Dana Blankenhorn of Moore’s Law lays out seven easy to follow tips for corporate blogs. I’ve been reading more of Dana’s blog and am more often than not in line with what he has to say. The same goes for this post.

Corporate blogs are most definitely a different thing than personal blogs. They have rules they must follow, sorry to say. Corporations can’t just go spilling out all their secrets. Nor can they assign blogging blindly to just anyone in the company (and here I refer to the blog which represents the corporate opinions and news, not those created by employees and supported by corporations). Your PR guy will usually give it the wrong voice and your marketing associate will use it too often to sell. Lastly, corporations don’t automatically get that trust we are so willing to afford to most bloggers. So, there is a fine line to tread in how to write your corporate blog, and what to write about.

So, what do you do? You must create a blog that gives out the information you want to share in a fun and inviting way. It is not just any press release or e-newsletter. It is a conversation. And that gives it a whole other voice.

Well, Dana has 7 great tips that I’m going to share with you:

1. Have an outsider do it. An insider has better things to do and they’re too close to the story.
2. Make the blog about your space, the lifestyle or industry you’re a part of, and not about the company.
3. Think of the blogger as a reporter. Encourage insiders with something to say to run their stuff by him (or her), but to understand it’s going to be dressed to go out before it goes out.
4. Lay down the “thou shalt nots” beforehand, but don’t pre-screen. Nothing takes the life out of a blog more than editing.
5. Put the blog in a unique, corporate name, so if you fire the blogger you lose no equity in the blog.
6. Encourage feedback, and let the blogger pass it along through the chain of command. The blogger’s supervisor can be a gatekeeper for this communication.
[7.] Most of all, know what the blog’s going to be about, its purpose and goals, before you start out. Have measureable goals, evaluate progress based on the goals. And pay enough to make this worth a blogger’s while — think of it as corporate outreach, which is different than corporate communication because it’s pro-active.

Bolding is my effect.

What Dana puts forth is a strong argument for professional bloggers. We are experts in our field. We write well, we write often, and we know how to maneuver in the blogosphere. We are dedicated to fostering communication and to achieving corporate goals. And, more than anything, we fill a need. We offer an outside, less biased perspective which can lend credibility to your blogging. We are able to gather news, digest it in an unbiased way, and create a discussion around it.

Great work Dana in outlining the market for professional bloggers!