Welcome to our new blog

Blogging has created a lot of hype. Everyone seems to be up to it, from political parties to aspiring novelists. But is it all hype or helping?

Research from interviews with corporate bloggers has shown that corporate blogs are giving established and new brands alike the ability to connect with their audiences, build trust and community goodwill and get valuable feedback. And that’s important because we strongly believe that brands can be built (and destroyed) from the bottom up. It also helps on a more practical level with search engine optimization (they are easy to read for search engines), to create relevant link popularity and so drive more site traffic. It’s also good for PR coverage.

Yet of 34 financial services brands we surveyed, only 15% had a current, open blog. Some are using blogs in the b2b arena, such as Steve Bee’s blog on pensions which is much admired across the industry but these are the few exceptions. This seems a missed opportunity, especially for more of the approachable, direct to consumer brands on the market – why not a blog from the Halifax personalities such as Howard for example?

There are obvious reasons for us investing the time and money in doing our own blog. But we were clear that our blog could not just be corporate spin and just a regurgitation of our press releases. So what is our blogging strategy?

For those of you who know us, we have a strong team who are very engaged in marketing financial services and the power of integrated communications. So the blogs that will follow from this one, will show Teamspirit in action – views and thoughts from our team. And do let us know what you think. That’s one of the most important aspects of why we are doing this. Look forward to hearing from you.

Jo Parker
Managing Director
Teamspirit