Laser Burn Media

Ah, yes, blogging.  It seems like today almost every person, business, brand, and organization has a blog.  And why not?  Blogging represents one of the easiest, most cost effective, and efficient ways to get your message out.  Blogging is perhaps the single easiest way for many small businesses to get their presence online.  However, there is a huge difference between having a blog and having an effective blog.  Here are five ways that your organization can get better at blogging…

1. Post blogs on a regular basis.
   And by “regular basis,” I don’t necessarily mean every day.  However, you should be posting at least two to three blogs per week.  This helps ensure that your blog remains relevant and doesn’t appear dead to anyone who might want to browse your site.  If the last blog post was from three weeks ago, a reader may give the impression that you don’t care all that much about your blog.  Readers want relevant content and they want it on a consistent basis.  Give them something new to look forward to and don’t make them wait over a week to get it.  Because they won’t wait.
2. Try to use only a handful of categories for your blog posts.
   Most blogging software allows you to assign your posts to categories.  It is FAR better to use only a few categories than to create a new one for every post.  This will help keep your blog more organized and, in turn, make it easier for your readers to find things.  As an avid reader of many blogs, I know from personal experience that I’d rather browse through ten or eleven categories than thirty or more.  Think of your categories as sections in a newspaper.  By using and working with only the bare minimum of post categories, your blog will look and feel more focused, be easier to browse, and will help ensure that your readers don’t have to struggle to find information they need when they need or want it.
3. Link to some of older blog posts from time to time.
   When you’re writing a blog post, always be mindful of other posts that you’ve already published that may be relevant.  By including links to these older posts in your new blog post, you are providing the reader with more resources.  Also, it’s much more likely that a reader will spend more time on your blog if you make it easy for them to navigate from relevant post to relevant post.  As an added bonus, internal links (which is what these types of links are known as) make it easier for search engines to index your blog.  This helps ensure that your blog is better represented in search engine results and may also lead to higher traffic on your site.
4. Blog about things that interest you.
   This is because if you aren’t really interested in what your blogging about, it will become harder and harder for you to keep at it.  The Internet is filled with the rotting remains of dead blogs who’s authors have simply given up on them.  Do not let this happen to your blog.  Additionally, the quality of your blog will be much better if you are writing about things that your passionate about.  If you aren’t excited about what you’re writing about, don’t expect your others to be excited to read it.
5. Promote your blog posts.
   If you’ve taken the time to write the post, why not take a few extra minutes to help tell the world about it?  The easiest way to do this is to post links to your blog post on your Facebook, Twitter feed, and/or Myspace page.  Additionally, be sure to submit your posts to sites like Digg and Propeller.  All of this takes about five minutes of your time, but can result in much more traffic hitting your blog.  You write this damn thing for people to read so take the time to ensure that people actually know about it.

Blogging is a great way for you to promote your business, build your brand, and increase your visibility.  However, like anything worth doing, you have to put the time in to ensure that your blog is as effective, as interesting, and as well organized as possible.  Additionally, a well written and maintained blog helps build your reputation as an expert in your industry.  If you would like the experts at Laser Burn Media to help you make your blog as effective as possible, please don’t hesitate to contact us directly.

See also: Five Ways to Get Better at Twitter and Five Ways to Get Better at Facebook

-Dan Cheek
www.LaserBurnMedia.com
dan@laserburnmedia.com

Tags: blogging, social media strategy

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 17th, 2009 at 8:27 am and is filed under Social Marketing Strategy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.