You’ve decided to jump on the business blog bandwagon. However, you’re not sure what to write about or where your focus should be, or even what comes next. Well, provided here are some key points to remember.
Identify your goals & draw an audience.
Keeping a company blog is one of the best tools you can utilize to develop and maintain relationships, generate leads and improve your organic search results.
Start with the audience. No, but you won’t get any RSS subscribers without giving readers what they want. A business blog has somewhat of an obligation – more so than a personal blog. You’ve got goals: subscribers, engagement goals, reach, comments, etc.
We readers don’t only want to hear about your company and what’s going on internally, post after post. What about the industry at large? What current events are happening that you can tie into your overall mission? The idea is to be a source of useful information.
Try asking a question. This will make the reader stop to think about his or her own perspective and encourage further reading.
Brevity will take you far.
Your blog shouldn’t be suspenseful – unfortunately you’ll lose readers. In a way, think of it like traditional newspaper layouts… you don’t have to read all the way to the end to hear the big news because it is all laid out there for you with juicy details to follow.
Pretend that every reader has a short attention span. Break up your post into sections and avoid long paragraphs.
Visual attraction
Include a photo in the post whenever possible, for it draws in the eye. Not sure where to find photos? I like to use compfight, various photos from Flickr or other photo sharing sites. Yes, this is OK to do, but always remember to give adequate credit!!
Which reminds me – link out. Notice how I’ve linked for reference periodically. Also, consider linking to other blogs and posts to strengthen your point or argument.
Read blogs outside of the scope of what you normally would read or write about. Take a look at how the content is focused and targeted. Try browsing Alltop or Technorati, and don’t be afraid to point out other people or businesses who do a great job.
Why do you subscribe to the blogs that you do?
More than likely, it’s the content. You are provided with something. “What’s in it for me?” holds true.
Lastly, promote you blog effectively to grow your audience. However, we won’t get into this now, for it in its entirety deserves it’s own post. So be sure to check back!
I hope this was useful for you (rule number one – GIVE the audience something to take away). If there’s anything I missed, please share your insight in the comments below.
Image: Ian David Blum