Whether you are planning your first post or looking to refresh a corporate blog with an existing following, there are three key questions to ask yourself:

• What do you want the blog to achieve?
• Who is your target audience?
• What sort of content and usage is therefore appropriate?

Here are eight tips to keep your blog fresh for 2010: (more…)

As a way of explaining your business, storytelling can be a very effective approach. Properly told, a business story can create colour and interest in a way your audience will appreciate and remember. Whether winning over sceptical journalists, wooing customers or motivating employees, good storytelling can be a powerful asset. However, as every parent knows, a story can easily fall flat. Here, we set out five golden rules for telling your corporate story. (more…)

We’re looking forward to hearing more from Sarah Cook, managing director of The Stairway Consultancy, who is being interviewed in a series of four podcasts from ‘FT Digital Business’. The first interview, about how to get the best out of your IT team, is online now and she’ll be talking more in the coming weeks about effective management and coaching for high performance. Sarah has also written a number of books, published by IT Governance, that are essential reading for anybody trying to maximise an IT team’s effectiveness and influence.

We’ve noticed some confusion in the media lately about the difference between “practice” and “practise”.

Conventions in American English differ but with good old-fashioned English English – the original and best! – the important thing to remember is that “practice” is the noun and “practise” is the verb. (more…)

Julia Finch has been appointed deputy business editor for Guardian News & Media, working with business editor Dan Roberts to oversee financial coverage by the joint Guardian and Observer team. Ruth Sunderland remains The Observer business editor.