5 Elements of Successful Blogs

by Brian Burns on 4 January 2011

in Blogging, Writing

Blogs, whether corporate or personal in nature, contain more than meets the eye. While nearly all marketing people will tell you that creating one is a good idea, the elements that make up successful blogs are less defined. Here is our top-5 list.

1. Smart Design

Your blog does not have to win any design awards, but it should have a clean look, reflect your brand, and get out of the way of your content. Some good wed design firms like Elegant Technologies offer affordable custom wordpress sites. You can also customize your own theme with basic HTML and CSS skills.

2. Quality Content

I am of the belief that it matters not what you write about, as long as you write about it well. If you want to write a blog about knitting, and can do so in an informative, helpful and interesting way, you will get read. If you fail to deliver quality content, you will have a hard time building readership even if you’ve picked the perfect topic.

3. Purpose

Good blogs have a topic. Great blogs have a purpose. If your blog is designed to talk about how modern farm equipment operates because you find it interesting, other people will probably find it interesting as well. If you have a burning passion to help people improve the mechanical efficiency and scope of their private farms, and build a blog to help spread your message, people will find it fascinating. Even if they don’t own a tractor.

4. Conversation

As smart or as cool as you may be, no blog reaches its maximum capability on the author’s words alone. The most successful blogs engage their readers in the conversation at the center of each post, adding the ideas of others around a central foundation. You can encourage commenting by asking questions at the end of each post, but a heavily-commented blog also requires a large readership and engaging content.

5. Availability

I’m not of the mind that blog authors need to post something every day, or for that matter, every week. Frequency helps build readership, but you should write only when you have something to say. No matter how often you post, however, you should be available to answer questions, respond to comments and return emails from readers. Availability builds trust with readers and strengthens online relationships.

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What do you believe is missing from this list? What are your favorite blogs, and how do they exhibit these elements?

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What the $*%#$ is a Communications Firm?

by Brian Burns on 24 April 2010

in Communications, Marketing, PR

As a writer, I’m cautious to use proper terminology. When I describe my company, in person or on paper, I’m careful to call it a communications firm, rather than better-understood terms such as a marketing firm, or a PR firm.

What does a communications firm do?

A communications firm helps companies hone and communicate their message, better reaching the target market for their products and services. In the case of this company, SpeakWell Communications, we focus almost exclusively on online communications.

How is a communications firm different than a marketing firm?

While a communications firm works to hone and communicate a company’s message, it rarely does the foundational work to establish where in the marketplace a company fits, or exactly who (and how) it aims to reach. These tasks — often done in the formation phases of a company — are best assigned to a marketing firm.

A marketing firm holds the expertise and resources to do extensive research, thorough competitive analysis, and complete business and marketing plan construction. While a communications firm can help clarify these concepts as needed — such as editing the content of a business plan — they most often come into the picture only when the plan is in place, and ready to execute.

How is a communications firm different than a PR firm?

While a marketing firm can lay the foundation for a company’s marketing outreach, and a communications firm can produce the content and drive for this outreach, a PR firm most often comes into play to provide the promotion and publicity to disseminate the content.

PR firms excel at tasks such as creating and maintain press and influencer relationships, distributing and promoting produced content, improving customer relations, and doing damage control. While a PR firm, in other words, acts as an ideal megaphone for the work of marketing firms and communications firms, PR firms do not replace the value they provide.

Do I need a communications firm?

The simple answer is yes; you do need the help of a communications firm if you want to reach your target market(s) as effectively as possible. However, you probably also need a marketing and PR firm, for the individual value they provide. In ideal cases, you can afford for the three to work in concert, combining to define your product and market, form and communicate your message, then disseminate and promote your message.

However, in the real world, if your name isn’t General Electric, you can probably only afford one of these, and ask them to do their best to fill in the gaps. While you might find this approach limiting, there’s nothing intrinsically wrong with it. The main challenge becomes finding the right firm, and having a productive ongoing discussion about their limitations (as well as their value).

If you’re unsure of how to proceed, or still require clarification about what a particular firm is best able to provide, contacting a reputable representative of one is a good first step.

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5 Things You Should Do While Building a Personal Blog

by Brian Burns on 3 March 2010

in Blogging, Social Media

Personal blogs, developed for personal branding outside a company or organization, are becoming increasingly popular. The people who develop them are finding that the increased name-recognition, online popularity, and search engine optimization benefits can actually be helpful for their business goals. Notable examples include: www.tammycamp.com, www.gwenbell.com, and www.andrewhy.de.

This article covers 5 things you should do if you’re considering building a personal blog, or want to improve the one you already have. It’s not intended to be a step-by-step guide — there’s much I won’t cover here — and other points will be covered in later posts.

1. Find a design that suits you

It’s important that personal blogs be well-designed, both for aesthetics and to make it easy for visitors to find and use the content you produce. It’s important also for your design to reflect you the person, as it’s the first impression many people will get of your personal brand.

I prefer Wordpress as a blogging platform, and with a eaily-customizable theme like Thesis, it’s relatively simple to modify your blog with your own pictures, colors, and layouts. Only moderate skill in HTML/CSS is required.

2. Make your contact info accessible

In ideal cases, visitors to your personal blog will want to reach out, and extend their contact with you — whether it’s to propose a project, exchange an idea, or just to say hello.

By making your contact info invisible, or nearly impossible to find, you make it hard for them to take this step, and lose out on the benefits of a possible connection. Instead, feature your contact info in an accessible place, and make it as easy to find as possible.

I usually recommend that contact info be put somewhere on the front page of a personal blog, as well as be put in a separate ‘CONTACT’ page.

3. Be consistent with your posting

It goes without saying that a personal blog needs great content in order to thrive. What people often overlook, however, is the consistency with which content is published. It’s important to establish clear patterns of posting so visitors know what to expect, and have a reason to check back on a regular basis.

The actual timing and amount of posts will vary from blog to blog, and should be determined with what best fits your schedule and goals. Though some bloggers recommend up to 2-3 posts/week, I think 1 post/week is sufficient in most cases.

4. Integrate your social media profiles

Personal blogs work best when they act as portals to your other personalities and profiles online. A personal blog should be linked with your social media presence(s), receiving traffic from places like Twitter and Facebook, and directing traffic out to the same places. The interactions that happen around your blog, thus, can carry over and grow in other places.

The easiest way to integrate your social media profiles on your blog is with customizeable ‘buttons,’ that lead back to your profiles. A wide variety of these buttons can be found at www.mysocialbuttons.com.

5. Interact with other blogs

Personal blogs work best not as singular points of information in a vast Internet universe — these usually come off as narcissistic — but rather as pieces that contribute to a whole. Personal blogs work best when the author plugs themselves into other blogging communities, and regularly puts energy into building outside relationships.

This can be done by guest posting on other blogs, writing posts that are part of a series with other authors, commenting on other blogs, or linking to content from your blog and social media profiles. Mix up these approaches for the best results.

Conclusion

There is no silver-bullet to building a great personal blog. The most successful approaches integrate blog building and posting best practices, and allow ample time for the blog to grow slowly over time. Remember that the biggest benefits might come months, if not years, down the road.

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