In A Website That Works, Mark O’Brien recommends that firms add 2,000 words of unique, expert content to their website every month. This not only helps with SEO (especially in the long-term as your library of content grows), but it also positions your website as an educational resource for clients and prospects.
For most businesses, adding new content means setting up a blog. But is blogging really right for your firm? What are some of the pitfalls? How do you avoid these pitfalls? The following will help you determine if blogging is right for you:
Don’t do it if you can’t keep it up. O’Brien states that the worst thing that could happen to your blog is for it to go dark after a few months. There are a couple of simple ways to avoid this misfortune:
- Have more than one person contribute to the blog. Spreading the responsibility means no one person is over-burdened.
- Develop a regular schedule for publishing blog posts. If someone knows that the second Thursday of every month is their day to blog, they have plenty of time to prepare.
- Keep the blog private for the first few months after you create it. If you’re still maintaining it internally 2-4 months after starting, make it live!
It’s okay not to blog everyday. Unless you have a staff member solely dedicated to developing content, a daily blog is probably out of your reach. Blogging weekly is great, but it’s enough to blog once or twice a month.
Make your blog useful. I once saw a blog in which every post was dedicated to American Idol. This would be fine (I suppose) if it was a personal blog, but it wasn’t. It was a corporate blog. Unless your clients buy ad space on American Idol, please don’t post weekly show updates in your company’s blog.
Personalize it. Use the author’s name in each blog post. If you look below the title on the Bop Design blog, you’ll see who wrote the post. See? That’s me, Emily, the Project Coordinator. Dani, our Junior Designer, blogs a lot, too. Don’t you feel like you understand Bop a little better now?
Don’t try to hide. Be open on your blog. Some firms try to hide their infrequently blogging by hiding the date. If anyone checks your blog a few times, they’ll figure it out. It doesn’t help. Also, don’t try to hide your personality or voice. If your clients will be working with you, give them a taste for who you are.
Hopefully these pointers will give you some guidance about your company blog. 2,000 words of content a month is a great goal. Maybe it should be one of your business goals for 2012?
Guess what? Bop Design just posted 477 words worth of content—almost a quarter of the 2k goal.
