How-To is a new MarketingVOX feature. Most of the information in this section will be populated by industry professionals.

How-To is not composed of universal truths, so be sure to conduct follow-up research and make decisions that ultimately serve the success of your company.

Blogger and founder Chris Baggott of Compendium Blogware has published 10 tips for organizations aspiring to blog.

The tips follow thus:

1. ROI based on Search Engine Optimization (SEO): With organic search becoming a critical channel for customer acquisition, blogs are the perfect way to achieve high rankings on a broad range of targeted keywords. They play up factors that search engines take into consideration when determining how to rank a webpage.
2. Widespread employee blogging: Search engines look for good, targeted content. For an SEO strategy to work, the organization needs to have a variety of search terms, topics, and voices. The easiest way to create an abundance of this kind of content is by empowering employees to write it.
3. Control is OK: Despite what most "traditional" bloggers say, it is mandatory for organizations to have control over their content. As an organization, you have an obligation to control the content generated under your brand. Corporate blogging is not a free-for-all, and there are blogging platforms that help organizations find a balance between complete freedom and control.
4. Conversion goals. Most organizations have conversion goals for web traffic, and need to have the same standards for their blogs. Blog templates must have specific call-to-actions, like any other site. Oftentimes organizations will see higher conversions with blogs than with the company Web site. Fresh content, a conversational tone and clean navigation all play a role.
5. Social conversion. Social conversion is a theory based on an old Zig Ziglar axiom, "People buy from people." Customers trust other human beings more than they trust brands. The challenge is to find a way to expose your humanity. The web and blogging gives you that ability.
6. Marketing democracy. Blogging is the great democratizer. No one can buy their way up to the top of the organic search pages. Blogging technology is cheap, easy to use and doesn't require IT assistance or equipment. You only pay for consumption.
7. Localization: Corporate blogging introduces the idea of geo-specificity, which benefits both local businesses and large enterprises that want to "act locally." Localization leads higher content relevancy and better search engine results.
8. Spaghetti: A discredited strategy for any kind of marketing has been, "Let's throw the spaghetti against the wall and see what sticks." With blogging, here's your chance. Corporate blogging is largely based on content and volume. By throwing a lot of content at the wall, you get to see what makes the biggest impact. You can also experiment with targeting a wide variety of search terms.
9. Video: Nothing tells a story like video. As quality goes up and the cost and challenges of production fall, video will be an assumed component of every corporate blog.
10. Data driven blogging: In the journalism and corporate worlds, blogging consists of disparate content based on individual authors. Collectively, authors within an organization probably have a lot of overlap on all kinds of topics and categories. For readers who care about topics versus individuals, they will read the topical blog regardless of the author.

"The entire concept of [blogging] as an effective and responsible marketing tool is still in its infancy," Baggott said.

"2008 will be the breakout year, and we'll see a lot of innovation, benefits and even some mistakes. My advice is to embrace it all."