There are lots of ways to run a blog, especially when it's a corporate one.

If you allow commentary by outsiders, a blog can challenge the control companies have historically had on the environments and experiences they create. If you're an old-school kind of company, this can seem very threatening and entirely unwelcome. But, companies that fancy themselves forward-thinking and accountable to their customers are increasingly foraying into the blogosphere. Hence, several big companies have tried to maintain a corporate blog (e.g., Dell, a couple years ago) while most don't (e.g., Dell, now). You need to start with a solid philosophy of blogging in order to pull it off.

Our blog here at Meyer & Wallis, in its present form, is relatively young. A post  goes un-commented on pretty often. I like to attribute this to the newness of the blog. This is not how we'd like it to be. Sure, blogging helps Meyer & Wallis increase visability on the web, but we believe that interactive technology at its best is just that: interactive. And since we're trying to be the best internet ad agency around, we're intent on practicing what we preach.

So, here's our corporate blogging philosophy. Blogging can be a tremendous tool for a company. Even before any human interaction, blogging can help increase your company's online presence. It helps get your company's website higher up in search results. From a business perspective alone, that makes sense. But beyond that, the internet has introduced the potential for unprecidented interaction with your consumers and clients. Think of all the time and energy that's been spent over the years in research, surveys, interviews, and questionnaires so that companies could get a glimpse of what others thought about them. Today, all that information is being tossed about daily in online conversations. If a company doesn't just want to eavesdrop, but would rather participate, a corporate blog is a great way to forge a new connection with your customers.

This is where we're coming from at Meyer & Wallis. To a follower of this blog who expressed concern that a post he made never showed up on the blog, we're sorry, and we're just as confused as you are. So far, we haven't had any reason or inclination to censor our blog, and every comment on our posts that we've received has made it to the blog. We truly want our blog to be a place for conversations to take place: conversations between M&W and our clients and other consumers, and conversations among this blog's community. We don't believe you'll close your Facebook account because of what you find here, but we do want to have a reason for existing.

So, please, comment on our posts if you have something to say. It's your input that will make this blog great. Meyer & Wallis has built its 40-year track record of stability and success on our flexibility and adaptability. Being a full service ad agency doesn't mean the same thing it did in 1967, and we want to use this blog to not only keep you up to date on the ways we're changing to stay current with the needs of modern marketers, but to hear from you in the process.

Now, someone please comment on this post!