Keeping “Up” in Your Business Blog

Funny how many of the habits I try so hard to teach my Career Development mentees at Butler College of Business are the same habits that make for long-term success in blogging for business…

It’s a Butler COB tradition to serve pizza at the meeting when we career mentors meet our freshmen mentees for the first time.  Back in 2006, I composed a handout for that meeting, a good-business-habits list called "Pizza Slices For the Business-Minded"; I’ve used that handout every fall at my freshman orientation.

As a business blogging trainer, I’m finding that a list of good blog marketing practices would have at least four items in common with that Pizza Slices list:

• Speak Up – Practice introducing yourself confidently and clearly in any situation.

  Your corporate blog is designed to introduce what you have to offer to new customers of the right kind (those who have the need, who will appreciate your services and products, and who have the ability to purchase). You have only a few seconds to capture online visitors’ attention by introducing yourself confidently and clearly.
  
  

• Keep Up – When you promise to do something for someone, do it in timely fashion.  Another aspect of Keeping up is maintaining your stamina to keep up with a demanding schedule.

  An important lesson for corporate bloggers to remember: It’s all well and good to use keyword phrases in blog titles in order to win search, but the blog post must deliver on that implied promise, by providing content that is on topic and on target for the search terms.
  

• Read Up – Resolve to read at least one book about business and businesspeople every two months in addition to required reading.  Jot down valuable ideas to put into practice and pitfalls to avoid.

  One of the things I emphasize in my blog training courses is that in, order to create a valuable ongoing blog for your business, it’s going to take equal parts reading and writing. You need to know what others are saying about your topic, what’s in the news that’s relevant to your industry, and what problems or issues might have come to light related to your field.
  

• Own Up – A true mark of a professional is recognizing that everyone makes mistakes.  Be first to admit any errors in judgment you make and try to make things right.  Learn something from every person and every encounter, and – every mistake!     

  Corporate blogs offer a mechanism for business owners to be pro-active in the face of any negative development.  Respond promptly and straightforwardly to any negative comments posted to your blog. Use your blog to correctng inaccurate press statement.  Above all, admit to any mistakes or misunderstandings and tell exactly what you plan to do in the future to avoid recurrences.  

  I end the Pizza Slices list with a promise to mentees:

  If you will start now to put the "pizza slices" into practice, you can BUCKLE UP for a great career!

Bloggers, if you will keep up with posting content, you can buckle up for some great results!