What is a blog?
So you've heard about this thing called a 'blog' but what actually is it? A blog,
derived from Weblog, is a personal website which is maintained by one person or
many people.
A blog can be about many different things, it can be a personal private diary or
a place to publish publicly your thoughts on a particular topic. Blogs are usually
hosted by a third party company, such as Typepad, Wordpress or Tumblr, and offer
and easy way to publish content to the Internet.
Remember the golden rule
- People name ‘someone like me’ as the most credible spokesperson
- So the purpose of the blog is to establish the blogger(s) as ‘someone like me’
- So that when the time comes to disseminate information – the information comes from
a trusted source
Why blog?
- Create interest
- Start or join conversations
- Announce news
- Address issues
- Build social capital
- Drive purchase decisions
Basics - Updates?
- Must be regular
- Once a week (or more) is ideal
- Build an Editorial Calendar if you need one
- Must be relevant
- Build your story
- Keep it interesting
- Build trust
Basics – Audience
- Know them
- Write for them
- Talk to them
- Read their thoughts, posts, and comments
- Reply to them
Create interest: write about yourself
- The most valuable commodity online is information
- The most valuable kind of information is the ‘secret’ kind
- People like to see ‘behind the scenes’
- The blog is a chance to demonstrate your experience and expertise <
- The Pulp Fiction rule: ‘personality goes a long way’
Conversations: join in
- Know what happens on your blog and off
- Replies and links create conversation – and traffic
- Don’t limit yourself to your site – comment on other sites and blogs
- Tip: News stories relevant to your niche area make for good conversation tools
News and issues
- Remember: you’re not a wire service and you’re not a newspaper
- Be opinionated!
- Tailor news for your audience - in a conversational way
- Address issues:
- Quickly
- Honestly
- With the invitation of feedback and follow-ups
Mechanics: some quick tips
- Do use multimedia: videos and pictures make posts more dynamic and interesting
- Do give credit where credit is due
- Do tag your posts relevantly. e.g. Include all subjects even if obscure
- Do link to previous content properly. e.g. ‘Our post about UK tax’ – NOT
‘click here’
- Do give credit where it is due for other people’s images, videos or quotes
Common Features
Blogs have many characteristics and functions that are similar to a normal website.
There is usually some sort of content, in the form of images, text or videos, but
many tend to have some features which are not always present on a traditional website.
-
About: Tells you a little history about the blog and the writer and may also
include contact details, if these don't have their own separate section
-
Blogroll: This is a list of links to other blogs that the blogger likes or
thinks are worth reading.
-
Categories : Bloggers often categorise their blog posts by topic to make
it easier to find the relevant content you are looking for
-
Comments : The vast majority of blogs have a comment function which allows
you to provide your opinion on a post. Some blogs will require you to sign up to
be able to leave a comment.
-
Links: Bloggers often cite other content they have read in their posts. This
is done by including a link to the post with 'anchor text'. Anchor Text is the words
which are clickable to send the reader to the external content.
-
PR Policy: Many bloggers are approached by PRs and as such, include a policy
guide on their blog about the best way to contact them and the sort of things they
are keen to hear from PRs about. Many bloggers do not have this, in which case it
is important to read the blog thoroughly to ascertain their thoughts on being contacted.
-
Ratings: Ratings allow readers to feedback on the quality of a blog post
and this helps the blogger to work out what content their readers most want to see
-
Retweet: The rise of Twitter and sharing of content has led to the development
of a retweet button which allows reader to easily share a blog post on Twitter
-
RSS : RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. This is a news feed of all
the blog posts which are published and is updated in real time. RSS feeds can be
viewed in third party applications such as Google Reader and Bloglines.
-
Tags: Bloggers will 'tag' their posts with relevant words to help make it
easier for readers to find relevant content. This is different to categorisation
as tags usually compromise of Individual companies, people or terms, rather than
an overall topic
-
Trackbacks: These allow a blogger to find out how many time his or her blog
post has been cited or included in another person's blog post
