In our social media classes, and in just about every one of our Organic Marketing classes, we ask if people are blogging. In a handful of cases we had a majority of our members raise their hands. Most people say they want to be blogging, the know they should be blogging, or they want to. Many are not ready, don’t know how to start, or don’t know what they should say.

I could list many reasons why a small business person, entrepreneur, or anyone else for that matter should be blogging. The first and most important is because marketing is telling your story, and blogging is a great way to be able to tell it, and have it do more for you than just exist on a blog site. Incorporating a blog into your website is a great way to provide fresh information, interesting copy, and gives people a reason to re-visit your site.

Let’s cover the basics:

What is a blog? Blog stands for web log.

What is blogging? Telling your story, sharing your opinions, tips, and expertise online.

Why blog?  We want to hear your story, find out what you know, be entertained, and enlightened. We also want to be able to subscribe to your story via RSS feed (really simple syndication) so we can read this when we want to in the method, and on the devices (laptop, mobile phone, Amazon Kindle) we prefer. We also want to be able to find out more about you online while searching.

Here’s our top ten list of tips for getting started with your blog:

1. Write at least five-10 articles that you can use to build your brand, your knowledge, and your track record. These articles should be interesting, informative, and serve as a reference for people. How long should they be?  500 words or so in a blog post is great. Some reference posts may require more. Use catchy, attention getting headlines. Keep them short and easy to read. Separate the information, don’t use long wordy paragraphs. Use numbered lists and bullets wherever possible. What should you write about? Visit Sarah at Sazbean for some ideas – 12 Ways to get Ideas for Business Blogging.

2. Decide how often you will blog, and stick to it. If you are going to blog daily, make sure you have one post a day (at least) that goes up. If you are going to blog weekly or monthly, maybe blogging is not the right avenue for you. There are tools available to time release your posts, so if you have time to write many posts and set the delivery times, use it. Otherwise, be prepared to spend some time on this every day. Pre-planning is great. Be prepared to add new timely information and organically grow your messages.

3. Choose your blogging platform. Will you incorporate a blog into your existing website? Will it be maintained separately? There are benefits to both worlds, depending on your situation. WordPress.com offers a free place to start. We recommend using wordpress because you can get started now, and make the decision to integrate the blog into your site later. You can use wordpress on their server, or you can add it to your own custom domain name. There are many available plug-ins to add extra functionality to your site.

4. Leave comments on other blogs. Read other blogs, especially those in your industry or in similar fields. Pay attention to what catches your attention. Chances are if it caught your eye, it may catch your readers as well. 

5. Link to other sites and blogs in your post.A trackback is a way to link from your site to another and vice-versa. It shows reference from one to another, and is a way to track a conversation between two sites. Other blogs can be a great source of ideas and inspiration. Reading someone else’s blog, linking to it, and then writing your review, comments or opinions about that post are a great way to add some diversity to your own posts. I recommend reading about strategy over at Sazbean.

6. Ask for feedback and comments on your blog. The easiest way to do this is to ask questions at the end of your post. If you end on a declarative statement, you don’t leave much of an opening for another opinion. If you ask a question, you are more likely to get a response. What do you think?

7. Automate it. Create the ability for your blog to automatically feed to your Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts using sites like Ping, TwitterFeed and TweetLater.  Share your blog link with your friends, fans and customers. Get feedback and ideas that you can use in your posts.

8. Submit your blog to sites that will reference your blog site. You can create this link within your own site by listing the sites you like. Your contacts and online friends can do the same. List your blog address in every social media profile that you have. In addition, looking into blogtopsites and a blogcarnival are great as well. 

9. Be creative, be yourself, and be there. When you are not sure what to write about, take some inspiration from your day. What happened to you today, yesterday, or earlier this week? Did it make you think about something in a new way? Are you pondering a topic or question? Have your readers weigh in. Have I mentioned who is listening to you when you start blogging? Answer: no one. You are writing to yourself. Make yourself laugh, make it interesting, and eventually, over time, your audience will grow.

10. Repeat

What are you blogging about? Please list your site and summary. I’d love to visit, and I am sure our readers would as well.

(Photo by Louise Starbird of Photoworks Studios)

Tags: blogging

This entry was posted on Friday, June 5th, 2009 at 9:17 am and is filed under Only @ InSights. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.