The eBIG session on Tuesday night went quickly, though getting back and forth to Concord took a while. While the group was smaller than expected (rain contributed there), I enjoyed listening to Eric Rice and Steve Tennant. My own comments were less formal, with no presentation, but with this group, that was fine.
Eric went first, and gave an informative “What is a blog?” presentation. Combined with the handout of the article “Blogs Keep Internet Customers Coming Back” from that day’s Wall Street Journal (page B8, and not surprisingly one of that day’s free features), Eric introduced most of the themes I had in mind around the business of blogging… which was fine. Steve did a useful walkthrough of his own sites, both his consulting business blog and the PeopleSoft Alumni Network.
My points for business blogging were as follows, though I didn’t necessarily roll them out in this order, or probably with this much clarity. Always easier for me to write things down. Anyway…
- Be committed to consistency. If you’re going to step up and represent your company, it’s not a stop-and-start endeavour. You don’t have to post every day, but if you’re not demonstrating that you care enough to commit time and energy to this effort, why should your readers? There are very few intermittent posters whose blogs resonate with many readers. It takes a volume of work to learn whether to trust and appreciate someone’s voice. If you want to earn the marketing impact in search engines, volume helps. Also, as Eric noted, after you’ve been going for a while, your readers might start worrying about you if you “disappear”!
- Consider your audience. It’s anyone and everyone, perhaps, but really you’re writing for potential customers or partners or colleagues. Are you networking with like-minded professionals, or demonstrating your skills to potential customers? These aren’t contradictory goals, but the tone or language you use may differ.
- Every word is public. Nothing you write will disappear, even if you delete it. Pretend every word you write could be written on the front of your house, for everyone to read. Expect that your spouse/boss/mother/child are reading. As has long been cited on the internet — but is even more true with blogs — you own your own words. That’s part of the power, but don’t be rash. That also plays into whether more than one person will blog on the behalf of the business. I don’t have a firm opinion here, but the lessons apply all the same.
- Be human. While the above note may tempt you into incredibly stilted language out of fear of mis-stepping, if you lapse into vagueness or trivialities… well, why bother?
- Be comfortable writing.. Yes, audio blogging and video blogging are getting easier, but most of your communication is still likely to be textual. No need to be an author or a poet, but real sentences, spelling, and capitalization reflect your professionalism.
- When blogging for your business, think twice about ranging far and wide topic-wise. I don’t read that many “business” blogs, per se, but I think you should establish yourself as an authority in your business before you range more broadly. I write that knowing that I’ve been known to blather about topicality more than once. But clock isn’t a business blog.
- Listen. A blog is a public face for a company, whether that company is a one-person organization or a multi-national with thousands and thousands of people. That face will garner some attention, especially in a world where most companies are — in essence — faceless. (Think automated voice response and how angry that makes you when you know that talking to a half-intelligent human would save you time.) If you don’t know what people are saying about your blog, you’re not learning, and you’re missing a large portion of the possible benefits. Customer support and market research are surprisingly large parts of what’s valuable about blogging for business. You also need to tolerate dissent, without succumbing to vandals. One person last night asked what you should do about someone complaining about your business on your blog. Engage them. If you can’t politely, firmly, and positively answer someone’s questions and concerns about your service, product, or business as a whole, then don’t start a blog. You don’t get the benefits of openness without putting in the effort. Separately, vandalism (comment or TrackBack spam) must not be tolerated, just like you wouldn’t leave graffiti on the front door of your business. If you don’t wipe out that noise, it shows others that you don’t care enough to clean up the mess… and it’s likely to encourage more vandals. (Broken Windows is The Atlantic Monthly article (1982) from James Q. Wilson on this topic in the real world. Annoyingly, behind the pay wall, but I’ll link to it anyway.)
- Appreciate RSS. If you’re blogging, your software will generate some sort of feed. Make sure you make it obvious to readers. Also, as everyone said on Tuesday night, you’ll want an aggregator to do much of that listening, so RSS will be your friend as a consumer, too. Yes, I mentioned Newsburst as a free option, but I also mentioned My Yahoo, NewsGator, Bloglines, NetNewsWire, SharpReader, and FeedDemon.
I’ve garnered lots of this “common sense” from my own experience and from reading many other bloggers. Scoble and Steve Rubel come to mind as two whom have posted on this subject in some detail before. Sorry I’m too lazy at this hour to track down the exact posts.
I do not speak for my employer. I don’t hide my employer, and I wouldn’t want to (I like what I do), but even as professional and personal blend/blur, there is a line.