Essence of Business Blogging
Have you ever met someone who had their own business and tried to explain to them the concept of blogging. Not just why and how a blog can benefit them, but get them into the true spirit of blogging and understand the impact it makes on their business, others and themselves.
I’ve come across a really succinct explanation of blogging and defines 5 principles for blogging. It explains the Essence of Business Blogging, but isn’t necessary limited to blogging for business.
This will be worth remembering so next time you meet someone who you feel needs to understand blogging you can come right out with it and when you part they will understand.
- Focus: Pick a well-defined area of focus, an area in which you have an abiding interest and an area where you at least have the desire to become an expert, if you are not already. Don’t stray into politics on your caterer’s blog, or talk about your kids on your legal blog. Focus.
- Consistency: Writing frequently is better than infrequently, but whatever frequency seems doable after some experimentation, stick with it. If you have a restaurant review every Thursday, people will start to look for that. If you post a legal case study near the first of every month, it will become an institution for readers. People like and admire consistent behavior, and it seems the side effect of a well-ordered and professional mind.
- Look Outward: There’s a lot of stuff out there on nearly every topic. As you are on your own personal journey of discovery, collect the signposts and recommendations you discover, and share them. If you are designer and you discover great designs, post them. If you are a chef and discover great writing about food, link to it. Don’t thiink that everything has to come from within, and that you are the only creative force in the world.
- Look Within: What you think and feel matters. Getting across why you, personally, care deeply about some topic — wine, patent law, deck gardens, or DJing — is the single most important way to connect with people on a personal level. We are, in some important way, what we care about.
- Conversation: And once you connect with people, they will want to connect with you. They will want to comment on your posts, so make that possible. They will ask you questions, or challenge your assumptions and conclusions. Get into the mix and respond. It’s a conversation. Sure, you start by having the conversation with yourself, or with your partners that may be blogging with you, but over time it will open up, and hundreds or thousands of people may be interacting with you through your blog. That’s the definition of success, in this world.