? Repurpose your show description with some unique facts about your tradeshow staff or facts about the tradeshow location.
4. Comment on industry happenings—Is a competitor being acquired? Does an industry leader make a blunder? Is there a particularly interesting industry story to tell? Consider recapping the news with your personal take on the item.  
5. Guest bloggers—Do you have a customer that has provided a glowing review of a new feature or a thank you for exceptional service? Consider asking them to pen a guest post on your site.
6. Promote your blog—Use social media tools such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn to point people to your blog.

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Standing up Against Censorship

By Kelly Indrieri
With the recent news that the Chinese government will soon be requiring all personal PCs shipped into the country be bundled with "Green Dam" software (software intended to block access to what the government deems illicit content on the Web), one is left to wonder in the face of this kind of censorship, how much private PC vendors, like HP and Dell, can do to stand up against government censorship for the greater good and the protection of freedom of speech or in this case search.

With PC sales to China projected to exceed 40 million units in 2009, is it too risky a business choice for PC vendors to fight back and potentially lose millions, or even billions, in revenue as a result? It's easy to argue that it is not the job of individual companies to take a moral stance by refusing to go along with this requirement. Yes, it will hurt business, but if they all stand together, could they affect change? One could argue that it is unlikely to change the position of the Chinese government, but a united front, at least, might force their hand and enable a softening of this regulation. Apparently, discussions are in play and I look forward to keeping an eye on the developments and seeing, if come July 1, some policy changes have been made.
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Call to Arms for Securing the U.S. Digital Infrastructure—It’s About Time

By Cathy Wright
Did you hear the big news on Friday? The government officially acknowledged that the nation’s digital infrastructure is under ‘near constant’ attack. President Obama went on record to say the threat from hackers to critical data systems is among “the most serious economic and national security challenge facing the U.S. today.” A heavy statement, given all the other bad news making headlines every day.

How did we get to this vulnerable point? In my opinion it all comes down to investments…or lack there of. Just as the government needs cash to fix decrepit roadways and bridges and hospitals, it also must invest in the securing of the U.S. data infrastructure as well. Until now, less importance has been placed on the latter and I applaud Obama for now taking cyber crime seriously and for his administration’s decision to address this very real problem. It’s about time.

Given my profession I’m a close watcher of technology innovation and can say that today there are countless technologies out there for stopping hackers and cyber threats. However the fact that Obama is raising awareness around cyber security gives everyone—from universities and hospitals, to the enterprise, to the steps of the White House— pause to re-examine and question their current methods. It’s definitely ‘game on’ for all the security vendors out there and will be interesting to watch.
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