A recent boagworld podcast contained a segment on “Why corporate blogs fail”. I’m going to summarise the content here, but the podcast itself contains loads of useful extra information and asides if you want more detail. Most of it applies to any blog, not just organisational ones, and there’s a lot here I can learn from.
What Paul (Boag) said was that the most common reason for corporate blogs to fail was very simple: people stop blogging. They stop blogging partly because it takes time to build a following and people give up too soon, and they also stop because blogging is hard. It takes time to blog and it takes time to think of ideas.
But why blog in the first place? Here are some reasons:
- It improves your search engine visibility.
- It attracts users to your site.
- It results in increased links to your site.
Some principles to bear in mind when blogging:
- Not all posts need to be long posts.
- Keep a list of blog ideas wherever you are, rather than sitting at a computer hoping for inspiration to strike.
- Vary the type of blog post (see below).
- A post doesn’t have to be perfectly written.
- Don’t assume that if you know something, everyone else does too.
Some possible types of blog post:
- Ask a question
- Cover an event, with a preview or review
- A commentary (i.e. a response to someone else’s blog or article)
- News in your sector, not just in your own organisation
- An interview, possibly posting it in video or audio form
- A case study, focussing on how a problem was solved, rather than self-congratulation
- A review of a book, a service, or anything else
- Hints and tips
- A tutorial, include video, imagery, etc. if possible
- Lists, e.g. a “top ten” list – easy to digest and popular
- Resources, i.e. links to interesting articles
- Predictions, can make you look like a visionary!
- Debates, i.e. put forward someone else’s point of view, even if (or especially if) you don’t agree with it.
Yes, all useful stuff, and a reminder to me to do more than just hints and tips!
