Learn How To Be A Better Blogger
Blogs can often be the best tool companies have to communicate who they are and why potential clients should work with them. The trouble is most companies are not aware of how to best go about creating a blog and how to continue properly. Best practices for blogging do exist, however, and we want to share some easy ways to use this tool to your advantage.
One of the first steps in blog creation is determining what your “digital persona” will be. Your communication style should be informal, direct, and conversational, but you need to decide how best to use your business’ identity and carry it over to the blog format. Your blog should focus on keeping your readers current on your business and related products or services and should be accessible to both clients and bystanders alike.
In the actual writing of your blog, you should be editorially-focused and able to deliver good content on a broad variety of topics. You should keep in mind short titles work best: they are eye-catching and easy to read in Google Reader or on mobile devices, and a consistent style of grammar and capitalization will ensure an easy flow and greater credibility. As a business blogger, you can focus on many aspects of your company as blog topics, including news stories, customer testimonies, industry trends, upcoming events and sales, company videos, team introductions, philanthropic interests, and much more. This wide variety helps to put a human face to your company, by introducing multiple facets of your business and your employees.
If your company is large enough to have a separate blog for each department, you may want to consider that too. Keep in mind, however, blogs need to be updated at least once per week, if not more frequently, so it is best to consider whether or not each department will have enough material to use regularly.
Blogs are also great for correcting errors or misunderstandings about your company, and you can use this format to answer some of those issues directly. If you ever need to correct one of your own posts, the best practice is to use the same timestamp and title, with the updated information clearly added and an “update as of __” where readers can see it. Then simply republish the post.
With the heightened interest in social media and its effects on business, blogs are one of the easiest ways to “get out there”. Like any new campaign, however, companies should consider their strategy before embarking on a new marketing avenue. SEO agencies can also offer excellent tips and techniques on SEO blogging, such as those listed here, to benefit the integration of your blog and your business, and to help you use this tool to your advantage.
Contributed by Amanda Finch, VP Operations