Archive for category: the Say It For You blog

Fellow blogger Pamela Wilson suggests "blogging with a learner’s mind".  It’s a wonderful suggestion, and here’s why:

Wilson observes that there are no shortcuts to becoming an effective business blogger. To get to be any good at blogging, you have to blog.  That, in turn, means being willing to make beginner’s mistakes, understanding that those mistakes are going to be made "in public", because blogs are by definition, "out there" for all to read. That has to be OK, she correctly maintains, because each "failure" (things we got wrong, things readers understood the wrong way, grammar and spelling errors that got published, the links that didn’t work, on and on..) brings us closer to success.

Given that business bloggers are going to make some mistakes starting out of the gate, there are a couple on blogger Kevin Muldoon‘s Top 10 list that are particularly worth stressing (in my experience as a blogging trainer and professional ghost blogger).

Blogging about too many subjects – "The top blogs on the net are all focused on one topic or genre", says Muldoon.

For me to say "I couldn’t agree more" would be an understatement.  Even where a business offers a variety of services and/or products, the business blog is going to be most effective when built around a unifying theme or "leitmotif".

Erratic posting frequency – "It’s very important to update your blog on a regular and consistent basis," advises Muldoon.

Once-in-a-while blogging just doesn’t do the trick, even if it’s high-quality stuff, I’ve always emphasized to new business bloggers.  To satisfy search engine (which you have to do to get read!), your blog must be updated frequently, in fact very frequently. Drill sergeant discipline is what it’s going to take, I warn.  Get used to it – or hire a ghost blogger!

Since Kevin Muldoon lists "repeating what other bloggers are saying" as a Top 10 mistake, I’d have to plead guilty for this blog post.  But since "no opinion/scared to rock the boat" is also on his blogger mistake list, I’ll respectfully add my part dissenting, part supporting view:

1. Reading competitors’ blog posts is a great form of market research for business owners launching their own blogging strategy.
    
2. Having your business blog considered by readers the "go-to" source of information about your field (not only about your own business) is hardly an undesirable result.
    
3. Repeating what established bloggers have said (ideally, at least) forces "newbies" to think about what they might add to the discussion. 

Actually, every item on Muldoon’s list can serve as a valuable caution for experienced as well as newer business bloggers. Effective blogging, I’ve found, is both an acquired skill and, in many ways, an art.  There’s marketing expertise required, at least some degree of technical expertise, certainly some writing expertise. But, trumping all these, I believe is the simple, yet extraordinarily difficult task of consistently and continually "showing up"!

On Monday my long-time friend and business advisor Ron Sukenick contributed a guest blog post about creating impact through networking. Let’s talk about using those techniques to create impact in blog posts.

Contribute.  Always share ideas, information, and resources when with others, says Sukenick.

And isn’t that exactly what business bloggers do?  Your blog offers a continuous chance to share ideas, resources, and the most-up-to-date information about your field.

Make it a small world. Shorten learning curves. Everyone you meet has something in common with you, says Sukenick; your job is to find out what that is. Learn to provide information to someone in need at the very moment the request is made.

Blogging is made-to-order for following these two pieces of advice.  Online searchers arrive at your blog precisely because they have a need for the very kinds of information, products, and services you provide! Organic search (as contrasted with paid advertising on the Web) makes a match between the search terms and the content you’ve provided in your blog post.

Take interest in others, advises Sukenick.  The person you’re following up with will love that you took the time to learn more about who they are.  In exchange, they will be more open to learning more about who you are.

Your business blog content will be most appealing to target customers when you make it obvious that you understand their unique needs. You have a chance to differentiate yourself from your competitors by offering “cues” to readers, in the content of your blog posts, that you “get them” and are tuned in on their areas of concern.

Follow up, warns Sukenick.  Just being there is not enough – you must have a solid system for creating a persistent presence.

And that, in a nutshell, is exactly what a blog is – a system for continuing, unrelentingly, to put the word out on the Web. Launching and sustaining a successful business blog takes one part marketing expertise, one part technical expertise, and one part writing expertise. Trumping all forms of expertise, though, is what I call “drill sergeant discipline”, which is what it takes to show up every couple of days (at the minimum) with content to feed into the blogosphere. (Yes, I follow my own advice – the blog post you’re reading is #395 for Say It For You.)

Be passionate about your work.  Your passion for what you do is contagious, advises Sukenick. Learn to express yourself as if your life depended on it.

For business blogs to be truly effective, they need to be the “voice” and the “soul” of your business or the practice. The blog content needs to convey all your experience and knowhow, your dreams for the future, and the driving forces that make you tick!  Blog content like that IS contagious!

Remember the children’s tale about the little engine going up the hill, chanting “I think I can”? Why be satisfied with creating anything less than maximum impact?  Challenge yourself to make your business blog into the “Little Online Marketing Engine That Could”!