Turning to your employees to participate in marketing campaigns with staff blogging results in many benefits that go straight to the heart of any HR department’s mission. Staff blogging helps boost employee engagement, foster employee development, and aid external recruitment.
1) Boost Employee Engagement
In a small enterprise of 50 to 100 employees, being selected to participate in a content sourcing meeting comes across as an honor and a sign that the company values their thoughts and ideas. Selected employees also get the chance to spend time with the executive team. They’ll enjoy official introduction and the opportunity to impress the team with their expertise. During one initial blog training meeting, an engineer thanked me afterward because he had gotten the opportunity to spend two hours sitting side-by-side with the CEO of the company. He exclaimed, “This is awesome!” because he’d never had that chance before. Your talented employees will feel valued and gain a sense of ownership in the company when they’re brought into the room with your
executive team to talk at length about some of the amazing projects they are working on.
2) Boost Company Culture with Incentives & Blogging Competitions
Employees can be further engaged by implementing competitive incentives in a staff blogging campaign. Make it fun to contribute content ideas and information by recognizing individuals who delivered content that resulted in highly trafficked blog posts. Other metrics for a blogging competition could include internal awards to the person whose blogs generated the most number of views, shares, likes, or comments. Though blogging can sometimes remain a mystery inside a corporate environment, tying staff blogging to activities that promote company culture, like competitions, can make it more accessible to the blogosphere.
3) Promote Professional Development Among Employees
Another benefit of staff blogging is the increased opportunity for professional development among employees. When staff blogs are published on the company site, third party websites, or on top-tiered industry blogs, their names become associated with career-building thought-leadership. The benefit is that external recruiting efforts get a boost when companies enjoy good reputations for developing and engaging their employees. The most skilled workers tend to want to work for companies where they’ll feel engaged and be encouraged to develop professionally. Staff blogging will enhance your company’s reputation for being an excellent place to build and grow one’s career.
Staff blogging is an effective delivery system for content and, if used strategically can build great SEO, social, and yield returns for your company. But the benefits of staff blogging aren’t limited to just a company’s marketing campaign. Sourcing content for your company blog will make your employees feel important and will get them excited about participating in the strategic direction of the company.
