Communication today – whether we’re talking about public relations, journalism, advertising or just plain face-to-face conversation – is built on the principles of authenticity and transparency.
Out of these principles have sprung the wonderful new communication tools of social media and blogging. From a branding and search engine optimization perspective, Pierpont and many of our clients have found blogging to be invaluable. The idea that people do business with people they know still holds true, but what has changed is how current and potential customers get to know the people they do business with.
In addition to word of mouth from friends, colleagues, neighbors and family, people looking for goods and services now turn to the web to get to know companies before they buy. Frankly – most of the time they are checking you out before you even know they are interested in what you have to sell.
Hosting a blog on your company’s website is one of the best tools available for showing current and potential clients who your company really is and what it is like to work with you. A blog is your platform to talk about what’s going on at your company, what your perspective is on industry events, and to educate readers about key trends and issues that they need to be thinking about for their own success. In other words – it’s a free tool you can use to show everyone how awesome you are!
The big catch in taking full advantage of this platform is that you actually have to sit down and write keyword rich entries. They also have to be informative and interesting or you’ve defeated the purpose. Harsh but true. With that in mind, one of the most common challenges everyone faces is finding the time to sit down and write a good blog entry. When I was reminded that it was my turn to contribute to Pierpont’s blog I found myself thinking, “I really want people to know how smart I am but I absolutely don’t have time to write a blog entry.” But I discovered I was wrong – not about being smart, but about having time to write a blog- so in that spirit, I wanted to share some of our favorite tips for creating and maintaining an interesting, smart blog, while recognizing that everyone has a full plate of other responsibilities.
Don’t make it your fulltime job –share the wealth. There is no hard and fast rule that one person has to author and write every single blog post for a company. At Pierpont, we divvy up the entries so each person writes about once every two months. For us this has two major benefits, no person is overburdened with the writing and it has resulted in a good variety of topics covered on our blog. One note here, it is still important that one person coordinate all blog content. This makes sure that the tone is under control; topics are not repeated, etc.
Have a plan. In addition to breaking up the responsibility into manageable chunks, we also have bi-monthly brainstorms to generate potential blog topics. This means when its your turn to write you get a friendly reminder from the marketing team and a list of possible topics to help get you started.
Don’t make it harder than it has to be. This is simple advice can be VERY hard to follow. Yes. It’s your blog entry and your voice, but it also needs to represent your company and your brand and offer valuable content. But don’t feel like you have to find a topic that is completely original (writers will be able to relate to this common version of writers block). Look at what is going on around you to find inspiration.
Think about what your company is doing. For example, what events have you or a colleague attended recently that you can report back from? What issues are being discussed in your office? What challenges have you or a client recently faced and learned from? What interesting articles or books have you read recently? Mine all the content available to you. This will save time and the writing will come easier than if you start from a completely blank page.
Ask for help. Guest posts from clients and vendors are great sources of content. Like varying a blog’s authors, guest posts add new perspective to your blog and can offer expertise in broader areas.
Keep it short. This blog entry is about 800 words long and frankly that puts it on the long side. Don’t make your blog unmanageable by setting out to write 1,000 word posts on a regular basis. Shorter, more frequent posts with good tips and information are much more valuable to your readers than longer infrequent posts.
And with that you’re off to the races, and I’m back to work. Hope you find this helpful! Please share other tips you use to make your blog manageable.