You don’t have to be the one to write your small business blog just because you work alone.

Sure, it helps if you as a business owner can find time to blog; however, not everyone has the time, skills or inclination to write even if you know that blogging is a successful digital marketing business tool.

Getting Started

Before you hire or take on someone to business blog for you it’s imperative you have a clear understanding of what you want your blog to achieve. If you don’t understand this, how are you going to convey this to your blogger?

I also think it’s important to look at how your competitors are using digital content marketing, including blogging, before you launch your own business blog. The better you understand where your blog needs to get, the better prepared you’ll be. You’ll also have a better understanding of the challenges your new business blog will face.

Looking for a Blogger

Once you let people know you’re looking for a blogger it’s likely that someone will suggest that Anna or Simon, your niece or nephew away at college, could blog for you.

“They love writing,” your brother will tell you. “And they’re all over social media all the time. They’re also super techie and geeks.”

Although it’s very possible that a young person in your family with a bit of technical know-how can work WordPress and scribble a few words, they may not understand your brand or the industry you work in. What’s more, if they’re away at college you may find yourself competing for their attention with their homework and active social life.

If that’s the case then a PR company might be a professional alternative to running your business’s blog. They’ll have plenty of experience working with brands, creating creative content and producing professional work. The risk is, though, that they might not be used to the tone of voice your customers will expect when connecting with you and may be too promotional for your audience.
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Yes, how to convince a blogger to help you – Not!

Well, for starters, DON’T:

• send an email saying how much you like their blog and call them by the wrong name
• claim to be a regular reader if you’ve never ever commented on their blog before or exchanged a tweet on Twitter
• send a spammy link to a crap, anonymous blog and ask to have it shared with “your audience”
• make a blogger like me cringe by using such a stupid phrase as: “I hope the article I’ve linked primes your interest”
• throw around invitations to “mutually beneficial projects” if you’ve never had any contact ever!
• expect someone to tweet about your new book just because they followed you the same morning on Twitter.

Instead, try:

• taking a bit of time to build a relationship online via Facebook, Twitter or Google+
• commenting on the blogger’s blog with something actually interesting to say rather than just “great post” three days in a row
• sharing links to the bloggers posts with your social media chums
• inviting the blogger onto your podcast, vlog or own blog to share their expertise with your audience.

PS. The inspiration for this post came from six emails I’ve received from so-called “regular readers” of my own blog, who’ve never bothered to get in touch before but felt that we had a good enough relationship to ask me to actually do something for them with my own social media presence.

Robert Dempsey posted a very interesting video last week, sharing his experience of dropping the sidebar from his business blog. Flush with the excitement of some apparently great results, Robert – one of the good guys – put it out there for all to enjoy.

Now the reality of business blogging is that sometimes you get a few comments, sometimes you’re totally ignored and just once in a while things can get a little prickly.

In this instance, Robert got a bit of flack for being quick to the table with his data by another of the good guys, Mark Schaefer.

In a bar over a couple of brewskis I’m sure the whole thing would have been discussion fodder with smiles all around, but in this case the discussion was a bit more hard-edged.

No problems there but I think the paralinguistic info of the bar setting would have kept everyone smiling.

Now I’m not interested in the merits of the argument in this particular case and, NO! I’m not suggesting for an instant that either Rob, Mark or John Falcetto (yet another good guy!) damaged their own businesses at all; however, the whole “incident” left me wondering most of the weekend how dangerous a blog post or comment can be.

Can a well-intentioned bit of scribbling in the digital ether possibly be dangerous to your business or reputation?

I often bash something out in a hasty moment, hit publish to my blog and rush off to the next job on my To Do list, and don’t give it a second thought. Maybe I should worry more?

After all, if 75 percent of traffic to your blog is a first time visitor sent from Google or social media, you blog needs to be spot on. Right? [Read more...]