The New York Times recently published an article about MIT’s student blog program, which they have had amazing success.  Here is a quick breakdown of the key learnings for companies wanting to capitalize on this success.

1. Use of STUDENT bloggers

Note that it’s not the head of the MIT marketing or admissions program who is writing.  It’s not the President or Dean either.  It’s the students.  Companies always say their most valuable resource is their People, yet we rarely see a company who gives their most valuable resource the ability to talk about how great their company is.

2. Lots of Bloggers

MIT uses a good cross section of bloggers to best represent the diverse student body at the University.  A company is composed of many people across many business units, disciplines, areas of expertise…etc.  Don’t relegate the blog effort to one person, engage many bloggers throughout your organization which will not only make the work easier for everyone but will portray a more evenly balanced company and broader range of information.

3. Set rules and play by them

So you’re worried about someone posting a negative comment or saying they don’t like how an area of the company runs or maybe something negative about your product or service.  SO WHAT.  Hiding that information doesn’t get rid of the problem.  In fact, in today’s world, the more you try to hide the negative truth, the more it bubbles to the surface.  Instead, use this as an opportunity to learn and resolve problems instead of brushing them off.  If your customers see you deal with problems in the open, they are much more likely to trust and believe what you say.

There is a lot of other great information in the NYT article, but those are my main take aways for companies.  I highly recommend you read the actual article here

Related posts:

1. Companies that Blog increase Web Traffic, Inbound Links and Indexed Pages
2. Student Blogs in Higher Education. To Blog or not to Blog…
3. Companies invest dollars in themselves instead of advertising
4. 15 years later…

@InnoGage Blogs Business Class Blogging InnoBlogs MIT student blogging