How About Blog Rules and Considerations
I was going to comment on the Blog, “Negativity” when I thought that SC should have rules for blogs, and I thought they did not. Now, I notice that SC does have very good statements about Blogs. It seems that many bloggers are missing the guidelines and maybe they need to be stated in a different way and made more visible. I am more comfortable with the guidelines and everyone needs to follow them. Freedom of speech has to be balanced with consideration for others in cyberspace as well as real life.
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Rob included info in the T & C’s but not many read them anyway. If you are going to write a Blog there are guidelines above but personally I think they should also be here somewhere where we can see what they are when we reply or read a Blog also.
Here’s a quick recap of the important bits from the Webinar on the topic of blogging.
Rule 1 : When you start, keep it up! Remember a blog is personal. It’s a conversation. If you start and then all of sudden stop, it can appear that you don’t care. Show courtesy and if you are going to stop, tell your followers that this will happen.
Rule 2 : Be personal and friendly. Avoid management speak and jargon. Use a natural tone of voice to express your thoughts, ideas, points of view and observations. Think how you would talk to a friend in the café or bar. Colloquial English is often the most effective way to get a message across.
Rule 3 : Give people a reason to read you. The key here is to have something to say, rather than something to sell. Remember you are sharing content in order to build a dialogue as well as engagement.
Rule 4 : No hard sell! A lot of blogs I’ve read promise ‘get rich quick’ or ‘earn money while you sleep’ claims that are such a turn off! Don’t end up looking like a bad second hand car salesman – that’s the quickest way to damage the reputation and goodwill you need to build with your readers.
Rule 5 : Don’t think a blog is a web page. A web site can contain product and service information and a blog can help drive traffic to a web site (and vice versa). Remember you are sharing opinion and insight. More complicated stuff should be left to the web site.
Rule 6 : Be in ‘receive’ as well as ‘transmit’ mode. As marketing professionals we tend to spend a large proportion of our time ‘doing stuff’ but we should spend just as much time listening to customers, clients, supporters and prospects. Posting a blog to forums and groups on LinkedIn is a good way to stimulate discussion and debate – and it shows you are in ‘listening mode’.
Rule 7 : KISS! Keep it simple and straight forward. The best blogs are those that you ‘get’ without having to grab a dictionary or consult Wikipedia. You want the reader to find it almost effortless to follow your line of thought. I find the use of pictures really helps to get across what I want to say and to help me use fewer words.
Rule 8 : Don’t take criticism personally. Everyone is entitled to their opinion and so you need to respect that. If you offer a point of view, except that others will have a different one, or even disagree with you. That doesn’t mean you should ‘attack’ them or engage in some sort of troll-like behavior.
Rule 9 : Make recommendations. And I don’t mean recommend your own product or service! Avoid doing that!! I mean recommend other people that you admire or agree with, that may have a point of view that you feel represents how you also think. I often refer to other ‘experts’ in my Guru in a Bottle blog for Brand Republic.
Rule 10 : DON’T FORGET TO HAVE FUN! No one wants to be perceived as dull or boring. The ‘secret sauce’ of Guru in a Bottle is to do three things brilliantly: entertain, inform and engage. Remember, if you can entertain first, and I use a The Guru cartoon character to help me do this, then you’re more likely to succeed in informing and engaging