Take a look at the word below.
How does it make you feel? Did it give you the ‘ick’?
It’s such a dreadful word.
We know that people often glaze over at the mere mention of having a blog at the centre of their communications efforts.
Because, well, didn’t social media replace the blog? Can’t you just ‘blog’ straight into Facebook or LinkedIn or Instagram?
Well, you can. But if you’re investing your precious time and effort into producing content that flashes by in a Facebook feed, or is only seen by those the almighty algorithm benevolently selects, then that’s just plain dumb.
Your stories need a permanent home. And that home, we’re afraid to say, is your blog. We firmly believe that, whatever business or industry you’re in, you must think like a publisher. A blog let’s you do that.
We believe, too, that your ‘socials’ are just ‘media’. They’re the telephone, not the conversation. The TV set, not the show.
If you’ve stumbled on our musings about this topic before, you’ll know that we have a particular take on the best way these things best fit together. Like this:
Think of your blog as a news and expertise centre, a place dedicated to building credibility, familiarity and trust through story telling. And tell people the stories and stuff they need to buy into you.
It’s pretty common for people to freeze when faced with the what-the-hell-should-we-be-saying? ‘content creation’ question. Keeping it really simple is the best way to start.
And while we think it’s important to have some discipline around your efforts in this area—committing to daily or weekly updates, for example—a great way to start is to simply document what’s going on at work.
Show us what’s going on behind the scenes, tell us what you’re up to, improvements you’re making, observations you’ve made, new business wins, the cool things your people are doing.
Just. Do[cument]. It.
You’re probably doing it already in weekly reports and project updates anyway. Re-purposing those reports as stories and news items for you blog can be a snap. Add some images or video, make it reader-friendly and—presto!—blog post.
All you have to do then, is share it on your socials and include it in your next eNewsletter.
You are producing an eNewsletter, aren’t you?
Here’s an example of a quick post we threw together describing something we recently got up to.
Project milestones, significant events, the start and completion of projects, unexpected challenges and the brilliant solutions your come up with on the fly are all perfect fodder for your blog.
Importantly, the things you’re doing and documenting (not someone else) are precisely what makes you stand-out. They’re no-one else’s stories but yours. It’s your stuff.
Seth Godin, legendary card-carrying Marketing Hall of Fame member says…
That’s why.
Your blog (and socials) let you describe what’s happening in your business right now, and present those stories in a shareable format.
All you have to do is document it.
Now that we’ve dealt with ‘blog’, should we start on ‘moist’?
Drop us a note in the fields here and we’ll get back to you pronto.