Building a community around a corporate blog is, or should be, one of the goals of every business communicator. A good blog brings an honest conversation to your market(s). Isn’t that what markets of old were? The marketplaces in older cities continue to be centers of social and business conversations.
Will it work for any business? If you answered “no,” you failed. Find a way to use it. Take a look at what this pest-control business in Arizona did. “The Insect Inquirer” is what their blog is called and it caught the attention of Marketing Daily’s Karlene Lukovitz:
The other online initiatives don’t even try to inform, but instead aim to create brand exposure with often self-deprecating humor and a large dash of (literally) creepy puns that you don’t have to be an entomologist to get a chuckle out of.
And this sugar cube of a quote from director of marketing and public relations Barry “The Bug Guy” Murray: “when your corporate car has ears and a tail, you can pretty much get away with anything.”
FranchiseWire called it the first of its kind back in April. Orkin doesn’t have a blog, but they do have Junior Pest Investigators as a resource for teachers and kids.
Ironically, Orkin has sponsored the Smithsonian’s Insect Zoo for years — one of the first branded corporate sponsorships at the National Museum of Natural History. They can thank the telegenic Sally Love Connell for attracting that business. Here’s a photo by Laurie Minor-Penland of Sally from a time when I worked with her on events:
Posing with Sally are “Muriel”, a Mexican Orange-Kneed Tarantula (Euathlus smithii); A New Guinea Walking Stick (Heteropteryx dilatata); an Australian Walking Stick (Extatosoma tiaratum); a Madagascar Hissing Cockroach (Gromphodorhina portentosa); and a Unicorn Beetle. (The Dragonfly is a jewelry broach).