Blogging has been around for years. You wouldn’t think so after looking at an averages SME’s website: The Home Page; About Us; Our Products; Contact Us. It’s all a bit stale. If your company doesn’t have a blog, it's well past time you got one. Prepare a little talk and brush your teeth, because you might just get a pat on the head from this.
What’s in it for me?
If you an in-house developer/designer, and don’t have plans on retiring at your current company, then you should always be working at self improvement. Even if you lean more to the technical side, you’ll always be required to write something… and write something well – proposals, documentation – all that fun stuff.
If you’re a rock & rolling freelance superstar that doesn’t have a boss, then approach all your old clients with the same pitch. It can only bring you more money.
The First Hurdle
“It doesn’t really apply to our business”
Most people over the age of 40 think a blog is something only teenagers and basement-bound nerds do (I even have a window here). They assume a blog means telling the world what you did last Sunday - telling a world that isn’t listening. Your first job is to dispel this myth. Half the audience might not even know what a blog is. I've had to explain the difference to someone between a blog and a Facebook profile. Make sure everyone knows what you're on about, then make sure they all understand that blogging isn't just some kind of nerdy hobby.
Corporate Claim to Fame
If a company is in the troublesome position of not having years and years of experience, they simply bypass this by adding up each of the employee’s experience.
“Over 130 years experience”
This tired form of bragging is meaningless. Not only is no one impressed, they might actually be thinking:
“That doesn’t mean they’re any good”
If you’re company is so great, back it up! If you’ve learnt anything in the past 130 years, why not talk about it? Unless of course you aren’t that great.
The Walls Have Ears
One common concern of companies is they might be giving out information to the competition. This is usually unfounded as they’ll normally tell anything and everything to any Tom, Dick or Harry that calls up. They even type the same information in reply to an enquiry from an obscure hotmail address – probably sent from their competitor’s Sales department. If there really is sensitive information, it can usually be presented in a way that avoids the finer details.
What to Write
The next hurdle you’ll have to cross will be that they don’t know what to blog about. A blog shouldn’t just be a News page or a place to dump press releases. Blog about your industry, blog about exhibitions, blog about your products (past, present & future), blog about their development, about the problems you had and how your 130 years experience helped solve those problems. Blog about people that use your products, about how your services made life easier for someone, about extending your range, or limiting your range, cock-ups you’ve made or innovations in your products.
Yeah But…
If people are still umming and arring then point them in the direction of blogs where it might not seem the most obvious company to be writing a blog. Twenty minutes on Google should be good enough. I’ve found blogs by CNC machining companies, outdoor clothing, camera manufacturers, a smoothie company… There’s plenty more. I’m sure those companies were all filled with people that initially said that blogging didn’t really apply to them.
Content is King
This much-banded-around phrase is absolutely key. Have a brainstorming session on what you could write about and what people want to read. We’re not going to start a blog just to kill time and blow our own trumpets. That’s dull, will wind people up, and have no one coming back for seconds.
Good Old Google
If you haven’t already sold them on the idea, just mention the magical words ‘Google’ and ‘search engine rankings’. Any blog about your business/industry/service will be filled with juicy keywords that can only help you in the search engines.
Bottom Line
To really seal the deal, end your presentation with a punchy slide. They don't mean anything, but management-types love dollar signs in a presentation.
The Go-Ahead
Bosses love any new use of the Internet. After banging your fist on the table for an hour, your presentation punch line will be met with rapturous applause and furious nodding of heads. They they’ll all file out of the room, and you’ll never hear it mentioned again. Now the final (probably ongoing) hurdle – actually getting some information from anyone. This brings me back to my first thoughts – if you’re the in-house nerd it’s about time you brushed up on your copywriting skills. If you’re freelance, just eek the basic information from your client and charge per article/hour/word. And why not? A blog is a great addition to a company website – a company website that probably looks just like all the others.
P.S. I've only just realised the irony in this being my first post... #FAIL