If you’re creating your first blog, especially if it’s for a business, there are a few essential tips you should consider as you move forward. Basically, the tips I’ll provide today surround generating effective content, from general blog writing tips to the broader topic of instituting a process. Many may seem common sense, but they’re important to keep in mind nonetheless.
5 Tips for Generating Business Blog Content
- Write what you know.
- Write what will engage your audience/customers.
- Dictate oversight and process.
- Include more than just words.
- Prepare for the launch.
Now for some explanations:
1. Write what you know.
You know your business, the industry and the new developments within… so write about them. This seems obvious, but it makes sense. The point is to demonstrate that you and your company are experts on your subject matter. After all, it’s why you’re in business. That being said, blogging is much more subjective than, say, journalism. Subjectivity is a path to wander down carefully, which is why tip #3 is important. However, do not confuse subjectivity with not being factual – it is just as important for bloggers to fact check as it is for journalists, especially when it comes to blogging for your company. The subjective factor is all about building your expertise and demonstrating your knowledge of the subject matter.
2. Write what will engage your audience/customers.
Make sure each post is written in an engaging way – invite feedback, encourage comments, and respond to them when appropriate. Connect what you know from tip #1 with what will actively engage your audience. After all, they will need a reason to visit your blog, and better yet, frequent your blog. And as with any messaging you deliver, it must be tailored to the proper audiences. Knowing how your audience interacts online and what points of interest they may have in your company are important factors in generating effective content. Use this to build curiosity.
3. Dictate oversight and process.
This is one of the more important items you will tackle, and possibly among most difficult to solve. An upper-level manager should ultimately oversee the blog, but (depending on the style of blog and the company) this individual should rarely be the sole content developer – after all, management is already quite busy.
There are a few traits instrumental in finding the right fit for your other company bloggers:
- They must be knowledgeable about the company, industry and audience.
- They should already exist in the online universe and, if possible, the blogosphere.
- They shouldn’t be afraid to write, and write correctly.
Developing an oversight process includes setting parameters for editing and proofing. Anything risqué or out of the norm and any outlying or outlandish opinions have a greater chance of being axed if multiple eyes read and review the content during a tracked editing and proofing processes – and that is a good thing! At BrandQuery we have a process that we recommend for all company blogs we create. In advance of this post going live, it passed by three individuals other than the author for edits, recommendations, and comments. This process may seem arduous but it does a few things; it allows others to chime in on the topic and it creates an opportunity for a correct use of language and information.
4. Include more than just words.
Just as websites are unrecognizable in comparison to their early counterpart, so are blogs. These days, it’s important to include more than just words. This includes the following:
- Optimized imagery with descriptive and relevant alt tags.
- Audio and/or video when appropriate.
- Strategic article titles for SEO purposes.
- External links to other sites to define terms, list other relevant articles, back your material, etc.
- Internal links to related topics.
- Widgets (See below for description).
These items give your blog a dynamic aspect that keeps things interesting. The last item, widgets, deserves further explanation, and I plan to write a post about it in the coming weeks. A widget is a section of code that can easily be inserted into HTML. They can allow you to easily add your recent Twitter posts (tweets), include a countdown, list your most-viewed posts, and more.
5. Prepare for the launch.
The best way to prepare for the launch of your business blog is to familiarize the bloggers with the writing process. The benefit is twofold: writers begin generating content, which acts as a backlog of material for the blog, and they get used to writing for the company on a regular basis.
Ideally, you should get in the habit of maintaining a comfortable backlog of material to post. My recommendation: develop 5 to 10 posts in advance of launching, and schedule them accordingly (one per week, two per week, or whatever publishing duration you dictate in your strategy). Determine an appropriate and comfortable backlog of material that works for you. This will help when you’re busy and don’t have as much time to write.
When you’re ready to launch, publish your introduction post announcing your company blog to the world, and then in quick succession publish a few additional posts from the backlog to give your audience a taste of what’s to come. Two to three posts should do it. Then continue at the schedule decided upon.
That’s It For Now:
Sure, oversight and preparation are not instrumental in generating effective content for your blog, but having a strict process in place and being ready to launch with a backlog of material can create good habits, which in turn facilitate content generation. And for first-time bloggers, facilitation can be the key to success.
I titled this post Business Blog Strategy: Generating Effective Content, but these same tools can be applied to your other online outreach tactics, from Twitter to Facebook.
Remember…
Our final words of wisdom (and this may sound a bit odd, as our last post was in August): Continue to update your blog on a regular basis as it’s an integral part of managing a business blog, maintaining current readers, and gaining new followers. If you don’t have time, have someone fill in for you. The key is to be consistent in your posts; having a defined schedule will help.
Enjoy the holiday!