Sponsored Blogs: Are they Right For Your Company?

People approach me all the time asking whether the blogosphere might be right for their business, and if so, how they could get started. The answer is different for every company.

In many cases though, sponsored blogs are a great option for companies that don’t have the time or the skill set to start a blog themselves. A sponsored blog is a bit like a magazine with a specific topic that targeted a limited audience. This is also known as The Long Tail. Let’s use the fictitious Chewing magazine that Calvin from the old Calvin & Hobbes cartoons used to read as an example:

(This image via Gregarius. Other comics involving Chewing can be found here and here.)

If Calvin were around today, it’s likely that he’d be reading Chewing online as a blog that was sponsored by one of the major chewing gum companies as a way to target its audience and extend its brand into the blogosphere without actually blogging itself.

This can also work when a company wants to benefit from the power of the blogosphere without giving its employees the opportunity to blog. After all, a publicly traded company would be in a lot of hot water with the SEC if an employee inadvertently wrote something forward looking on the blog that wasn’t released through official channels.

So if you’re interested in blogging for your business, but you’ve determined that it might not be a natural fit for your employees, a sponsored blog might be the right option for you.

And as a blatant plug for our services, I’d like to point out that we’ve got some experience with this kind of thing, having built and maintained inFlightHQ - which is sponsored by Connexion by Boeing. Let us know if you’d like to talk more about sponsored blogs by leaving us a comment or using our contact form.