a little insight into why I won't stop blogging

Social Media has pretty much been dissected, why it matters, why Twitter will change the face of business, why all of it is important.  Or, at least, why someone thinks it’s important.  There are many who write on a regular basis – who produce original content consistently, who create thoughtful and meaningful responses to emotionally – or politically – charged blogs or discussions. There are also those who prefer to simply peruse the pages of their favorite social network, searching for answers or shared experiences. Lurkers represent the listeners, the audience, the foot soldiers in the trenches. The readers.

The opportunity to step out of the trenches every now and again is here, right in front of you. You can “write a post” or “start a discussion” or simply post a status update on the network of your choice and there you have it.  An instant platform, an opportunity to put thoughts to page, to raise awareness, to share know-how, to stir the pot or spoil the stew – whatever the case may be. Some write “because it’s there.” Others write because they have to - to increase their vocabulary and develop their brains or simply to spew some venom. To liberate their thoughts. I write because I can’t help it, I have to…
“Blogging is free, it doesn’t matter if anyone reads it. What matters is the humility that comes from writing it. What matters is the meta-cognition that comes from thinking about what you’re gonna say… If you’re good at it, some people are gonna read it. If you’re not good at it and you stick with it, you’ll get good at it. This has become such a micropublishing platform that, basically, you’re doing it for yourself, to force yourself to become part of the conversation, even if it’s just that big. And that posture change changes an enormous amount.” So says Seth Godin at a recentAmex Open Session.

Blogging is free but does that lower the perceived value?
Because anyone and everyone can do it, express themselves in numerous forums through the written word, should they?
Should we?

Bloggers have been blamed for putting reporters and columnists out of work, for twisting the truth, for gaining knowledge using unethical or easy means, for not checking their facts, for not having a formal education or experience… Oh, because the news media, in its previous form, was never charged with those accusations, right? Seth Godin was a columnist for printed media, yet he doesn’t appear to be out of work. Why is that? Is it because he changed as technology did? Because he embraced the new and saw the direction media was going? He put down his pen and now fervently moves a cursor.

Tom Peters, co-author of In Search of Excellence , finished Seth Godin’s preceding statement with, “My first post (blog)was in August of 2004. I will simply say, no single thing, in the last fifteen years professionally, has been more important in my life than blogging. It has changed my life. It has changed my perspective. It has changed my intellectual outlook. It has changed my emotional outlook and it’s the best damn marketing tool by an order of magnitude that I’ve ever had.”

Godin responds, “And it’s free.”

I have to agree.  As I cruise through my seventh year as a blogger (I used to blog regularly on MySpace), I feel the same way – no other practice has been more important to my career, to my life.  And yes, it is a practice.  And I practice daily.

Rayanne Thorn, @ray_anne is the Marketing Director for the online recruiting software company, Broadbean Technology.  She is also a proud mother of four residing in Laguna Beach, California, and a daily contributor for Blogging4Jobs.  Connect with her on LinkedIn.  

One thing I have noticed about good bloggers, serial bloggers – they know how to title their posts.  I know the little tricks too and sometimes, I just can’t bring myself to break it down into bullet points or numbered suggestions in order to simply drive traffic.  Maybe it is just driving simple traffic?  Maybe I don’t want simple traffic, but we all fall for it, don’t we?

I could title this Ten Tips for Writing a Better Blog – ok, maybe I did title it that and…, here you are clicking through, wanting a simple fix.  I could just have easily titled it: Ten Tips for Losing Ten Pounds in Ten Days – guaranteed click-thru’s.  Or how about:  Five Steps to a Better Sex Life – traffic through the roof!  And I’ve seen people do it – I’ve seen friends do it- not “it” though that would fit in with the title, but I have seen friends include sex in their blog title to move traffic to their site – to get eyes on their blogs.

Is it ok?  I suppose.  Can you be sued over it? Probably not, but is it a good practice to cry wolf when the wolf is fully clothed and hasn’t even brought out his fangs?  We all know what happened to the little boy – he lost readers, people stopped listening to his screams.

So, I will really give you ten tips, ways, points, steps, and suggestions for writing a better blog.  They won’t help you lose weight or have better sex – or will they??

1.  A great title that matches great content.  You can’t really have one without the other.  In order for the great title to work, you need to have brilliant text to accompany it.  How many times has a title caught your eye, only for you to ditch a blog or article one paragraph in because the content was crappy?  The title is the bait and the content is the hook.  Sink that hook or you will lose the fish.

2.  Use social media – every kind you can or want to use in order to promote your blog.  Do not depend on a search engine and/or future devoted readers to find you.  If you don’t believe enough in your own ability to produce great content to promote yourself, why should anyone read you at all?

3.  What makes you different?  Have a niche or specialty.  There are millions upon millions of bloggers out there.  If everyone wrote about the same thing, we might as well all sit down on a beach and start counting the grains – Booorrrriiiinngggggg… Know what you are writing about, understand it.  If you don’t know your topic, it will show.  This isn’t a junior high essay, you cannot bluff your way through it.

4.  Proofread your blog.  Over and over and over again.  I read mine many times and I still miss mistakes.  It’s because it is in my head already and my brain just skips over the missing words because it knows what is supposed to be there.  Better yet, have someone read over it for you before you publish.   Unless you don’t care and part of your charm is that you write from the heart, not the head. 

5.  Know who you are writing for.  Who is your intended audience?  You might as well step away from the computer if you do not know who your audience is.  This is key to knowing what to write, how to phrase it, and understanding how it will be received.  A mentor once told me to never ask a question to which I didn’t already know the answer.  I use that same advice here with a twist.  Never write anything that I don’t already know how it will be received.  At least have an idea of how you expect your post will be received.  And you can’t do that without knowing who your audience is.  And here’s the thing, the audience might just be you – but if that is the case – you have already met your desired traffic and you can ignore these tips.

6.  Be committed and consistent.  If you say you are going to write once a week, write once a week.  If you say you are going to write once a month, write once a month.  Meet expectations.  Your audience will love that about you.  When I first said I would write every day, no one believed me, not even the person who gave me the opportunity.  I said I would and I did.  It’s pretty simple, and practice makes perfect.

7.  Thank your readers and acknowledge comments, openly.  People comment because they feel strongly about what you have written – either negatively or positively.  Value your readers by showing appreciation to them for going out of their way to read, comment or share.

8.  Add backlinks.  When you link to your previous content or another writer’s content or a site like Wikipedia, you increase organic SEO.  It also allows you to be a bit less wordy – use a link instead of some lengthy exposition.  Your readers will appreciate it.  BUT don’t be hyper about hyperlinks!  Too many is too much.

9.  You aren’t writing a book.  You are writing a blog, a post, an article.  If it is too long, your reader will lose interest.  It should take 3 to 5 minutes to read, 400 to 600 words.  Any longer?  They start dropping like flies.

10. A blog isnt a txt, dont b soo dum, u think u can rite like a txt or twt? - USE proper grammar and correct spelling, please.  Respect yourself enough to capitalize an “I” if you happen to be writing your post in first person.  Unless of course, you prefer flies dropping at your feet.

There you have it, TEN quick and painless tips to writing a better blog.

Oops, this one was 1000 words.  For this post only, please ignore tip #9…

Rayanne Thorn, @ray_anne is the Marketing Director for the online recruiting software company, Broadbean Technology.  She is also a proud mother of four residing in Laguna Beach, California, and a contributor for Blogging4Jobs.  Connect with her on LinkedIn.

I do my fair share of talking about the importance and effective uses of blogging as a form of external promotion and what analytics giant, Hubspot calls “inbound marketing.”  Companies, individuals, and agencies can benefit from positioning themselves as an expert in their niche or industry field.  This form of inbound marketing is certainly less expensive than it’s more traditional counter part.  It also often times take time to to develop a following or readership of your blog, but it only takes one person to read your article or blog post to lead to a sale.

Effective inbound marketing is not just limited to large corporations.  In fact, I believe that small boutique firms and individuals often have the more competitive advantage in this arena.  This is because of the personal touch that small firms can provide to their readers.  While large firms sit in committee and navigate the red tape faster contact and follow up can be made by smaller firms when someone leave a blog comment.

Blogs are a great way to provide your client or prospective client more information about you, your values, and insight into your work as an individual, agency, or corporation.  Blogs provide a more personal opportunity to develop a relationship encouraging your readers to comment, pick up the phone, or read more.  Blogs and articles on websites are in many ways more effective and more engaging than those traditional types of promotion and marketing of which I refer to as Spray and Pray.

The Spray and Pray terminology is something that is very popular in the Multi-Level Marketing industry.  You spray your message through posting and distributing fliers, calling your contacts, reading your paper advertisements, and pray that they will call you back.  In theory, the Spray and Pray method is not a lot of ways very different from a blog except for two things– 1.) The impact on your business checking account and 2. ) Capturing passive clients.

The act of a phone call or email from someone who reads your billboard is an extremely active action.  They must pick up the phone, desire to speak with you, and make a concerted effort to learn more.  This is an awful lot to ask when most newspaper ads and billboards are written with less then 140 characters.  Most consumers are looking for information, engagement, and a conversation vs. a sales pitch.  Blogs provide you (the service provide) that opportunity.

After hearing Hubspot’s Rick Burnes speak two weeks ago at Oklahoma City’s American Marketing Association meeting, I was inspired to drive more traffic to my blog, develop relationships, and capture potential lead information more than ever.  I’ll be playing with new tools and articles that drive readers to a call to action.  Because having a good blog is good but having a good blog that drives amazing business to you is even better.

You might be interested in some more tools regarding blogging:

• 5 P’s of Blogging
• Blogging It’s More Than a Brand
• When Your Blog is My Content
• Bloggers We’re Media but Better
• Bloggers Beware–Liabilities, Licensing, & Legalese

Photo Credit A Photo Editor.

One day it happened.  I fell out of love. . . with blogging.

For the past four years, blogging has been a passion, a point of inspiration for me and my business.  But lately blogging has become more of a chore, an action, a requirement, and something that is expected.  Over the last month, I’ve fallen out of love with blogging.

Like folding the laundry, it has become something I avoid, and I’m not alone. . .

Ask any blogger that’s been dedicated to the craft of blogging and you’ll hear about this cycle.  Inspiration, creativity, passion or love is not a constant.  Your level of creativity and commitment ebbs and flows.  About once every 12-18 months, I seem to shift my thinking and sometimes lose some focus around my blog.  Like any commitment or relationship, blogging takes a level of dedication and persistence.  It’s not for the faint of heart.

• Set low expectations. I mean manageable expectations.  Don’t over commit.  Creativity can’t be scheduled and neither should your blog.

• Write what’s easy. Historically, for me a blog post doesn’t take more than 15 minutes because I write about what I know and what I’m passionate about.

• Target your business. (or your personal brand).  The topics I blog about are tailored to my blog audience and prospective clients.  Sometimes I completely bomb on a post and other times I hit a home run.  The point is that I learn from my mistakes and successes driving me to do and be better in business.

• Visual matters. Half the fun in writing a blog post is searching and finding a fantastic photo to go along with it.  Use graphics, photos, and titles that draw the eye in.

• SEO sometimes matters. Everyone talks about links and making your blog search engine optimized.  It really depends on your audience and for whom the blog post is intended.  It only takes one view a blog post to sometimes close the deal.  While I recommend link backs and hyperlinking, it’s not the be all end all solution.

Find your inspiration point or place and bring your intentions and passion with your blog back into focus.  For me, I took a technology time out over the weekend and spent some time writing out my personal and professional goals related to Blogging4Jobs and blogging in general. Having an idea and goal in mind helps me to remember what’s important and stay centered with my goals in mind.  You can too.

As someone who’s been a blogger for four years, I can talk about the amazing benefits personally and professionally.  Blogging is a great way to go beyond 140 characters and share with your readers more about you.  And after being part of the Gotta Love Chevy OK Program, I realized I wanted to bring awareness to this powerful group of people (thousands of us) who live all across the state of Oklahoma.

And after talking with other Oklahoma bloggers who I admire, I thought it would be a great to coordinate a week in Oklahoma to recognize the bloggers from all over the state.  This week will be to network with other bloggers and share best practices and lessons learned along the way.  More information about when and how the week is coming soon.  And if you’d like to be the first to learn about the big announcement and who I am partnering with, please complete the information form (below).  And if you prefer, you are welcome to email me at blogging4jobs@gmail.com.  Please include your first name and last name, your email, and blog or website address.

I will add your name to the distribution list to receive updates BEFORE the announcement hits the internet.

Photo Credit DailyNugget.

Last week I presented to a group of Restaurant Human Resources Professionals as part of the People Report Summer Camp Symposium in Dallas, Texas.  The event was hands down the best conference I have ever presented at or attended.  I led a session titled,  ”Blogging for Dummies.”

Blogging is an interesting topic for Human Resources and Corporate Recruiting Teams.  An amazing corporate blog can help effectively communicate change to your current employee base while also providing potential candidates a look inside your company and corporate culture.  Recruitment and HR blogs should be managed by their respective departments and not marketing.  Marketing should work hand in hand with their talent team and serve as a consultant or advisor.

For the individual, blogging in my opinion is an absolute must to help define and control your personal brand.  Blogs are a great way for companies and clients to learn more about you outside of your professional resume or social profiles like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.  Blogs can be the difference maker for job seekers and are the Resume 2.0.

My talk’s foundation started with what I call the 5 P’s of Blogging.  Although similar, the 5 P’s of Blogging are different from the 5 P’s of Marketing you might remember from your undergrad marketing class.

• Purpose. Your blog as a corporation, collaboration, or person must have a purpose.  Similar to a corporate mission statement, your blog’s goal must be defined and like any marketing or branding tool must be developed to attract and inform a particular segment of your audience or market that you have defined.  Too often, we start a blog without the proper research or understanding of what we want to write about or who we want to engage.  Developing and defining your purpose is by far the most important step.

• Platform. The decision to create a blog starts with the decision to use a blogging platform or service.  I encourage you to play with some of the platforms before you make this decision.  I say this from my own experience.  My first blog, BloggingforJobs was on a free platform called Blogger before I moved it to its own domain and transferred my blog to another platform called WordPress.  A third and very common blog platform is TypePad which my good friend Kay Stout uses.

• Planning. Hands down your first 10 blog posts are the hardest so it is important for you to plan, research, and prepare for these first few articles.  This is an important part of defining your blog’s writing style, your own style, and setting up the structure surrounding how often, who, and when your blog will release its posts.  If you have a collaborative, corporate blog, I encourage you to work with at least 4 bloggers who will commit to writing at least one blog post every two weeks.  Personally, I commit to no less than 8 blog posts a month myself for Blogging4Jobs and have for the past four years.

• People. Second to Purpose, this is the most important step.  People are the social aspect of blogging.  Ask your entire company to help you promote leveraging their own networks.  Setting up a simple RSS feed or newletter can help leverage your contacts both inside and outside the company as well.  Both these tools allow persons to subscribe to your blog updates while keeping your brand and company at the top of their mind.  Blogging should be a two way conversation and I encourage you to keep the comments open both good and bad.  Candidates realize that companies aren’t perfect and its the conversation and culture that sets companies apart.

• Promotion. Promoting my blog on social networks is a huge part of my blog’s success.  I recommend using social bookmarketing sites to promote your blog like Digg, Stumbleupon, Technorati, and LinkedIn Groups in addition to popular social platforms like Twitter and Facebook.  Your marketing department is key in helping your blog gain momentum and popularity as they are experienced in online press releases with services like Pitch Engine.

Want to bring an corporate, personal, or professional blog to myself and the reader’s attention?  Leave a comment below and recognize them for a job well done.

Photo Credit Farm3.