From the category archives:

Blogging

Business Blogging Tip #1

by Tom Williams on July 12, 2010

in Blogging

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I am going to be doing a small series on Business Blogging.  What is business blogging you ask?  Simply put business blogging is the art of being real with your customers, partners and prospects.  It requires a business to take down the facade and put themselves out there in a transparent nature.

Why would anyone do that?  There are so many reasons I will not cover them all here.  As a starter, it builds trust.  Let me be clear, being honest doesn’t mean you air your dirty laundry for all to see.  It means you speak about real topics that people can relate to in language they can easily understand.  It means you admit you’re not perfect and are always trying to improve.  It also means you answer people when they talk to you on your blog via comments, or in some cases, in blog posts of their own.  (caveat: this does not include conversing with the troll or the heckler…topics we will cover later.)

The first step in becoming “real” with your business blog is take it away from the marketing person.  Now I love marketing people and, at the heart of it, I am one.  In fact,  I graduated from Kellogg with my MBA in Marketing!  Marketing people have a problem though - we tend to want to “push” information instead of just writing and conversing.  Find a few people in your organization who are decent writers and would like to participate, and let them blog.  Use your marketing person as a second set of eyes on the content - just to be sure nothing inflammatory, proprietary or incorrect is leaving your building.

Don’t know where to start looking for people who may be good writers and excellent bloggers?  Here’s an interesting tip.  Start with the introverts.  You might be shocked at how well some of these humble, quiet employees can eloquently express themselves with a keyboard.  Talking and typing are two very different modes of communication.  Give it a shot.  I’d like to hear how it goes.

-Tom

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I recently discovered a new type of blogging technology that is not only mobile and extremely portable but includes revolutionary commenting functionality as well as Ecommerce!  You have got to watch this video - it will change your life!

Paper Blogs - Amazing Breakthrough! from TOM WILLIAMS on Vimeo.

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