McDonald’s blog : Israel offers suggestions for all bloggers

The new corporate entry in the blogosphere, McDonald’s Corporate Responsibility Blog, looks a little lame and is a good example of what not to do with your law firm’s or professional services business blog.

Shel Israel, co- author of Naked Conversations, offered this:

Precisely seven days after the first post, at almost the same time, McDonald’s Open for Discussion blog has posted a second time. I’m sorry to say, that the week since they dabbled their first corporate toe into the warm waters of the blogosphere, they seem to have adopted an even more corporate, more remote, more one-way tone.

Shel did offer McDonald’s suggestions, ones you can use as well.

1. Start a conversation with your customers.  Tell them what you are doing to ct the fat and carbohydrate content in your foods.  The same contents that are contributing to a dramatic rise in adult diabetes sufferers.
2. Talk  about a typical day in the life of a franchise owner, who gets up at some ungodly hour and goes to bed late at night. Talk about his or her pride in cleanliness.  Talk about exacting specifications.
3. Ask your customers what they want of you. They will tell you in amazing candor. Not only will the blog make you smarter, but you will be perceived in a better light because you are listening.
4. Drop the language of corpspeak. No one likes. No one believes he words they are hearing.
5. Read other people’s blogs.  Join their conversations. That’s how you will get noticed and linked. It’s not about you, McDonald’s.  It’s about us.  You are new to the blogosphere.  We are very egalitarian, but if you ignore the other 25 million bloggers, they will for the most part, continue to ignore you. You may not think we are your target demographic, but you are wrong. Cumulatively, we have a great deal of wisdom to share with you. Collectively, we can have a serious impact on your business–but only if you listen.

Learning to blog from the ground up can be more effective than hiring corporate PR and marketing companies like McDonald’s has.