The Not-So-Hidden Dangers Of Unattended Blog Syndrome
A few months ago, I was speaking with a client who was telling me an all-too-common story of business blogging: he and his team had set up a brand-new, visually-pleasing blog site. It looked great. It matched their corporate website. It had a URL. It had a cool masthead. It had links to other websites and bloggers, and it was ready to go.
But there was one problem. A pretty big problem. The blog was empty. Actually, it wasn’t totally empty, it had a few random posts here and there but they were few and far between.
As he told me his tale of blogging woes, he even diagnosed the problem himself: Unattended Blog Syndrome or “UBS.” (I am not making this up, he really called it that.) Blogs are insatiable when it comes to having enough copy – there is no such thing as ever being “done” with your blog as you might be with another marketing vehicle, like a brochure or a web page.
Don’t let yourself or your company fall prey to UBS. Here are some basic but very important tips for keeping UBS away from you and your team:
- Investigate and report. Become a journalist whose beat is your industry. What are your competitors writing about? What are the top bloggers in your industry saying? What trend or news items are the associations, trade publications and periodicals of your industry covering? (And what are they not writing about?)
- It’s still business. One of the great things about blogging is that you can write in a casual, conversational tone. But don’t take the reduction in formality to mean that you can let it all hang out. Your business blog is not a place to discuss your social life or your child’s habits UNLESS there is a very definite and specific business-related and sales-related reason to do so! (And by all means if you want to get down to the brass tacks of your personal life, create a personal blog on the side and go for it!)
- Teach, inform and explain. Don’t push! I believe in an information-to-sales ratio of 80/20. Teach, inform, comment and show yourself and your business to be the leader of the pack. Establish your expertise and sprinkle in some related services or products you’re selling. Go for the hard sell and you’re sure to lose out, no matter how often you’re blogging.
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